Our 2016G Winnebago View motorhome is on a Mercedes-Benz Sprinter chassis. It is recommended at 40,000 miles (per warranty), to have the transmission fluid flushed and a new filter and seals put in. Then it's good for 80,000 miles before it needs another.
Also, every two years it needs to have the brake lines flushed and new fluid put in. Doesn't matter the miles, it's that with all of the joins and connections and parts, water and moisture can intrude and contaminate the fluid. We always did that on our other motorhomes too.
Steve does all of our service on all of our vehicles. In the past, the two times that we have let somebody else do the service, they screwed it up!
After reading a few manuals, and watching a few YouTube's, he decided maybe at this stage in his life it's time to trust and let someone else do the work and just pay the bill.
So it's really really hard on him to actually bring it somewhere and have someone else do it.
Kind of like a parent taking their baby to a doctor for the first time.
The authorized Mercedes-Benz repair shop is located way down in Appleton, 65 mi away. They are very highly ranked with wonderful reviews. Any people we know with rigs like ours around the state of Wisconsin go to them for service.
We called up and made an appointment, and they got us in just a few days later. It would be a 3-hour appointment, so we were told that we could wait in their customer lounge. Since it was an hour and a half down, 3-hour appointment and an hour and a half back, We weren't sure we wanted to leave Nick all alone that long so soon after losing Binney. But to our surprise, we asked our service agent about the customer lounge and found out that it was dog friendly!
It was going to be a hot and humid icky day, but the dash air kept us very comfortable as we drove down for our 9:00 a.m. appointment.
We were immediately greeted by our service department agent Hailey Reinke. She tried to allay Steve's fears and make it as easy as possible on him! She guided us over to the beautiful customer waiting lounge and told us to make ourselves at home.
We brought along Nick's little bed and some toys. We also brought his water dish and our own water from home. There were five or six other people in the waiting area already. Nick did not make a peep. He curled up and watched from the safety of his little bed.
We were quite pleased with his behavior. We weren't sure what to expect being in a public place for up to 3 hours. We gave him a few cuddles and reassured him that there was nothing that was going to hurt him.
We hauled out the laptop and started planning our cross country trip for this fall. He sat nicely on a chair next to us for a while and paid attention to every word we said.
After an hour he opted to curl up on the cool floor right at the base of my chair. He went to sleep and didn't make a peep. Nobody knew he was there!
Our 3-hour appointment turned out to only be a 2 hour appointment. I peeked into the mechanics' area and took this photo. Pristine and clean. We were very impressed.
EVERY vehicle gets a complimentary wash and hand wipe dry from their service department before it is handed back to the customer. Isn't that wonderful?
As each person's vehicle was completed, they were escorted over to this climate controlled indoor pickup area. Everyone seems so satisfied and nobody was grumbling about extra repairs or high prices. People were smiling and getting into their cars to drive off into the sunset...
We were a little concerned that the door to the pickup area might not be high enough for our motorhome???
Not to worry, our motorhome was brought around to a side lot near the pickup area. We took care of the paperwork and the bill, and Steve dashed out 20 steps ahead of me to make sure his baby was okay!!!
I followed along with Nicholas, the laptop, the dog dish, the dog toys, etc. lol!
Steve was already inside going through everything and starting things up and checking things out. I made it across the lot and the temperature was increasing horribly, and I wanted to get the dog in before his paws were too hot on the pavement. We fired up the generator and turned on the roof air in the camper portion of the motorhome to cool things down quickly.
For those who want all the technical stuff, here are the part numbers and the quantities and the bill!
July 12th 2024
45,720 miles
Bergstrom Enterprise Motor Cars
Mercedes-Benz division
3002 North Victory Lane
Appleton Wisconsin 54913
Hailey Reinke
920-749-2020
Transmission fluid service replace fluid drop and clean pan install new seal and gasket
Brake fluid system flush, bleed system, inspect brake system and function $144.34
Labor $115.00
8000-989-560-509-0108 brake fluid 1 $29.34
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Total bill $355 labor,
$304.90 parts,
$29.95 fees ,
$37.94 tax
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invoice total $727.79
Now we don't need to get this done again for another 80,000 miles!!!
We met up for lunch with Steve's brother Pete since we were already down in the area. We had a cool ride home in the comfort of the motorhome as the temperatures crept up up up... just like the rest of the country.
Steve's brother Pete and sister-in-law Cindy give us some beautiful flowers and a thoughtful card to comfort us after losing Binney this week. How sweet.
My GoPro Quik App made this little video for me automatically from my photos:
We recently bought a bunch of little fun stuff to gear up the motorhome. I did a video on my YouTube channel about them. I will put them here in my blog each time we install something, step by step:
One of the first items is something that we had already installed in our Safari motorhome years ago. We liked them so much we decided to get them for this Winnebago View too.
They are 12 volt dimmer switches that are made for LED lights. They are the right size to replace the existing toggle switches that many RV manufacturers use.
We got them from Amazon. Please take note that if you are replacing a 12 volt switch, you need a specific 12 volt dimmer. If it's a 120V AC switch, then almost any household dimmer will work.
