I want to buy a 2002 Winnebago35U. Would love some input.

liedj · 06-12-2010, 07:03 AM

I want to trade my 98 Brave for a for an 2002 Adventurer 35u. We have loved this layout from the time it was introduced. We'll be retiring next week

and want to travel about two months or more out west. We'd love your experiences both livability and mechanical with this type RV.
The unit appears in great shape 19k miles. Are there any service problems I should look for or expect. We'll be towing a Honda fit. Traveling with 3 adult & 2 small dogs.
Thank you
Ed

Gotta_P · 06-12-2010, 07:31 AM

Ed,

We have a Suncruiser 35P and have two vehicles set-up so we can tow them, a Honda CRV and a Honda Fit. What chassis does the 35U you are considering have? We have the Workhorse W24 and it tows both with ease. We did have to get an adapter to drop the hitch height for the Fit because it sits much lower than the CRV, but the RV does not even know it's back there while traveling down the road!

Mechanically, it has been great. The W24 does not have the Bosch Brakes that are involved in the Workhorse recall involving the W20 and W22 chassis. We did install sway bars and track bars front and rear as well as a Safe-T-Steer which has made it much more enjoyable to drive and those components have great reduced sway, wag, and the tendency to feel like we were going to be blown off the road by passing semis!

I really can' comment on the livability of the 35U floor plan, but we are very pleased with our 35P floor plan, and being as they are both the same length, I can only assume that would hold true for the 35U as well. The Suncruiser and Adventurer are essentially the same RV other than the name, and we are extremely please with the fit and finish of our coach and the quality of the materials used in the manufacturing of the coach itself. I think you'll find the Adventurer a wonderful upgrade from your Brave! Good luck, and hopefully other 35U floor plan owners will be along shortly to share their opinions on that specific floor plan!

DriVer · 06-12-2010, 07:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by liedj

Thank you

Ed, The 35U floorplan is probably the most popular floorplan that Winnebago produced over the course that it was in production. The WB is short enough for most people not looking for a 38 footer and large enough for comfortable living due to its 2 slideouts. I'm sure that your initial impressions with the 35U floor plan are correct and if you like this coach go for it.

oldbaldy454 · 06-12-2010, 07:45 AM

We have a 2002 Winne Brave with the 32V floorplan with two slides... love it.
You will have a bit more room than us. Have friends with an 03 Adventurer.

What chassis does the Adventurer have? Ours is a Ford F53, V10 engine, with leaf springs front and rear. We bought it with 18k miles and have about 26K on it now. I put new shocks and a steering stabilizer on it, which helped a lot, now working on making my own rear trac bar. Engine has been trouble free, except for a broken radiator clamp just after we got it...spotted that right away.

The pins that hold up and support the baggage compartments under the living slide had fractured, not sure what caused it, but I was able to replace them myself.

Also broke a latch on one of the compartments in cold weather, plastic catches that still out are subject to breakage it the door is slammed to hard.
Othewise Winnebago uses some pretty good components, which you probably had in your old Brave too. If you buy it, you will probably enjoy it as much as we like ours.

JB

mikf · 06-12-2010, 03:38 PM

Ed,last fall we traded a 30 ft class C to a 2002 Adventure 35u, Ford chasis. pulled a chevy tracker to Fl. from Ohio and back. spent 3 months in Fl. and loved everything about the coach. the electric hot water did not work, but loved the coach so well that that did not bother me. will get it fixed before next winter. some Adventures did have problems with the dual pane windows fogging up. they are quite expensive to replace, so if any of them are fogged consider that when negotiating the price. Good Luck.

liedj · 06-12-2010, 05:06 PM

The rv is a Ford. The only problem I saw was the small roll up awning over the slide were deteriorated. The big problem is the owner owes more than he's asking. He is tring to arrange a short sale through his bank. I'm skeptical.
What light set up did you use for the fit. There doesn't seem to be any room for the extra bulb I used in my Saturn. I would prefer that the Fit lights worked but I've heard that diodes give problems.
Ed

