First Trip Out....Disappointed

[golfscript]

We were very happy with our experience at the dealership; it was unfortunate that we purchased in November and could not use the RV until the following Spring. One of our biggest issues with our previous RV (Coachman) was the refrigerator. We were excited about having a different brand of refrigerator as we had heard great things about Norcold. The refrigerator never brought our food to safe temperature. The hydraulic system leaked; I had never had six-point leveling/hydraulic driven slides, so this was a concern for me.....the question was "will I get this thing home?" The vent in the kitchen ceiling would not open consistently. Parts are on backorder, which is no fault of anyone but now we are considering "did we make a wise choice"? When the demand for parts outweighs supply you have to step back and wonder if the parts manufacturer having quality issues. This will all be fine in the end. Grand Design in my mind is considered just another RV manufacturer, with a higher price tag.

[BabyBober]

Hi and Welcome to the forums. Sorry to hear things did not go well for you on your first shakedown trip. I hope it was planned as a shakedown for just the reasons you stated. If I am not being so forward, can I ask about the Fridge? Did you pre-cool the fridge? Absorption Refrigeration take a LONG time to cool down especially on electric. They work much more efficiently on gas . All that being said it is not uncommon for these type of fridges to take 12+ hrs to cool (empty) no matter who the manufacturer is. They are not like a residential fridge. I typically turn on the fridge at least a day before I put anything in it and then only put pre-chilled (cold) food and beverages in. Putting a few pops in warm is one thing but a case of warm beer, forget about it for the day.... Hydraulics certainly should not be leaking but were there no tell tell signs before your first trip? Low fluid levels? Puddles on the ground? Lastly, just to be 100% sure, some of the Kitchen fans have temperature settings to open and close on their own and will not open till that temp is hit. Since you don't state a model, We cant tell if you have a simple maxx air fan or a temp controlled one.

Good luck and don't let a shake down trip get you down. that is what they are for..
Jim

[JCZhome]

You do not have in your signature the year and model of your GD so you may not get the answers that you're looking for.

Your refer should be pre-cooled before you plan to use it, especially if you're in warm weather or the door is opened often or anything that you're putting in it is room temperature. Ideally, you want to turn your refer on the day before you plan to use it. And the industry norm for an RV refer......for ever 1 minute the door is open, it takes approx. 1 hour to recover that level of coldness.

The leak in the hydraulic.....you don't say where that's at but may just be a fitting that needs to be tightened.

Which vent in the kitchen? The range/microwave vent? You may need to go outside and unlatch the vent hood on the exterior.

The RV industry is exploding (all mfgs.) and parts go to new construction orders first. Many parts that aren't normally replaced aren't sitting on a shelf in a warehouse, they're pretty much made when an order is received.

I'm sorry that you're experiencing these issues, especially on such a new RV. Having had these issues, I do believe that by the time it's all said and done that you may have a different opinion about Grand Design as you learn that they stand behind their products and provide customer service above other RV mfgs.

[AustexGP]

As BabyBober and JCZHome stated, the refrigerator takes up to 12 hours to cool. If we are leaving on Friday, I'll connect the 5th wheel to shore power on Wednesday and by Thursday evening or Friday morning it is cold enough. Before we leave I'll switch it over to LP. Before we left for the Memorial Day weekend the DW purchased a CAMCO Fridge Fan from Amazon. We put it in the refrigerator on Wednesday and -much to my surprise - the refrigerator was cold by Thursday morning. We had the entire family with us over the Memorial Day weekend so the refrigerator was opened and closed constantly (the twin grand girls will stand in front of the refrigerator for minutes on end). I noticed that the refrigerator maintained the temp much better and didn't run quite as often. We're thinking about getting one for the freezer compartment and for the outside refrigerator. Forgot to mention the outside temps were in the upper 90's all weekend (maybe the girls had a good idea!)

[golfscript]

Thank you for the reply. This is our 5th 5th wheel (oh my) but the first with hydraulic slides/levelers. This is the first Norcold refrigerator and we give it plenty of time to cool prior to putting in food. Having concerns from our previous fifth wheel (Coachmen), I brought two Coleman electric coolers and kept them in the middle bedroom stocked with our food. The fan is not thermostatically regulated. It is a simple on/off switch and I can open the vent without having the fan on. This was sometimes operational. My dealer is doing all they can and have gone outside of their usual process by ordering directly some of the parts needed to make the corrections. Grand Design was less enthusiastic and this was disappointing as I had heard this manufacturer was very progressive in resolving issues.
Again, thank you for your reply. We always make our first trip in a new RV with pen/paper in hand because there is always something that needs adjusting. It was disappointing in that the #1 reason we moved away from Coachmen was the Dometic (sp) refrigerator concern only to have it again with Norcold. It will be good in the end I am sure. Safe travels.

[jeffdawgfan]

The max air fans can stick to the gasket on occasion. When it gets sticky I go up and spray some Teflon lube on the seal and that will fix the problem for a long time. You will get more sticking if the vent cover is raised infrequently....like if it has just sat all winter. This is our third RV manufacturer and Grand Design may only be marginally better in workmanship and Quality Assurance, but customer support is their best aspect. Sorry you are having issues.

[Keebler]

I don't have the luxury of turning the fridge on the night before as I have no room to park at my house and store my unit in a lot that does not have power. I have saved up a bunch of freezer packs every time I am shipped something that uses them. I freeze them the night before and bring them with me. Once I hook up and get ready to get on the road, I turn the fridge on gas and toss the ice packs into the fridge and freezer. Every little bit helps bring it to temp.

As mentioned above, putting only cold items in makes a HUGE difference. I travel with two big coolers in the truck bed; one for food, the other with drinks. Everything that goes into the fridge is cold. I don't have an outside kitchen, so I like having the cooler with some drinks in it outside the camper over the whole trip anyway.

[offtohavasu]

Is your model the double door refrigerator? If so, make sure the flapper on the one door is fully extended and there are no air leaks between the two doors.

[chunker]

Once you get the refer cold, keeping it relatively full helps hold the cold in. But leave room for the air to flow inside. I use some "redneck salad bowls" Cool whip containers, that I keep in the freezer and use them to help precool things as necessary.

[JCZhome]

When we were still in the sticks and bricks (before we went full time) I was using the jumbo ice cube trays that you get at walmart. They're about twice the size as regular ice trays but they fit on the wire shelf perfectly. Freeze them at home and then transfer them over when I would bring the RV to load it up. Also, canned drinks (sodas, juice, etc.) that's just on the verge of freezing helped a lot, also.

Interestingly, now that we're full time, a cold refer has never been an issue.......not even when we've spent 6-8 hrs. traveling from point A to point B. Everything stays cold in the refer and frozen in the freezer and we do not travel with the propane on. As a matter of fact, our RV sit in a dealership's lot for about 24 hrs. once, while they worked on it and everything stayed cold and frozen. I was surprised that it stayed cold that long. Keep the refer doors closed and it stays cold.