33 - Five Years of Ownership & A Few Problems

October 2021 is the fifth anniversary of owning our Orion. Problems happen. We are fortunate in not having had any significant or costly problems in those five years. But I will list four that have occurred, one of which I fixed, one that is ongoing, one which is pending a dealer repair, and one that is disappointing but does not affect performance.

The fixed problem: On last year's migration to Yuma, we stopped for a night in Las Cruces, NM. I happened to look at the rear door frosted window and noticed that I could see out clearly through the upper 2 or 3 inches of it. In fact, I could put my hand through the space because the glass had slipped down into the bottom of the window frame.

I disassembled the window by removing the screws in the frame and separating the inner and outer halves. Two issues were apparent. The caulking that served to seal the window on the outside as well as be an adhesive had dried and failed. There are also plastic tabs on one frame half that locate and hold the glass on four sides, but the tabs at the bottom were broken. This allowed the glass to slide down to the bottom of the frame. My fix was to invert the tabbed frame so that there were good tabs on the bottom. I applied new caulk in the frame caulk channel and then applied poly adhesive on the perimeter of the glass and reassembled the works. Some of the glue seeped out and shows a little (OK, I'm not a perfectionist), but it's holding together now.

The ongoing problem: The plastic drawer latches (left, below) are breaking one-by-one. The little plastic spring catch in the square part eventually fails to stay snapped open when the drawer is opened. Then when we shut the door, the hook part hits and breaks the catch piece off. I bought a package of four replacement latches like the originals, and now I have used them all.

I ordered a set of the simple U-shape spring clamps with nylon catch plates as shown on the right. I'm thinking simple ought to be better, so these will be installed when the next OEM plastic ones fail.

Need dealer help problem: I have had problems with the side/rear view camera and monitor system as noted before (Post #21 & 29 ). The left camera view has not worked for at least three years. Then the monitor would sometimes stick on the right side view instead of turning off or reverting to the rear view. On this last trip, the monitor either did not work at all either by shifting into reverse or trying to power it on manually. Maybe one time in five, it would work. I tried to trace the wiring and locate the control module, but Coachmen has it buried somewhere I haven't discovered. This could be a costly problem, but I really need the rear view working at least. I can do without the side views as I find them too hard and distracting to focus in on safely in the heat of traffic.

The disappointing problem: As I mentioned in Post #30 , the rear cap surround of the coach has discolored and faded. I'm assuming that this is made of fiberglass, and either the finish coat failed or the base color was not sun/UV resistant. It is noticeably lighter in color than the wall panels now and has a somewhat dull flat patina. Like I say, it does not affect anything otherwise, and it has mostly faded to a consistent shade overall with only a couple of patches of the original color remaining around the right tail light and lower area.

I have no option but to store the coach in the strong sun of Colorado and Arizona. However, the front cap and other trim pieces seem to be holding up so far. I can probably live with the two-tone look.