Winnebago travado owners questions

[Marinov2908@gmail.com]

To all the Travado owners out there:

How big of a hassle is it to hang the shower curtain and cleaning up?

Will the AC cool ok on 95% days?

Is there any place to carry golf clubs?

Do the batteries handle the appliances ok?

If money is not a concern, would you go with batteries or generator?

Thanks to all for your help.

[Chris Hayden]

I have a K model.
I have not used the shower in the unit so I can't answer question one.

Stock a/c cools the coach but it's super loud. A lot of T owners are getting the unit switched out for a quieter running unit.

Carrying golf clubs is doable if you find a place to put them and can sacrifice the space. In the G model, plenty room under the Murphy bed "garage." In the K, could possibly fit under the passenger side bed, but probably not, or ride on top of one of the beds.

Mine has 200 watts of solar and two AGM batteries and I have run the fridge off the batteries and solar for several days at a time without issue.

"L" versions are battery only, no genny. About $20k more than the standard models. People that have them love them but I have the genny model.

[bobojay]

Ditto, what Chris said. We also have the K model. We have gotten the AC switched out for the quieter one called the Coleman Mach 10 NDQ. It's what Winnebago is now installing in all their class Bs. It works well and is quieter for sure but has it's quirks too.
As far as temperature control, common sense prevails. Block the windows off on the sunny side when the temps are high and the AC will keep up.
Storage is what you are willing to carry in these. Class Bs are definitely not for people that can't downsize their "stuff"

[gk&hc]

We have the K version, and we use the shower all the time. We modified the curtain to run on a track per this post: https://wincrasher.blogspot.com/2016...-medicine.html. When we are done with the shower we hang the curtain partially over the towel bar in the back (while it stays on the track). We give the shower a quick wipe down, and that's it. Every 2 weeks or so I open the rear doors of the Travato and scrub the bathroom clean.
I have 2 solar panels and 2 AGM batteries, and that's enough for the Travato. Mine is a 2017 version, so there is no inverter, so if I need to run the microwave I use the generator. The newer Travato 59K has a small inverter, but I think all it can run is a toaster or coffee maker.
We usually camp where we need heat, not AC, but we find the AC is good enough on the few days we needed it.
Storage is always a challenge in a class B. We carry some stuff on one of the beds, and at night we swivel the front seats around so they face the interior of the camper and then move the stuff from the beds to behind the seats. It sounds time consuming, but it's not. Every year, though, we travel with less and less stuff.

[Storysrvwego]

Hello Marinov2908,
Are you buyijng a used Travato or a brand new one? 59G or 59K? And if its a new one, then are you considering the GL or KL versions? It helps to know for a couple of the answers below.

SHOWER CURTAIN - My wife and I thought it would be a bit fiddly to put up and take down. We also anticipated it would take time to dry based on other fabrics. And over time it would get dirty easily.

We are both pretty impressed with the curtain. On the first couple of times we used it; the snaps were a bit tough. They broke in quickly and it goes on and comes back off quite nicely.

Our concern that we would have to leave it in place for an imagined-long time was unfounded. Whatever the material is, it sheds water, soap and shampoo quick and drys out in a rather short time. We always keep the bathroom roof vent open/running rain or shine while camping and usually have the main vent at least open and/or a screened window open but that just depends on weather conditions. No issues in all of our trips with condensation or sweat anywhere in our 59K but we have not traveled into high humidty places yet. Next year we will for sure. In any case I occasionally check inside cabinets but never seen issues like some RV's out there.

Obviously it would be more ideal if we didn't have the curtain but seriously, it works well in the extra roomy (for a Class B) bathroom and we don't even give the curtain a second thought each day we use it. LOVE the TRUMA Combi. Took about 2-3 trips to get down how best to use it and now that too is just 2nd nature. If this is a new purchase for you, I highly recommend you take at least a couple of close-to-home over nights to get a handle on using what you have before embarking on a real road trip. Easy as pie but a little practice, including filling water tank, draining it, using the waste tanks and dumping all good stuff to practice on. even if you already have other RV experience.

