3400RL -other problems found during PDI

[Dean A Van Peursem]

I will list the rest of what I called minor problems compared to the major problems I listed earlier that we found doing the PDI or while we had some leisure time at the campsite:

1.) Rear window pull down shade wrinkled with bulges
2.) Shade on window above desk is loose
3.) Microwave door has scratches
4.) DC/Portable light does not work
5.) Missing several manuals and warranty cards
6.) Outside furnace door has interference fit with trim, caulking missing on end of strips and plastic inside frame had two stripped screws and underside missing caulking.
7.) Right side garage door top weather stripping seal is too high. Door does not seal on top side.
8.) Several ends of the outside mating strips have voids in the caulking or is missing entirely.
9.) Caulking smears and film all over the RV extending out from where it belonged.
10.) All key lock handles loose in the garage doors so the handles turned way too easily. Damaging gel coat.
11.) Fantastic Fan makes motor noise when supposed to be off. Had to pull fuse to stop it.
12.) Screen door slightly warped and hard to close.
13.) Bed Spread doesn't fit. Has Queen instead of King bedspread.
14.) Two black spots on living room carpet under the protective plastic.
15.) Scratch or crack on top of right fender skirt
16.) Two metal screws stripped on left slider fender skirt
17.) Left side front jack cannot be fully raised into tube.
18.) Many of the outside sheet metal screws were not fully tightened. Note: I went around the RV with a hand held square drive screw driver and found several which required as much as a full turn and a few that had been stripped at the factory. I asked the dealer to go through the whole RV and check screws and caulk any voids but I'm sure that didn't get done properly. That is a pet project I will keep after until I check and tighten them all. We live in a very wet climate and I'm going to re-caulk anything that needs it and make sure all metal screws are tight. Water is a real enemy.

There are a few more items but I have misplaced the rest of the list at the moment.

In reviewing the list I now realize I had two questions that never got answered.

1.)In the rear closet(next to the TV) there is a panel which includes a switch to turn on the TV signal booster. In that same panel there is a socket that is somewhat similar to a cigarette lighter socket but deeper. I have no idea what this is for.

2.) The outside shower in the convenience panel includes a quick disconnect coiled hose but no shower head. Why isn't the shower head included?

We had two 6V golf cart batteries installed instead of one 12V deep cycle battery. Different battery trays/covers were installed and the tops vented outside. The two 6V golf cart batteries in series supposedly give better life than one 12 volt battery. During our first three days of camping, we ran off of these two batteries and the indicator was showing empty at the end of the three days but everything still worked properly. I complained about that and the dealer told us they were surprised they even lasted that long because they hadn't charged them. Their excuse was that customers usually wet camp or drive a distance before dry camping and the batteries get charged up. That would have never happened on my truck because when the dealer installed the 5th wheel hitch they found I had a blown fuse on the charging circuit of my truck connector. I pull an equipment trailer quite a bit and was beginning to wonder if my backup gell-cell brake battery was getting charged any more. It wasn't. Now I know why. The dealer put a 40 Amp fuse in the truck instead of the factory 30 Amp. We only drove a mile from the delaer to the first dry campground. so it wasn't going to get charged in that short of trip. I haven't yet checked to see if it is still good. Another item for the "to-do" list.

Hope this helps in giving those of you items that might need checking on your current RV's or during an upcoming PDI.

[JH Sechelt]

Quite a report Dean,

1.) the socket in the rear closet is so you can plug in, lets say a 400 Watt inverter so you can watch the TV or any other 12V device that has a proper male end that would fit in that socket. It is a 12V socket but the wires to it are pretty light so be careful what you use it for. Our entertainment center is in the center of our 2980RL so I installed a 1200W inverter and used two #2 welding cables to hook it direct to the batteries. Inverters can draw a lot of power.

2.)I have heard that one end of that coiled hose has a garden hose fitting on it so I guess you buy a garden hose sprayer to put on it to wash things off. I guess that is OK.

