First shakedown cruise - Page 2

smlranger · 08-03-2006, 05:03 PM

Rick,

So sorry to hear about that bit of bad luck but glad you guys are OK. I did read on RV.net about another very new rig with the 400 Cummins throwing a rod. They had his engine shipped in and replaced fairly quickly.

Good luck and keep us appraised of the outcome.

Sweet40FD · 08-03-2006, 05:30 PM

Thanks smlranger. I'll keep everyone posted on everything.
I also read the one of RV.net too. But there was also a few more that had theirs as soon as this person too. I know we're farther away; but I sure was hopping we could have had our Coach sooner than what their telling us. They told us there were a bad batch of the 400 isl's the end of 05 and beginning of 06. We ordered ours mid January and took delivery of it mid April.
We sat on the side of the road in 122 degree temps for 5 hours waiting to be towed. And ran out of water. We shared with the Fire Dept. and CHP when they came to make sure the fire was completely out. We knew they were hot in their outfits.
I work in a Campground and another lady that her and her husband just bought a new truck with a cummins engine to pull their 5th wheel. She's had to stay with us longer because their new trucks engine is knocking and the service dept where they took it told them they thought it was a rod. They have less than 5000 on theirs. But it is a different engine than ours.
Now we're scared to keep the Coach after getting it back for fear that it will happen again. We're looking at others. I love Winnebago but I think we are going to go with something with a different engine. Especially after talking to so many people that have had the same problem. My Mom is in her RV in Ohio and she was talking to someone in a campground there, they saw and heard the same thing. So we're really scared to keep it. We'll see what Cummins is going to do.
Cheryl

smlranger · 08-03-2006, 05:42 PM

Apparently, Cummins has identified the problem with those particular engines; some glitch in the manufacturing process. If you like your rig otherwise, I would think this is rare and you would be OK with the new engine. There seem to be many rigs with the Cummins 400 ISL and this particular problem was hopefully isolated to a small number.

I would certainly expect Cummins to extend your new engine warranty. Are they going to compensate you for the damage to your towed vehicle?

rebelsbeach · 08-03-2006, 06:34 PM

Rick and Cheryl....WOW!!!

I'm just happy you guys are ok....a lot has happened in the last month as you will even see my rig signature...

I wish you guys luck in dealing with your coach.

ichn2go · 08-04-2006, 02:52 AM

Its sad the problems we have to go through, before our coaches are in good condition. Cummins is sure having its problems. I guess all manufacturers go through a phase of "bad" products.
Shucks, I was trimming shrubs( yes in 100o heat)with a gas trimmer and cut my power cord to the coach yesterday. What a dodo...Good Miles

rebelsbeach · 08-04-2006, 03:04 AM

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by ichn2go:

Shucks, I was trimming shrubs( yes in 100o heat)with a gas trimmer and cut my power cord to the coach yesterday. What a dodo...Good Miles </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Jim....Miss Linda needs to keep you in the house in this heat!!!

Let those shrubs grow a while,you take care of yourself!!

Sweet40FD · 08-04-2006, 03:59 AM

At the beginning Cummins said they would take care of all the expenses, including the damage to the tow. Our insurance had us take the truck to get it repaired and it's already complete and we have it back. It was almost $2000.00 worth of damage to it. But our adjuster is trying to get in touch with Cummins but they are not returning her phone calls either. So we don't know whats going on.
Sorry to hear of your troubles too Rebelsbeach. Hope is all going well for you now.
I'll keep you guys posted.
Thanks again everyone
Cheryl

CHIPPYSGT · 08-04-2006, 05:01 AM

1. Make sure you keep a good log of everything that's happened including dates, times, phone numbers, who you talked to, jist of the conversation, expenses (receipts).

2. Give Cummins a couple of more tries to return phone calls to your and/or your agent.

3. Find the dirtiest, meanest, nastiest, most hated attorney in the area and take him/her off their choke chain. Most would love a chance at a big company like Cummins.

4. Tell #3 to 'SIC 'EM"!

You can bet if your last name was CRST, Wal-Mart, Digby, Schneider, etc. you wouldn't be getting the runaround. Life is too short to put up with this kind of treatment by the big money corporations.

Just my opinion but I wouldn't put up with that kind of treatment, especially after spending $200,000 or so.

rebelsbeach · 08-04-2006, 05:58 AM

Actually Doug, while you're a fan of option #3, I would simply pick the phone up and call WINNEBAGO, instead of dealing with Cummins...

Winnebago has a service administration department that deals with these vendors every day....A call to a service lead, such as Bryan Funke would go A LOT further toward getting a successful disposition in this matter than unleashing your pit bull attorney...

IF the "right" person at Winnebago calls the "right person" at Cummins, this issue will be solved...

That's just my opinion, which I had already shared with Sweet40FD by PM early this morning.

CHIPPYSGT · 08-04-2006, 09:06 AM

Rebelsbeach,

Of course you're right to exhaust all the options before getting an attorney involved.

I should have been a little clearer in my first post by adding in the statement, "after all the normal options have been exhausted".

I just don't think anybody should be completely ignored when something so obviously not their fault has done damage to their property and cost them a bunch of money in the purchase and then hotel bills. Service by Winnebago for me has been great; no complaint there, but "service" is no longer a priority by many, many companies or organizations.