AC COOL 95% of days: The answer to this question is "It depends". We have to face the fact that especially a motorhome with the sun-collecting Windshield, Side and Rear windows are fabulous to heat the interior. The metal siding helps too! And then ground-up radiation can help the heating too! The AC system has to deal with that, even in the best insulated motorhomes or drag along RV trailers out there. I will say the Travato is better than some for heat transfer but its still going to be a bugger to reverse when you turn on the AC and the interior is already oh-hot-plus. If your parked for the day, then the provided windshield-shields will help a tiny bit. Ideally you were driving with the front chassis AC syustem turned on full blast and your passenger if any can stand the direct chill for a bit. Then when you get parked into your camp spot and connected to AC power (unless your a 59KL), you can light up the roof top AC and work from the already-somewhat cooled coach space. See... The answer is "It depends", largely on how long the steel box and windowed vehicle worked at being a solar collector.

I can tell you that one trip had our friends running their drag-fifth wheel AC all day with virtually no relief on a very hot camp day. Our 59K AC did good. Took awhile but it did give us a quite agreeable environment, even with a number of trips in and out the slider door. Ours is a 2018 59K. The 2019 we could have gotten has an even more efficient AC unit and potential option of the dual paned, smaller windows could help too. We preferred the larger, albeit only single pane windows on our 2018. And still do. We have only one little grumble about our 59K; the 5 foot long MCD shades are ka-ka for rolling up on their own; worse on cold days. WE have to help them up and yes... we have done the adjustments. Nice shades really. Work well if they are shorter. I am sure WB wanted to go away from these wide ones and the type of shades and trim around the smaller windows in the 2019+ models do have the advantage over the shades we have. But really it's not a real big deal to help them roll up so like I said, just a little grumble.

IS THERE ANY PLACE TO CARRY GOLF CLUBS? -
Well... I'm not a golfer but if I were, I'd not want to pack them along in a Class B. Especially if you are traveling with another person. Your choice will be to plop them in the center aisle and strap it to something in case you have to nail the brakes, stand them up in the bathroom with a strap to hold them in place but make sure the shower floor has some solid protection in place. Or if the bag with clubs and stuff will fit in the box under the passenger bed if it is the K model your looking at with its Twin Beds, then you can lay them in there. Not the driver side bed cabinet; just the passenger side bed cabinet.

Maybe a custom rack on one of the rear doors but of course then it's a weather and theft issue. Roof top? Too heavy of course to hoist a full bag of clubs in some sort of weatherproof duffle bag up there.

This sort of falls into the "It depends" category again. Class C will handle more stuff because they simply have more room to store things. But takes more room on the road and in parking lots. And those coach on frame Class C's will have a bit more rattles. And strong winds keep you busier. All do-able. You just have to consider all of the Pros and Cons.

Three people traveling? 2 or more people and always local trips or longer, overnight travel? Class B might not be the choice at all for extended, overnight trips with 3 or 3+ people. A lot of factors to consider what is the best choice here. The correct answer I suppose is Yes, you can take the golf stuff in the Class B but you probably will trade off something else.

DO THE BATTERIES HANDLE THE APPLIANCES OK?

This question in particular will still get the "It Depends" answer but for more reasons. Not trying to avoid giving you a solid answer; it really does depend on a number of variables. And... this question in particular really needs to know if your going for an L suffix model or the standard G or K.

The latest Travato's have 12 volt only refrigerators but the microwave oven still has to be fed 120 volts AC. The inverter now included in the new Travato's will handle that although Inverters do place a moderate demand on the 12 volt DC supply. Everything else will run on DC in these newest ones but you do need to do some trips to see what your usage levels of everything electric will be. This is all better if you spend the extra $20k or so for the L option because of the way the Lithium batteries, controller electronics and the 2nd "power generator" on the vehicle engine works. You have to give this some thought whether the extra $20k+ is of value to you. If money is freely available, I would definitely go for the L models. But the non-L models like ours do very well. My wife and I mostly go into RV campgrounds with at least electrical AC hookup so we do not have to use the somewhat noisy (not to bad these days) generator.