Two 6V golf cart battery's should be a lot better then two 12V series 24 0r series 27 deep cycle RV/boat batteries.
I guess if you got 3 days out of uncharged 6v batteries I'd say you did OK.

I had to fix 6 or 7 things in our new unit but not near as many as you have listed.
Good luck with the rest. I'm sure once you have all the bugs worked out, you'll enjoy your new unit.

J&D

[CountryGuy]

Suggestion, call Fantastic fan about any situations with that. Reports have been abundant here at MOC that the people at Fantasitic are just that, fantastic.

Re: # 4, if you are talking the little flashlight, that has been reported here at MOC, something about a bad batch of em. Some people don't even use theirs, Al and I LOVE ours! Use it a lot, no hunting for a flashlight, it is right there ON the wall, where we know where it is. It is not the brightest light in the world of flashlights, but for walking dogs and most the things we use it for, it suffices. We have not needed anything brighter in almost 3 years of ownership.

Enjoy your Montana

[richfaa]

That is quite a list.I can relate to the loose and striped screws..Lots of them//check your cabinet hings screws for over torque. Did a lot of caulking were pipes go through the floor or into the compartments//also check the underbelly along the frame.some large gaps there that would render the Arctic package useless and let lots of water and road grime in..Gorella tape for that fix.Yesterday we found a bulge in the bottom corner of the shower surround. It was maybe 1/16 of a inch to long and apparently the installer did not have the time to trim it to proper fit. Used some caulk to prevent a obvious leak there..in fact put a bead all the way around as it looked like a skimpy caulk job. Our 3400 got away from the factory with way fewer issues than yours and the up side of all this is we are learning about our 3400 as we examine every nook and cranny. As I said before these issues IMO are the result of the line moving to fast for the experience level of the workers and lack of quality control during the manufacturing process..We and the dealer do the quality control..

[CountryGuy]

Rich, there had been some chatter, way back, bout NOT caulking on inside bottom of shower. Something about moisture and filon bubbling opposite the shower walls when this was done??

it is early and I am not sure I fully understood your post, but there ya go. maybe some snooping around is suggested??

[richfaa]

I to vaguely recalled something about that..but to me a leak is a leak..any water leaking behind the shower panel will likely go unnoticed unless you pull panels and look under the tub on a regular bases or water starts to drip into your front compartment or you smell rotting wood so I figure keeping water out is the best thing to do..maybe/I also noted that most if not all of the shower encloser is NOT glued to the wall.When I asked was told that the shower wall needed to flex with the camper....hummm. I thought..You mean nothing is glued in the camper..how come only the shower walls need to flex.So many questions..not enough answers...

[CountryGuy]

Rich, I think the theory was it needed to BREATH???

Maybe time to warm up that search engine here at MOC??

[DL N K]

I was told the same thing by the dealer on our previous 5er, the shower surround wall should not be sealed on the shower pan because of moisture issues. I beleive the pan has a lip or flange behind the wall to prevent leaks. Of course, they told me it shouldn't be sealed right after I finished sealing it up and got to tear it all out. I did however, seal the end of the pan/wall junction to prevent leaks there.

[campbud]

We asked our dealer about the shower too! He told us there is a higher lip that will prevent leaks. We have had no problem with it. We always dry out the shower after each use.

Dean, I hope your dealer gets all taken care of. It is good to check everything out as much as you can.

[Dean A Van Peursem]

As mentioned earlier, most if not all of the problems were found and fixed before we left the dealer and headed over the montains for home. Took three trips to the dealer but they got fixed. There is some very minor stuff now that I will take care of myself. In fact would rather do it myself since it is tedious, picky stuff that dealer personnel don't do a good job of fixing anyway. The dealer did fix most everything on the list, for sure anything I couldn't fix myself. The dealer was very cooperative after we had a little "Come to Jesus" session. I am a bit disappointed that the dealer didn't fix some of the obvious stuff before the PDI. It was the weekend and just a few days before a holiday weekend and they were terribly busy, but.... However, my view of this particular dealer is they are still a cut above those we tried to deal with here on the West side of the mountains. We were not in the market for snake oil! :-)