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Old 05-01-2021, 07:18 PM   #1
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Winnebago Vista 27N 5 year report card

I bought a 2015 Winnebago Vista 27N, made in December 2014 from the Boise Idaho Camping World in September, 2015. Just turned over 46,000 miles.

Some things to look out for as your RV ages, when you are doing your check ups ...

Year 2: Minor water leak around bathroom skylight, factory missed a small area on the sidewall side of the skylight when they applied the lap sealant at factory.

Year 2: Water dripping in front by winshield on passenger side. Water entry was at joint between front cap and roof at the point where it curves. Resolved by adding sealant to joint.

Year 2: Long passenger slideout got very noisy when operating in or out. Winnebago Factory Service in Forest City repaired, not sure what all they did (Winnebago said they replaced everything in the Lippert Swintek In-Wall Slideout system) but the Extended Warranty company paid them $ 1,200. I suspect they reused some stuff since the total with labor was "only" $ 1,300.

Year 3: Replaced the crappy NAPA RV/Marine batteries with Interstate 6 volt golf cart batteries. Installed a Battery Minder OBD-12 On-Board Desulfator to maintain the new batteries, batteries are still going strong in year 6 !!!

Year 3: Front hood bracket on passenger side failed and fell off. Was able to retreive off side of road, straighten and reuse. Now have fasteners in addition to epoxy holding brackets on front cap. Also have nylon straps tied to brackets so they can't fall to the ground if they fail.

Year 3: I had a chassis AC refigerant line rub thru and create small leak point where Winnebago routed it against the edge of a bracket by the compressor. New line and refrigerant recharge fixed it. Secured the line and put sleeve around it so it can't happen again.

Year 4: Several screws fell out of the frames of the basement compartment doors, and I have had to replace them.

Year 4: Transmission started having some shifting issues. I had the transmission fluid changed and found out that it had lost about 2 quarts of fluid over the first 4 years.

Year 4: Brake fluid checked, still had low moisture level. So, just bled fluid out of system at each brake caliper until it looked good without flushing all the fluid from the entire system.

Year 5: Screws holding sidewall solid to a support bracket behind front driver's side wheel both fell out. OEM screw holes were stripped, was able to locktite 2 replacements and add a 3rd to resolve.

Year 5: Front driver's side slideout in-wall system had the rear motor fail. Resolved with new motor.

Year 5: Water pump failure, the motor screws connecting it to the pump all worked loose and fell out. Resolved by putting pump back together.

Year 5: Some gaps started to develop between basement compartment door frames and sidewalls, had to dig out old caulk and apply new caulk.

New front tires at 40,000 miles
New rear tires at 44,000 miles
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Randy - Manhattan, Kansas
2015 Vista 27N
2020 Ford Escape Hybrid
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Old 05-01-2021, 08:44 PM   #2
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Quote:
Originally Posted by powercat_ras View Post
Year 3: I had a chassis AC refigerant line rub thru and create small leak point where Winnebago routed it against the edge of a bracket by the compressor. New line and refrigerant recharge fixed it. Secured the line and put sleeve around it so it can't happen again.
Do you by any chance have a pic of this? Or tell me where to look? Would be nice to secure this before I have the same issue.

On mine either the PO or the dealer sealed every seam and joint from the front cap to the rear cap with eternabond tape. I don't know if that was purely preventative or if there were already leaks. I bought it in 2017 with about 14,500 miles on the clock. Thanks for all the info.
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Old 05-01-2021, 10:39 PM   #3
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Originally Posted by wyocamper View Post
Do you by any chance have a pic of this? Or tell me where to look? Would be nice to secure this before I have the same issue.

On mine either the PO or the dealer sealed every seam and joint from the front cap to the rear cap with eternabond tape. I don't know if that was purely preventative or if there were already leaks. I bought it in 2017 with about 14,500 miles on the clock. Thanks for all the info.
There is a small metal tab on the frame behind the compressor that was put there by Ford to secure a wiring harness clip to. The Winnebago OEM line could have been installed to clear the tab but was not by the worker at Forest City. The line was not sleeved to keep it from rubbing if it did start touching the tab. Over several years it rubbed and wore into the line and finally caused a Freon leak. Winnebago offered to fix for no charge but REQUIRED that I take it to a Winnebago dealer, for them to outsource to an AC repair specialist. I just paid to get it fixed myself so I could get it fixed in a day rather than in a week at a dealer. I happened to be in Mexico when it let go, so was able to get fixed including the freon recharge for $ 300 down there.

Winnebago did a recall on 2015 Vistas where some of the Filon roof panels were slightly short in width and did not seat as deep into the slots in the sidewall that they get glued into as required by their design. Their fix was to run the color matched Eternabond Tape down both sides for the impacted VIN #s, rather than replace the roofs. Mine had the recall Eternabond tape down both sides, but lap sealant on the roof to front and rear cap seams.

If there's Eternabond on the front and rear cap seams that was done by the PO or by a service tech. It is what I did on mine, too, so I would not have to inspect and touch up the lap sealant every year.
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