IF MONEY IS NOT A CONCERN, WOULD YOU GO WITH BATTERIES OR GENERATOR?

This question implies that you are looking at the current new models if I assume you mean this:
BATTERIES I am assuming means the pair of AGM batteries and the CUMMINS-ONAN generator underneath the Travato.

GENERATOR I assume means your talking about the L suffix on the model number (e.g. 59KL) that for understandable reasons is easier to just call it a "GENERATOR". The systems in the L models is quite sophisticated. And most importantly; WINNEBAGO co-partnered with a firm to engineer this solution quite well. It is reliable and works as designed. Some of the other attempts on the market have not gone so well. Teething problems can always exist but in my opinion, WB got this right the first time with only some minor issues out of the start gate that you will not see if you buy one today. At least that is as much as I have heard. It IS a complex and expensive solution. On the other hand, the ye olde, actual generator systems while simpler, do need the owner to keep them maintained. Maintained, they will run for years. Not maintained, you might be lucky if the Onan generator works the following year without some expense to work on the carburetor and fuel passage/filter/pump system. A little bit of advise here;
If you go with the Onan generator system in a brand new purchase, do yourself a favor and start that generator say, every two to three months. Let it run for about 10 or more minutes. Ideally I would run the AC or something to give it a little load but even just running it without turning on an appliance will do this one important thing - CIRCULATES the fuel through the fuel system and engine of generator so that fresh gas is always maintained. I personally never use additives that claim to help the fuel. I am not saying they don't; you just do not need to spend the money and still might end up with bad fuel. Time is the enemy of gasoline in particular. The additives will extend that time but not where you can still ignore it "forever". I have to use the "It depends" card again. If the fuel lines and carb bowl are full, they will tend to last a bit longer than those items having some air in them as they will inevitably have. Air changes in moisture content and moisture is your real enemy, or catalyst in gasoline systems. Keep it moving once in awhile and you will never have a problem. I haven't rebuilt a carburetor in anything I purchased new, ever. My rebuilds/fixes have been to correct badly maintained fuel systems from other folks. You can add Stabil or similar additives to your fuel tank if you want but its not necessary if you start the Onan, your lawn mower, snow thrower, weed trimmer, chain say 4 to 6 times a year and let them run at least half throttle for a number of minutes. The Onan is speed regulated and will run at a good RPM to circulate oil and gas. Change or have that oil changed once a year regardless of minimal use. No sense in having some engine carbon in the oil help to break down the oil over time when you can keep it cleaner and fresher regularly for just a few dollars.

I know this was long. Hope it helps. My wife and I love our Travato. Zero issues with the RAM Promaster 3500 EXT WB uses to build-in the Travato coach. Only three very minor issues in the coach; one connector pair that I think was not seated together and just needed to be plugged tightly together. The electronics in the refrigerator didn't work quite right; NOVA allowed me to swap that out myself with replacement module free of charge. And the LED light on the AC power inlet stopped working although the inlet itself still worked fine; the manufacture of that assembly sent me an all new one for me to swap out myself too. These were all within 2 months of new. Zero since and our 59K has been used a fair amount since we picked it up in February 2018.

[bobojay]

The warranty requirement for generator running time is 2hrs per month under a 50%+ load. That's 2 hrs in one run, not a bunch of short runs to reach 2 hrs.
Onan can see this from it's onboard computer (control board) if the Genset needs warranty work.

That is if buying new

[cruising7388]

Originally Posted by Storysrvwego

Hello Marinov2908,
Are you buyijng a used Travato or a brand new one? 59G or 59K? And if its a new one, then are you considering the GL or KL versions? It helps to know for a couple of the answers below.

SHOWER CURTAIN - My wife and I thought it would be a bit fiddly to put up and take down. We also anticipated it would take time to dry based on other fabrics. And over time it would get dirty easily.

We are both pretty impressed with the curtain. On the first couple of times we used it; the snaps were a bit tough. They broke in quickly and it goes on and comes back off quite nicely.

