Fit RV Winnegabo Travato Breakdown

[Boxster1971]

If you haven't seen it yet you should check Fit RV's latest blog post about how their Travato Promaster died while they were on the road...

https://www.thefitrv.com/blog/man-do...s-in-the-shop/

I think James is occasionally on this forum. I thought his linked blog post above was an amazing story of outrageous treatment by a RAM Promaster dealer.

[ClassB4Me]

Originally Posted by Boxster1971

If you haven't seen it yet you should check Fit RV's latest blog post about how their Travato Promaster died while they were on the road...

https://www.thefitrv.com/blog/man-do...s-in-the-shop/

I think James is occasionally on this forum. I thought his linked blog post above was an amazing story of outrageous treatment by a RAM Promaster dealer.

That story made me mad enough to almost not order my Jeep Gladiator. These dealerships should understand with social media a bad story like this can wreck a dealership for years.


This story will get reposted hundreds if not thousands of times.

[eric1514]

Here's what I don't understand:

By their own admission, that is James and the fellow that installed the 2nd alternator, the loss of radiator fluid caused by them by way of a belt cutting a hose and subsequent overheating months ago contributed to the blown head gasket. Yet somehow this is FCA problem and they should have to repair it under warranty.

[bobojay]

Originally Posted by eric1514

Here's what I don't understand:

By their own admission, that is James and the fellow that installed the 2nd alternator, the loss of radiator fluid caused by them by way of a belt cutting a hose and subsequent overheating months ago contributed to the blown head gasket. Yet somehow this is FCA problem and they should have to repair it under warranty.

Get the story straight now. 40k+ miles and a couple years ago....they've been all over the west, back to Iowa multiple times, to Cleveland OH a couple times and back. And not to mention multiple trips back and forth between north and south Utah since the belt/hose incident

[cruising7388]

Originally Posted by bobojay

Get the story straight now. 40k+ miles and a couple years ago....they've been all over the west, back to Iowa multiple times, to Cleveland OH a couple times and back. And not to mention multiple trips back and forth between north and south Utah since the belt/hose incident

If head gasket failures with this engine are unknown, than it shouldn't be ruled out categorically that the first overheating episode contributed to subsequent premature head gasket failure.

[eric1514]

Originally Posted by bobojay

Get the story straight now. 40k+ miles and a couple years ago....they've been all over the west, back to Iowa multiple times, to Cleveland OH a couple times and back. And not to mention multiple trips back and forth between north and south Utah since the belt/hose incident

The original story posted on his blog has changed. The only vestige of what he originally wrote is in one of the comments submitted by a reader.

I feel like some details are missing. Was the second alternator add an approved RAM modification? If not, seems like not a RAM warranty repair since, as you said, that initial failure was probably the root cause. I must be missing something.

Make of this what you will. I don't know whether one caused the other, but the editing of the original blog is strange.

[bobojay]

Originally Posted by cruising7388

If head gasket failures with this engine are unknown, than it shouldn't be ruled out categorically that the first overheating episode contributed to subsequent premature head gasket failure.

They are unusual but I don't doubt the earlier episode helped...

[bobojay]

Good question about "FCA approved" stuff. Their setup is not the same as the current WGO Volta install in the Travato, which is FCA approved.

As a side note, one of the longest running Travato owners yesterday was able to prove the rumors true that WGO is buying the Promaster under a little known to the public fleet buying perk that gives all the Travatos up to current production a 60mo/100k mile powertrain warranty vs the 60k mileage the general public gets since 2016 I believe?

[cruising7388]

Originally Posted by bobojay

They are unusual but I don't doubt the earlier episode helped...

Was the original FIT RV modification involving the second alternator and different belt done by an FCA facility?

[wincrasher]

I don't blame them for wanting a covered repair. Heck, I'd probably do the same thing.

But I also know how warranty claims work. The request most likely didn't include the fact that there were two incidences of severe overheating. All kinds of damage can result from such episodes. Dollars to donuts, their head and gasket were effected at that time. It's amazing they went all those miles without failure, but that is how it works sometimes.

That said, the dealership should always go to bat with you on a request. The worst that can happen is FCA says no, claim denied. But my assumption is that this dealership saw two well-off people, under time constraints and would be easy pickings. That more likely than not, would agree to pay (Stef admitted as much on FB), and then they'd have them. Once the job was started, they would have this story that it was a much more involved job and the estimate would be exceeded in manhours by a good amount. Captive audience with their checkbook pried open.

In my view, since FCA tolerates dealers that employ tactics like this, then they deserve to get screwed once in a while as well. So my hats off to Fit RV to getting ahead this time.

[B Eventually]

Originally Posted by bobojay

Good question about "FCA approved" stuff. Their setup is not the same as the current WGO Volta install in the Travato, which is FCA approved.

As a side note, one of the longest running Travato owners yesterday was able to prove the rumors true that WGO is buying the Promaster under a little known to the public fleet buying perk that gives all the Travatos up to current production a 60mo/100k mile powertrain warranty vs the 60k mileage the general public gets since 2016 I believe?

Would that also apply to a Promaster chassis used in the Trend?

[booster]

It is always good to file the claim, as even if they deny it initially, it can give you a bit of advantage when trying to get at least some help and discount.


Overheating is always a bad thing, and doesn't have to show problems at the time. Especially with the aluminum heads and/or blocks, with ferrous cylinder liners, you have a lot of differential expansion going on. Going much beyond the normal temperature, and corresponding expansion, can really stress head gaskets leaving damage that will cause them to fret due to lost compression on them. It can take a long time to show up, so not surprising in this case. I have seen head gaskets that only leaked when not running, and only when the temps got really cold in winter. Of course after a while they started to leak all the time.


Hopefully, the dealer did a thorough inspection while the heads were off (assuming they did both head gaskets while it was apart like they should) as warped heads or even blocks is very common in overheating cases. It would also give them a chance to look for signs of piston skirt scoring, indirectly by looking at the cylinder walls. Piston skirt heat scores from overexpansion binding in the bores is often the telltale sign for a mechanic to tell that an engine had been over heated badly. An engine with scored piston skirts can run a long time without major issues in many cases, but will normally start to burn oil much sooner than it would without. It may also develop a cold start knock from piston slap.


Hopefully, FitRv will not have sustained collateral damage on anything more than the head gaskets, as all the class b engines are hauling near maximum weight all the time, and you need stuff to be in as good shape as possible.

[bobojay]

Originally Posted by B Eventually

Would that also apply to a Promaster chassis used in the Trend?

What year is the chassis under your Trend?