Gotta_P · 06-13-2010, 05:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by liedj

What light set up did you use for the fit. There doesn't seem to be any room for the extra bulb I used in my Saturn. I would prefer that the Fit lights worked but I've heard that diodes give problems.
Ed

I had the installation done by Three way Camper's here in town, they used the diodes and the existing lights. Seems to be working well, with no problems. The did the wiring at the same time they did the base plate install, it took them two days because they had not done an install on a Fit prior to mine, and the technician told me it took longer because he went step by step with the instructions and them double checked everything to ensure it all worked like it's supposed to.

One word of caution, the battery in the Fit isn't much bigger than a riding lawnmower battery, so I had the power for the Even Brake wired to a dedicated outlet that is powered by the RV, not the Fit's Battery. This was done after the fact (it was originally powered by just the Fit's battery) because I was getting a check engine light on the Fit after towing it, and my son-in-law (an ASE Certified Mechanic) determine low battery voltage was the cause. After re-wiring it, I've not had any problems...

zippo · 06-13-2010, 05:48 AM

Check the roof to gutter seam to make sure the caulk along the full length on both sides is sealed so water has not entered. To do this you need to work your way along the sides pressing slightly on the roof at the gutter. The caulk should be bonded to the gutter and the roof. If it's not water may have entered and the side wall will start at some point to delaminate. Also the 35U has an area on the drivers side rear just above the molding over the bay doors that seems to delaminate.

Jackhal1949 · 06-13-2010, 07:58 AM

My FIL has a 2003 35U Adventurer and they love it. They winter over in southeast Texas from Nov thru Apr and travel from Mass back in forth each year. They love the lay out and have had really good luck with the MH. We liked the interior and build of the Winnebago we ended up buying a Winnebago ourselves. However, I wanted the diesel and lucked out with a used 05 Journey 34H and we love that. There is very little to no difference in the quality of the construction, furniture, and appliances from the Adventurer to the Journey. We start full-timing this August and will be in the Southwest and winter in a couple of Texas state parks volunteering. Good Luck on your purchase, I know you will be happy with a Winnebago.

mikf · 06-13-2010, 09:52 AM

JB, what kind of shocks and steering stabalizer did you buy. I was under mine yesterday giving it a lube and noticed my passenger side front shock was leaking. also ED did you ever consider wireless lights for your toad? if you change toads a time or two seems like they would pay for themselves.

oldbaldy454 · 06-14-2010, 11:29 AM

Mikf

Both of my right hand shocks -pass side- were leaking front and rear. Some one told me that if a vehicle sits too long in storage without normal moving up and down over roads, that shock rubber seals can be damaged sooner than long term wear and tear, as the pistons dry out and break the seals as soon as the RV is moved the first time out of long term storage.

Used Bilstein replacements from Eshocks.com the cheapest source I could find at the time. They were about $80 each as I remember. A Bilstein steering stabilizer was ordered the following year as they were out of stock when I ordered the shocks. That helped a lot. The front shocks may be a bit stiff, as someone else also reported in rv.net forums for a F53 Ford front solid axle. Koni shocks might be a btter choice, but are twice the cost, and are adjustable for the ride stiffness.

Put Firestone Ride Rite air bags on the rear this past month and added a home made trac bar using a farm store "top link" hydralic arm and welded brackets. Need to test drive for those changes soon.

JB

rvten · 06-14-2010, 04:13 PM

We had a 2001 Adven. 35U that had 2002 interior colors.
The Adven. is or was one of the most popular floor plans Winny had.

Norm3206 · 06-14-2010, 05:37 PM

Hi. We have a 2001 Itasca 35U on the Workhorse chassis so I cannot comment on the Ford chassis. The 35U floorplan is very liveable ( we lived in it for 7 months during winter of 08/09 and 6 months during winter of 09/10. The interior furnishings and appliances are reasonably good quality and with a little maintenance and care of use you will find they will last. We haven't had any window issues but I know others have.

