First Trip 20224 398M: The Good and not so good

[Dive Bar Casanova]

Independent suspension and disc brakes made this 2024 an amazing tow. Worth the investment. I have to research back to who recommended it to us and send them a special thanks. Avoid any of the leaf spring suspensions.

The new Yamaha powered inverter generator is louder and more vibration and has trouble running two AC units. Never any A/C issues with our past Onan 5.5's.
I'll guess the Onans were just to difficult to obtain, a fussy company to deal with and probably a price out so it's onto this 6.0. Our past 4 Onans were severe oil eaters. This new Yamaha powered unit isn't.

Refrigerator is compressor type, no more absorption style units.
Draws significantly less power, easily runs DC off the 4 Battle Born Lithium batteries powered by solar/plug-in/or generator. Problem is it has a defective lock-out mechanism that tells the board it's open and to lock up the doors & drawer. Don't understand that logic, but that's the issue. So most the trip we couldn't open the refers freezer door. It's a problem common to all new buyers if ya go online and ask around.

I'll post picks on what I think a fix is that may work, The Refer MFG is of no help. Politely tell you they don't know, and if they did they probably wouldn't help you anyway.

When the sun shines on the front door of the trailer it expands in the door frame and you can't open it. Have to come in through the garage. Unit is perfectly level.

The 3 Stealth Coleman AC units have always been our favorite system on our past RV's. For some screwball reason Grand Design put a regular duct-only unit in the middle. Can't open the registers for a direct blast of cold air to the main room. Bad idea and a big fail. They fixed something that wasn't broke. The former way was superb, amazing, and Grand Design did away with it of course.

Grand Design kept the ridiculous thin and chintzy garage tie downs that are held in place with wood screws. First bump they rip out no matter how you secure your load.. GD is well aware of what a fail this is.

Spin-off Brinkman has a proper garage tie down system that is heavy duty, properly placed and attached to the frame. If they made a 18' garage model we'd a bought one instead.

The loft has been moved to the garage and maybe there is more room in the main & kitchen area. Maybe only a few inches if even that, maybe not but but it's a HUGE improvement, a HUGE difference for some reason.

The sink and shower faucet handles are all screwball. They look nice, but are going to take some practice to get used to.

I'll be back with pics and fixes as we develop cures but maybe not, we can't seem to log in with our Iphones that hold our images.
Have a terrible feeling the front door jamming will be unresolvable. We'll be willing to drive to the Grand Design factory to get this resolved. It's dangerous. Shouldn't be that way.

 

[Scott'n'Wendy]

That Momentum looks awesome! Nice looking combination you have there with the TV.
I seem to remember someone else having the 'can't open the door' issue. Maybe do a search? Maybe it was solved?

 

[Dive Bar Casanova]

Thanks for the kind words and tip.

I ordered the outside TV by mistake, and at first a misunderstanding of what the option included. Even the dealer employees were confused.

The order sheet talked it up and the sales guy described it differently than what arrived as well. New dealer, they are just figuring it all out.
It's a $70 Walmart TCL Roku TV and the salesguy said well,, that's that, now we know.

But it got better.
With the optional improved sound systems, GD no longer uses the dreadful Jensen Head Unit. Inside sound unit has the Rockford and when I looked closer into the right storage access I discovered there was another Rockford head unit/amp for the outside.

Heavily discounted so it turned out good. Sounds amazing.
Wish I could post more pix, logging in our iPhone w/pix is blocked by massive pop-ups.

The cheap-O TCL Roku 4K TVs are pretty good by the way.
The 398M has 4 of them.
Streaming is way better than Satellite - at least for us it is.
Select Sports setting on the Picture menu and full power & brightest setting brings out the best 4K.

 

[Dive Bar Casanova]

This is what the "magnetic Reed switch" looks like that we're told is causing the alarm and freezer lock out problem on the new Norcold Refers.
It's mounted on the lower freezer drawer right hand side.

We read that adjusting the REED switch magnet 3/8" will cure the issue.

Nope still getting the E4 alarm.
No cure yet.

 

[Dive Bar Casanova]

Changed the oil in the new style Yamaha Powered Generator. Recommended at 20 hours, then every 100 thereafter.

Tried to draw the oil out with a suction gizmo and with the best of effort only got about a quart out. Still about a cup left in the crankcase.
Best to use the oil drain with a flexible funnel.

No drain line, there is an opening with a cover secured by two screws to fit the funnel in. use a wrench to loosen the drain plug, fit in the funnel then remove the drain plug with fingers.

If you start the generator locally at the generator itself be sure to have the cover on securely. It's easy to think you have it attached ok, but its catawampus. Air cooled so it's essential it's fit proper.

You may get the fault light if started locally because it didn't go through the prime cycle. If so, start it at the control panel in the trailer and the fault lights clears.
No where near the smooth operation of the former Onans. It screams bloody murder any time their is a load change.

So in warm weather 2 AC unit operation:
Let the generator warm up 5 min.
Start first AC and put on full cooling 56 F.
Then wait 5 minutes and start the second AC unit and keep both on full cooling - other wise the cycling will open up a circuit breaker and you'll have to reset and start the whole process over & over again.

 

[Dive Bar Casanova]

By the way, we love the trailer warts and all.

 

[Dive Bar Casanova]

Tows superb, excellent braking.

No fix for the refer E4 alarm. Tried all the remedies, nothing cures it. MFG no help.
We'll probably disconnect the buzzer.

Met other owners already that hate the Yamaha Powered generator.
The red flag was when we took delivery, dealer really stressed we know how to reset it outside.

Mattress was like sleeping on an ironing board so we replaced it with the Tuft and Needle.