Here is the set we ordered from Amazon:
RecPro Dimmer Switch | RV 12V Touch Dimmer Switch | Compatible with LED, Incandescent, or Halogen Bulbs (Double)
The bottom plate has two dimmers that are connected. It's made to be a duplex switch on the wall. We did the same last time because it was cheaper to order a duplex and cut it apart than to order two single ones!
He just carefully cut them apart with a saw without touching any of the green circuit board or the electronics.
The light switch that we are going to change is this one in the corner underneath the kitchen cabinets. The single switch operates two different strips of LED lights and an LED puck light right over the stove.
The reason why we want to dim this stretch of lights is that they are very bright when we are sitting in the love seat, across from this area looking up at the television over the kitchen sink. The bright lights are just at the right angle to distract vision, especially in the evenings. So for now, we've just been turning them off.
We would like them to dim for evening watching TV, but also to be bright at times, especially over the cooking area of the stove.
The switches operate by just touching them with the fingertip. There is no toggle or moving parts. It's all by sensor.
If you touch the center of the switch pad, the light goes on at the exact same setting you left it off at previously. It has a memory. Tap again, and the light goes off. But if you hold your finger over it for a longer span of time, it will gradually increase and then decrease brightness, cycling through the highest and the lowest settings.
They are really pretty nice to have, especially over a sink. That way wet hands are never touching anything really electrical. Just over the sensor hole opening on the cover.
Now he's ready to get to work!! He gathered all of his tools and his multimeter, as well his dialectic grease for every connection or wiring he ever does on the motorhome.
First Step of course is to remove the old switch. It's easy to pop the cover off with a screwdriver. Then he unscrews the switch itself from the underside of the cabinet.
Before he unplugs anything, the wiring is exposed and he tests it with his multimeter. Now he knows which line is positive in and positive out. Then he will have to dig around to find the ground up inside of the cabinetry.
He set his work light in the cabinet overhead behind the TV. Now he can test the wires up there until he finds the proper ground wire. Because there are three different light fixtures technically joined together, he has to find the right ground for all three lights that has already been used by Winnebago.
He found it now with the multimeter. And then we tagged each line before he turned the power off. Safety first!
He made all of the proper connections using the spade clips and terminals provided. The ground wires he had to use wire nuts. For every connection he makes, he adds a dab of dialectic grease. Then he wraps each connection with black electrical tape. You have to remember---- this is a house rolling down the road at 60 mph shaking, rattling and rolling. Connections can sometimes work their way loose. The tape helps prevent that.
Once the connections are all complete, he turns on the power just to run a test before tucking all the wires back into the opening.
Yup! Everything works fine. Now it's time to mount the base plate to the underside of the cabinet.
The surrounding plate snaps into place over and around the touch control module.
It takes up the exact same space that the original switch had covered. A perfect replacement.
TAHHH DAHHHH!!! Look at that! Everything works exactly as it should.
There's another strip of LED lights underneath the cabinetry over the love seat. We are thinking we will put the other switch there. But for today, our project is done.
As you know I am trying to grow my YouTube channel of just camping related videos.
Here's a video that I made of the process step by step:
Here's the video of all the things that we ordered from Amazon last week. Please like and subscribe?
Last week, while we were camping, we were waiting for a delivery at our house. It finally came after getting accidentally rerouted over to the west side of the state...
We had ordered a new larger capacity roof air conditioner called the Houghton RP AC3800 DB KT SE from RecPro in Indiana.
When we opened the box, we were dismayed to see that it was white. We had ordered black! So we contacted the factory and they immediately sent out a new black shroud to go over the air conditioner. Whew!!! At least we didn't have to send the entire thing back!!
There was slight damage to the white shroud, so they didn't even want it back. It won't hurt the usability of it. But they told us to toss it in the landfill! If anyone out there needs it, contact us and they can come and get it. The cost to ship it is crazy outrageous, we just checked on that for someone that lives far away. Local pick up only!
The new shroud came in only a few days later. Boy they were fast! Kudos to Rec Pro for standing behind their service and their products.
Here's the cost of our order for a ducted unit with heat pump, and a soft start device pre-installed:
Free shipping was appreciated!
As any good do-it-yourselfer does, Steve examined the entire air conditioner, and then read the instructions from cover to cover... (Plus he watched a few YouTubes).
As you may know, I am trying to build up a YouTube channel of just camping themed videos. It is not sponsored in any way. But here is the link to the entire video of installing the air conditioner. So if you don't want to continue reading further down, or looking at the photos, just click on this link! Please like and subscribe too...
The first step was removing the old air conditioner. Steve removed the grid and brackets from the inside. Then of course he turned off the power, and disconnected all of the wires.
Excuse the borders on these photos, they are all screen grabs from the video. Because I did not take still shots at the same time It's the only way I can get photos of the process to post in the blog.
Next he needed to remove this large power control box from the old Coleman air conditioner. It's tucked way up inside with two wing nuts holding it to the edge of the mounting bracket. Really hard to see, had to do it by feel.
