Coast Resorts Open Roads Forum: Class C Motorhomes: B+ motorhomes

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Topic: B+ motorhomes

Posted By: Gene in NE on 08/06/14 10:58pm

quietjake - Don't be too harsh on yourself about the tires. That is such a common mistake. The tires looked almost new when we swapped ours at 39,180 miles. Changed them due to age, no cracking seen. Did some shopping and had all 6 mounted and balanced (kept the long properly bent stainless stems to make it easy to air up) for $1,049.25.

2002 Trail-Lite Model 211-S w/5.7 Chevy (click View Profile)
Gene

Posted By: Teacher's Pet on 08/07/14 03:06am

Changed our 7 tires at 8.5 years with about 8200 miles within a month after we bought it, before a long planned trip to Alaska the next year. Lost the fuel pump at about 10,000 miles 3 months after purchasing the B+ on the 2nd shakedown run. BTW the 7 tires we had installed on the B+ cost less than two of the 22.5" Michelin tires for our class A.

'06 Phaeton 40' QSH
'14 Ford Flex SEL AWD Toad
'04 R-Vision Trail-Lite 213
Scottiemom's Pet or husband to Dale
RV.net Rallies 13, Other Rallies 21, Escapades 7
Fulltimers since 2005, Where are we?
Our Travel Blog

Posted By: cheeze1 on 08/07/14 04:26am

QuietJake, I'm echoing Gene's remark. Since I entered the Corvette world, there are lots of people who keep overage tires on their cars due to originality concerns when being judged for a show. From what I've learned, 5-6 years is about it for a set of tires regardless of miles due to various environmental breakdowns. Our 213 had about 24k on the original tires, but had lots of dryness cracking/age on the sidewalks. The tread was ample and had no cracking. I just wasn't comfortable anymore. I believe I paid about $150/tire, add in mount/balance and the total bill was $1100. I looked at it as good insurance against possible failure.

Chas Morristown, NJ
Trail Lite
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Posted By: 2wheelluge on 08/07/14 11:16am

Snowman9000 wrote:

Dennis,
We bought a new Sunseeker 2300 on a Chevy 4500 chassis. A lot more room and storage, dedicated queen bed, lots of water capacity, and a good value for the money. It's not as nimble as the TL though.

We have been going through a discernment phase here: keep this really nice rig that is 7 years old and spend time and/or money changing the interior to our liking, or replace it now while we are both working. I have this vision of keeping it and about the time we retire it will have little value and something big will break leaving us no choice.

Dennis Siemsen
Cresco, Iowa
2007 Holiday Rambler Augusta 213 B+

Posted By: quietjake on 08/08/14 05:04pm

re: " It's not as nimble as the TL though."

that quality really IS an advantage, and but one reason we bought the 213.

Now the dust of the first year of original excitement settles, harder looks at other factors are weighing in.

I haven't quite got over the fact the rear power step died the day the tire shop gave me the news.

Haven't taken close look at the power step, does anyone have experience trouble shooting them?

It worked fine, then it didn't....like a fuse or power connection issue.

I do have a manual on it, so I'll be digging in to the pile soon.

There's a section of Hwy 20 that goes thru the Oregon Coast range to Newport. It's narrow, windy and no passing zone for 15 miles.

I was able to keep decent road speed without feeling ponderous/dangerous/ludicrous that section.

SIDE bar 'amusing story' time:
Our mechanic does a fine job, and Dx'd the fuel pump, replaced & got everything buttoned back up very nicely. When I made a shake down cruise to regain confidence "RV" wasn't going to stall again, I fired up the generator. It ran briefly, coughed, died. Wouldn't run. Follow up with mechanic, they discovered errant generator fuel line issue. No charge.

Leaving town last week, got 15 miles away, found unable to fuel up coach tank. 45 clicks to get less than 1 gallon in. Back to mechanic. "Roll over check valve" had somehow taken on an attitude. Easy repair, short delay leaving town. No charge.

Life is good in the 213 lane. It remains 'nimble'.

Looked at a 211 for sale. Seemed pretty small after the 'Grand Expanse' of RV 213.

Posted By: Snowman9000 on 08/08/14 05:32pm

I had to work on our step. The manuals are good and will lead you through it. The ground wires at the step are not very well done. If you start with cleaning and or renewing those, that's a good start. If you have specific questions, post them on the Tech Forum and you'll get lots of help.

Currently RV-less but not done yet.

Posted By: quietjake on 08/10/14 06:15pm

thanks Snowman.....I spent some time on the videos today & have a couple leads on potential issues.

Part of my own 'repair issue' is I have an inner ear problem that produces certain symptoms when I get under a rig in a certain position.

At least I can attend to the DayNight shade while sitting upright. I may even turn the A/C on...for a 'function test' perhaps....

There was an odd shade problem that popped up just after we purchased, and on-line video helped solve the problem. Now this one is on the other side of the coach.

I don't mind fiddling with repairs if there's something I can actually accomplish.

Posted By: 2wheelluge on 08/13/14 05:30am

Well, we decided to keep the 213 long term. Nothing we saw for sale made us want another $50K of debt. That gave my wife free reign on the dinette. She took apart the front seat back so I can build a longer extension for sleeping. I'll add some pix this weekend.

Posted By: quietjake on 08/14/14 02:08pm

great 2wheelluge.....that's about where we are. Hard to argue with PAID OFF!

That said, we just got 6 new tires installed, and waiting on the power step contoller : 'Best deal' our local RV tech could get was $215....plus install.

I'm looking with interest at that seat back mod you're talking about.

Posted By: 2wheelluge on 08/18/14 05:19am

We pulled off the front dinette seatbck last week to see what was there and plot strategy. We decided not to take the whole dinette out but rather extend the front so the bed is a bit longer. I will post some pix later but my first question is: how thick is the floor and what am I screwing into? We have a weekend trip in a couple of days so I am slapping together a temp job which should should tell me how to do the final version.

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