New Member with a 2003 Ultimate Freedom

[AndyC-WO]

Hi, just stepped up to our first class A, a 2003 Ultimate Freedom. My RV is in pretty good shape but the older gentleman was unable to do maintenance the last few years. I am trying to get it sorted out, and hope to tap in to some knowledge and insight from the members. I will be posting questions in the appropriate forums and Would love to hear from anyone, and especially those with knowledge of this unit. Thanks for the opportunity to share in this forum.

 

[creativepart]

Welcome Andy. The Ultimate Freedom was a fully loaded model for its day.

Tires and batteries are usually the very first things to turn your attention to. And be aware that tires age out before wearing out. Most advise replacing your tires between year 5 - 7 from the DOT date codes on the sidewall. A blowout can be deadly.

Batteries may appear fine but without intimate knowledge of their previous care and use they may not be trustworthy and can lead to many other problems that don’t always seem like battery issues.

You’ve got a Spartan chassis and if you are not very familiar with big diesel chassis I’d get the coach into a full-service Spartan shop and spend the big bucks getting everything checked and made right before using the coach on the road.

All of this will cost many thousands but you’ll be safe and starting from a point of knowledge that everything is taken care of as a baseline for the future. Owning such an RV is an ongoing expense that requires investment far beyond the initial purchase price.

Here’s a link to a 2003 brochure for your RV. If you haven’t seen one it might fill in some blanks.

https://library.rvusa.com/brochure/2003UltimateFreedom.pdf

 

[AndyC-WO]

Thanks for the info. I have all the books for the unit and it has 48000 miles on it. The tires are getting there at 7 years old. Maintenance on chassis seems good and up to date.Only big issues seem to be Hurricane Heater and no cab heat or air. I will work through them all in time, with patience, and $$.

 

[2003 Winniblu]

Thanks for the info. I have all the books for the unit and it has 48000 miles on it. The tires are getting there at 7 years old. Maintenance on chassis seems good and up to date.Only big issues seem to be Hurricane Heater and no cab heat or air. I will work through them all in time, with patience, and $$.

Hi Andy, we just bought the same unit last month. Hurricane issues and tires issues also.

 

[AndyC-WO]

Great unit if you don’t mind working through a few age related issues. Hurricane not that complicated.

 

[2003 Winniblu]

Our bus has the engine preheat option. So apparently when the Hurricane leaks it spills out coolant that is shared with the engine. Left us stranded finding out that little nugget.

 

[Morich]

I highly recommend the older Winnebago as a good place to start! We can always debate the quality issues but where I come down is how much better info we get when something DOES need attention!
Pre 2010 models, we get great info on the 12Volt wiring and the parts of of a sort that is much easier to fix at a reasonable price!
After 2010, the info is not posted online and we have to guess lots more. After 2020, the parts go into solid state and IC boards which we often have no clue and they cost a great deal more to fix! When I trade, one of the first things I now do, since internet is here, is go looking for the info I am always going to need at some point!
That's where a group like this can be really helpful as you can get different sources that tell us the same info but in different ways!
I do drawings as just part of my experience but there are lots of different ways to use any info we do come across!
A lot of it just makes far more sense if we get in a group and discuss it!