The new air conditioner does not operate with the wall thermostat. Those wires are tucked up out of the way not to be used again. This new one operates with a remote control pointed directly at the unit in the ceiling! How cool is that?
Now we waited until a nice day where we could get our big strong neighbor guy to come over and give Steve a hand! Also we borrowed a very very sturdy extension ladder from our other neighbor.
We saw this "ladder and rope method" on another YouTube and figured it would work pretty good with two strong guys.
It sure did, they slid the old one down very easily. The new one went up pretty good. The guys were very careful with the new unit and we had no damage whatsoever.
Adam **celebrates**!!!
They got the new unit laid into place after making sure the roof surface area of the old one was free and clear of any dirt or residue. It's really important to make sure everything is smooth and clear so the new one can make a direct contact and firm seal with the foam gasket. The foam gasket is already attached underneath the new air conditioner. So they set it into place, now all we had to do was the "inside connections".
These wonderful new connectors are called Wago. They are a push-in type of connector with little snapping levers. Strip the ends of your wires from the surrounding plastic, and twist them tight before inserting into the Wago. *CLICK* the little orange lever and they are done. Easy Peasy!
The ground wire is attached with a heavy duty wire nut, and then wrapped with black electrical tape for a secure ground.
That's it! Three wires to connect the power feed from the motorhome to the air conditioner itself.
Now the next step is correctly squishing down the air conditioner from one inch down to a half an inch on the foam gasket....
First we had to measure exactly the distance between the bottom surface of the air conditioner to the top surface of the ceiling itself. That is four and a half inches. Now if we squish it down a half an inch, that means it would be a 4-inch space. This number is very critical!
The reason it is critical, is because every rooftop is a different thickness on every RV. There is a center baffle piece that needs to be trimmed to that exact opening. This must be done before being folded into three different angles to go between the air conditioner itself and the bottom bracket and plenum.
We measured carefully so there was only exactly 4 inches remaining of this center baffle.
The top ridge of this three angled baffle needs to fit securely against the underside of the AC unit. Otherwise the cool air will leak into other areas, and not into your ducts!
Now pre-fit the bottom mounting bracket to the ceiling and the AC unit....
On some Winnebago Views, they said they had to cut quite a bit away from the corners from the existing 14" opening for the plastic bracket to fit. We found on our 2016 G Winnebago View that we only needed to trim two of the corners a tiny bit. An oscillating tool with a plunge cutter blade or a small jig saw would do the job.
Once the center baffle and bottom mounting bracket were fitted in place, a small wire connector needs to be snapped into a corresponding connector to attach the plenum which houses the thermostat and digital display. This is the only other wiring necessary. It is a simple plug and play. But make sure the wire isn't caught up inside the open space, it needs to lay alongside the bracket edge on the right... It took a little bit of close examination to figure that out.
Four long bolts are inserted through the bottom of the mounting bracket and attach onto the air conditioner on the roof itself. These need to be tightened down evenly, a little bit at a time all the way around. Reaching up inside, with a measuring device, we used a bent artist plaster knife with the 1/2-in distance drawn on it with a sharpie marker. It's hard to get up in there and see. But you have to squish that foam gasket down to only half an inch. Not tighter, not looser. When using a torque wrench it can come down to 7 NM. Excuse the screen shot....
Now the mounting bracket is screwed up into place, with a gasket thickness of only 1/2 inch. We have replaced AC gaskets on both units of our last motorhome, so we knew this was a good thickness. But if you want to use a torque wrench, please do so.
The plenum cover is attached with four longer screws right to that black bracket. Screw them in carefully and don't over tighten. We see that it can flex the cover and perhaps cause some cracks?
Now the plenum sides are screwed in with the four small screws. These are wood screws and go directly into the ceiling material.
Finally, the air filters can now slide into place on each side. The inside is now done!
Steve went outside and plugged r motorhome into the 30 amp dedicated RV power outlet on our garage. I was able to take the remote control, and turn on the unit.
TAHH-DAHHHHHH!!!!
IT WORKS!
It's pretty cool how the numbers illuminate through the plastic plenum!
We found it was able to cool down the interior really fast. We can either close the ducts and just have it dump out of the two ends into the main living area. This is the fastest way to cool down the main space.
Then once a good temperature level is reached, the ducts can be opened, and the two end vents pieces closed off. There are two levers on the back side that slide inwards and outwards to switch the direction of the air flow--- whether you are using the ducts or the direct dump feature.
Now that the inside was complete there was one more thing to finish up on the outside.
Putting that new black shroud on over the unit.
It was not very easy, there are two little screws on each side underneath that are kind of difficult to reach. Steve had to actually lay down parallel with the unit on the roof to get to them. Once those are secure, there are four large bolts on the top that go down into the unit. They have four little plastic caps to snap on over them.
SUCCESS!!!!!
We are going to enjoy it so much. It is much quieter and blows more air through the ducts than our last unit did. We think it will be able to keep up with the high demand of having a dark roof and a dark upper area of the motorhome, especially up in the bunk and cab area that is all dark gray fiberglass.
It was so pleasant, we decided to take a nap right in the driveway all afternoon in the pleasant air conditioning.