All in all I think it's a good gas motorhome. We tow a saturn SL and make the trip from Canada to the South of US each winter and need the back up camera to tell if the toad is still there - can't tell it's there by the MH performance. Gas mileage is no different towing or not. Our last MH consistantly was 1/2 MPG less with the toad than without.

Hope this helps. If you have any other questions feel free to ask.

JTN50 · 06-17-2010, 12:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by zippo

Check the roof to gutter seam to make sure the caulk along the full length on both sides is sealed so water has not entered. To do this you need to work your way along the sides pressing slightly on the roof at the gutter. The caulk should be bonded to the gutter and the roof. If it's not water may have entered and the side wall will start at some point to delaminate. Also the 35U has an area on the drivers side rear just above the molding over the bay doors that seems to delaminate.

Zippo,

I have what is starting out to be a delamination under the lower corner of the driverside rear bedroom window. I was looking at the caulking around the window and the gutter. The gutter caulk is cracked so I bought some at Camping world and plan on replacing it this weekend. I was considering removing the window or maybe installing a gutter/rain deflector above the window. If All of that stops the leak then I only have the delmination to get repaired. Have you had any experience with delamination?

oldbaldy454 · 06-18-2010, 06:28 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by zippo

Check the roof to gutter seam to make sure the caulk along the full length on both sides is sealed so water has not entered. To do this you need to work your way along the sides pressing slightly on the roof at the gutter. The caulk should be bonded to the gutter and the roof. If it's not water may have entered and the side wall will start at some point to delaminate. Also the 35U has an area on the drivers side rear just above the molding over the bay doors that seems to delaminate.

Good point....my 2002 has shown this type of delaminaton above the drivers window - front left side - and I used some butyl rubber sealant from Ace Hardware, found that it worked good on our 5th wheel when I replaced the vent caps and it looks to be holding up well on the Winne. Check both sides, could be anywhere along the upper roof seam where it rolls over to the gutter trim.

JB

Gordo · 07-04-2010, 02:42 PM

I have the 02 Itasca Suncruiser 35U on the WH W22 chassis. That Chassis was hyped over its beginning years and indeed it with the Allison 5 speed was easy to drive. I now have 42K on the odometer, have been thru the brake problem with Workhorse, still waiting for the recall but worry every time I take mine out even though the brakes were gone thru entirely. I would not buy a used W20 or W22 chassis until WH gets this recall problem solved. Here are my major complaints with Winnebago. Had to replace the clothes pole in the master closet as the supports on the end gave way. Possibly due to too many items hanging on it but when you got room you hang them, right? Had to replace shower liner as it cracked. That was out of warranty so paid for it myself.Threw a fan blade thru the radiator, had extended warranty, they paid $1400. bill for radiator, fan etc.Brakes went out due to Bosch problem and had to fork out $2400 of my own money to get home. Complete brake job redone...to WH credit they reimbursed me in two separate payments after some stalling. Paint on the driver side near the rear of the coach has badly faded to the point that it is almost two toned. Brought this to Winnebago's attention at slightly out of warranty (about a thousand miles) they refused to do anything about it and pleaded ignorance on how it could happen. When I bot the coach the chassis was quite rusty, I did not crawl under it before I bot it and only found it later. Both Winnebago and dealer stalled me, blamed WH but WH said baloney, Winnie left it sitting out in a field too long before they added the house. Makes sense to me. Dealer finally ended up havng it repainted but only after I made a couple of scenes in their showroom. In any case my experience with Winnie has been one of a lot of stalling and second rate customer care. I did not mention the replacement of cargo door struts (several) and the fact that the inline fuse (has another name) kept going out on the water heater at $9 bucks a pop. The last thing done several months ago was replace the thing on the icemaker that keeps it from flooding the freezer. (getting so old that I can't remember the names of these gadgets) I wasn't so sure when I started this post but am now, I would not buy another one of these units in spite of the fact that I was always happy with the interior layout.