It kind of gives you the impression that if they ignore you, you will just go away and fork out $20-30,000 for a new engine plus the other associated expenses.

Patience is a virtue, but another old saying is the squeaky wheel gets the grease. Nowadays if you don't speak up big corporations and government will just walk all over you. My patience would not have much patience left after a few days of hotel bills and no returned phone calls.

vicsryd · 08-04-2006, 12:05 PM

In addition to Winnebago I'd contact Freightliner Custom Coach about this too. It's closer to their turf and the reps at 800-FTL-HELP have been really quite helpful to me.

vicsryd · 08-04-2006, 12:13 PM

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Sweet40FD:
They told us there were a bad batch of the 400 isl's the end of 05 and beginning of 06. We ordered ours mid January and took delivery of it mid April. </div></BLOCKQUOTE> For what it's worth...

The chassis roll off the FCCC (Freightliner) assembly line about 4-5 months before Winnie puts a house on them. My chassis was built in 4/04 and the house in 9/04. I would think the engine is probably assembled 30-60 days before that. With a deliver of April '06 the build date of your coach is probably March '06 (see label outside near door)? If so then the failed engine was probably assembled around September/October of '05.

Sweet40FD · 08-06-2006, 07:59 AM

Thanks Jon, that's good to know. We have talked to a couple of others that have had this problem. It's good to know. I just hope they have corrected the problem. We're scared of keeping the MH after we get it back for fear it will do the same thing when we're out in the middle of no where. I'm going to be scared to take it on another trip. That was an ordeal I never want to go through again.

John_Canfield · 08-06-2006, 08:52 AM

Cheryl - just yesterday I read the latest posts about the Cummins destruction

I would not be a happy camper after suffering through that; you just happened to have "drawn the short straw" - that could have easily been us.

It is a difficult situation being fulltimers and dealing with the logistics of having the coach serviced; even more so for you guys since you are still gainfully employed. At least we can just hang out and only need to worry about amusing ourselves for the duration.

You should expect prompt and sympathetic attention from Cummins - my expectation for a replacement engine would be days and certainly not weeks.

After you get the new engine installed and have some miles on it, your confidence factor will increase.

We are finally getting our issues all worked through after an entire year of using the coach and that is actually about what I was expecting. Through this process I have learned many things about the workings of the coach and feel much more integrated with it. I can't even think about starting over with a new one!

Hang in there - you'll get through it.

Sweet40FD · 08-06-2006, 10:58 AM

Thanks John, I really appreciate it. I know your right about us getting our confidence back after awhile. But it's going to be really hard.
As far as the Coach itself, we have only had minor issues and all but a couple have been fixed. On the entire trip we only had the awning situation but the next time we tried it, it worked. It was only the engine throwing the rod that ended our trip in a nightmare.
We thought we'd have the coach back by now too. Because the owner of the Newmar happened a day before ours or a day after ours and he already has his back. Ours happened July 14th and we are still waiting. Cummins told us last week that the new engine would be shipped Aug 4th and arrive here Aug 10th. Then it would take an additional week and a half to install the new engine. After that the MH will have to go someplace else to have the fire/smoke damage to the outside fixed. Our adjuster said it might can be buffed out. We don't know yet. We had the perma plate? on it and was told to us that it actually may have saved it from getting too much damage for the fire. But we were able to put the fire out pretty fast. So hopefully not too much damage.
But I don't know what else to do to get Cummins working on this any faster. We are in limbo and hate living out of a hotel room.

rebelsbeach · 08-12-2006, 04:42 PM

Well Cheryl, hold on to your hat....

I JUST got a call from my buddy with the 2006 Newmar Mountain Aire with a 400 Cummins and guess what...

He dumped his engine just a few minutes ago....said there's oil all over everywhere and thick black smoke was billowing out the back....Guess we know about what time HIS motor was built huh?
He left Sturgis,SD this morning, not sure how far along he is...

I'll keep you posted.

Sweet40FD · 08-12-2006, 04:48 PM

What is going on with Cummins? Like I said; I'm going to be scared to death to drive mine again after I get it back. This is about the 8th case in the last couple of months.
Please tell your friend that I'm sorry he had to go thru this. Tell him we know how he feels. Hope he's ok. You didn't say; did his catch on fire afterward like our did. It sounds like the exact same way mine was. You couldn't tell what color our toad was because of all the oil. If he was pulling a tow; tell him to check his really good. The huge engine parts coming out of our engine did about $2000.00 worth of body damage to our truck. And it's brand new also.
Keep me posted.
Cheryl

rebelsbeach · 08-12-2006, 04:52 PM

Cheryl, he did not have a fire, but he does have oil splatter and damage to a custom trailer he was pulling.

THANK GOODNESS the trailer contents were ok....About 70K worth of customized Harley in it.

Sweet40FD · 08-12-2006, 05:01 PM

Glad to hear there was no fire. Please keep me posted. Also good that the Harley wasn't damaged.

Sweet40FD · 08-12-2006, 05:29 PM

Bob, how far from home was he when this happened? I hope he wasn't far. We were furtunate to be close to home since it has been a month since ours blew. Our Coach is only about 50 miles from where we live, which helps a little knowing it's close by.
I sure hope Cummins helps him faster than they have us. I feel so bad for him.