Looking at an 04 Vectra Winnebago

[jerichorick]

We didn't particularly like our basement air in our '05 Vectra 40FD. It was noisy at night to us. Like living in a flat next to the trolly line, you adjust. Or coach had a problem with the feed stack to the roof vents separating from time to time. The last time it did my DW and I fixed it and it lasted till we sold the coach. Another consideration is the room the basement air takes up. You loose valuable storage space. If you have a side mounted radiator you loose even more.

We are not thrilled with the air on this coach but find it better all around than on the last. The roof air noise and velocity is harsh and loud. But the advantage of having zones, 2 in our case, is that we can use the bedroom zone most of the time to keep the coach comfortable during the day and the front zone at night to move a good portion of the noise away. When the day starts to warm up to around 80* we must run all the units. We have 3 units but just 2 zones. Those with three zones have more options. The basement air would not keep the coach comfortable in the TX 90*+++ heat. By the end of the day if we were at 85* inside the basement air did good. The roof air in this coach seems to have no problems cooling us off.

Storage for many of us is an issue. Because our air is on the roof and we have a rear radiator we have gained 2 compartments. But, in all fairness, this coach has full basement storage so the added rear compartments are not essential for most. Great for our needs.

As far as the rear radiator is concerned, well, that is another subject of great debate. Most don't like it because getting to the engine is restricted for many maintenance jobs, like changing the belt for instance. This is not needed often but is can be expensive when needed. I don't recall I could access anything else in the Vectra. Never had to get back there for repairs. When the automotive a/c pump went the shop went through the floor hatch.

Hope my thought help.

Rick Y

[HD4Mark]

The basement a/c in ours does not bother us noise wise. We have however replaced the OD blower motor and squirrel cage fan with an updated plastic one that is much more quiet. They can not always keep up if it is 90+°. We have to block the windshield and close the blinds. It helps to get it going early and not wait until wait until it gets very warm.

Check the metal at the bottom of the face in the basement storage compartments for rust. I have some work ahead of me to wire brush, paint and replace some.

If it has a flat floor StorMor slide room look at the floor while it is extended. If the middle looks bowed up, it may be from overloading the attached compartments. This may cause the front edge to drag on the carpet tearing it up. We are finding out the repair for that is pretty expensive.

The fridge is likely to be a Norcold 1200. They are common in most MHs that size. Do a search for them here for more info than you could ever need. Just make sure the recall has been done.

We still love the coach and understand that 10 years old means you have to keep on top of some things.

[resqguy]

Check the bedroom slide for leaks. Check the big slide operation and alignment on the drivers side. We bought our used 2004 last year which had record rains. The up side was that if the coach was going to leak we would have noticed.

The noisy air doesn't bother us. Sometimes when we camp in noisy areas it makes it easier to sleep.

We love the 40AD floor plan. The basement storage is plentiful. We don't have the outside TV so we picked up another compartment.

The last two used Winnebagos we bought had plumbing systems that were modified by previous owners. In both cases they made a mess of it. Once I got everything sorted all was well.

[TripleE]

Check out the slide mechanism on the big slide (the one behind the driver's seat). There are some plastic bushings that can crack and fall out. Ours are cracked and we have an appointment at Winnebago to replace them when we pass thru this fall. Other than that we love our 40AD. Great floorplan for fulltiming.

[rgvtexan]

Take a look at this thread

http://www.irv2.com/forums/f101/fibe...ng-215729.html

It is a known problem. But we still like and enjoy our Horizon.

[cclerk]

The 04 Vectra had a frame flex problem this caused the side wall problems . Look and see if extra frame support has been added , in 05 this was taken care of . If that support is not there I would steer clear of this year Vectra .