Our concern that we would have to leave it in place for an imagined-long time was unfounded. Whatever the material is, it sheds water, soap and shampoo quick and drys out in a rather short time. We always keep the bathroom roof vent open/running rain or shine while camping and usually have the main vent at least open and/or a screened window open but that just depends on weather conditions. No issues in all of our trips with condensation or sweat anywhere in our 59K but we have not traveled into high humidty places yet. Next year we will for sure. In any case I occasionally check inside cabinets but never seen issues like some RV's out there.

Obviously it would be more ideal if we didn't have the curtain but seriously, it works well in the extra roomy (for a Class B) bathroom and we don't even give the curtain a second thought each day we use it. LOVE the TRUMA Combi. Took about 2-3 trips to get down how best to use it and now that too is just 2nd nature. If this is a new purchase for you, I highly recommend you take at least a couple of close-to-home over nights to get a handle on using what you have before embarking on a real road trip. Easy as pie but a little practice, including filling water tank, draining it, using the waste tanks and dumping all good stuff to practice on. even if you already have other RV experience.

AC COOL 95% of days: The answer to this question is "It depends". We have to face the fact that especially a motorhome with the sun-collecting Windshield, Side and Rear windows are fabulous to heat the interior. The metal siding helps too! And then ground-up radiation can help the heating too! The AC system has to deal with that, even in the best insulated motorhomes or drag along RV trailers out there. I will say the Travato is better than some for heat transfer but its still going to be a bugger to reverse when you turn on the AC and the interior is already oh-hot-plus. If your parked for the day, then the provided windshield-shields will help a tiny bit. Ideally you were driving with the front chassis AC syustem turned on full blast and your passenger if any can stand the direct chill for a bit. Then when you get parked into your camp spot and connected to AC power (unless your a 59KL), you can light up the roof top AC and work from the already-somewhat cooled coach space. See... The answer is "It depends", largely on how long the steel box and windowed vehicle worked at being a solar collector.

I can tell you that one trip had our friends running their drag-fifth wheel AC all day with virtually no relief on a very hot camp day. Our 59K AC did good. Took awhile but it did give us a quite agreeable environment, even with a number of trips in and out the slider door. Ours is a 2018 59K. The 2019 we could have gotten has an even more efficient AC unit and potential option of the dual paned, smaller windows could help too. We preferred the larger, albeit only single pane windows on our 2018. And still do. We have only one little grumble about our 59K; the 5 foot long MCD shades are ka-ka for rolling up on their own; worse on cold days. WE have to help them up and yes... we have done the adjustments. Nice shades really. Work well if they are shorter. I am sure WB wanted to go away from these wide ones and the type of shades and trim around the smaller windows in the 2019+ models do have the advantage over the shades we have. But really it's not a real big deal to help them roll up so like I said, just a little grumble.

IS THERE ANY PLACE TO CARRY GOLF CLUBS? -
Well... I'm not a golfer but if I were, I'd not want to pack them along in a Class B. Especially if you are traveling with another person. Your choice will be to plop them in the center aisle and strap it to something in case you have to nail the brakes, stand them up in the bathroom with a strap to hold them in place but make sure the shower floor has some solid protection in place. Or if the bag with clubs and stuff will fit in the box under the passenger bed if it is the K model your looking at with its Twin Beds, then you can lay them in there. Not the driver side bed cabinet; just the passenger side bed cabinet.

Maybe a custom rack on one of the rear doors but of course then it's a weather and theft issue. Roof top? Too heavy of course to hoist a full bag of clubs in some sort of weatherproof duffle bag up there.

This sort of falls into the "It depends" category again. Class C will handle more stuff because they simply have more room to store things. But takes more room on the road and in parking lots. And those coach on frame Class C's will have a bit more rattles. And strong winds keep you busier. All do-able. You just have to consider all of the Pros and Cons.

Three people traveling? 2 or more people and always local trips or longer, overnight travel? Class B might not be the choice at all for extended, overnight trips with 3 or 3+ people. A lot of factors to consider what is the best choice here. The correct answer I suppose is Yes, you can take the golf stuff in the Class B but you probably will trade off something else.

DO THE BATTERIES HANDLE THE APPLIANCES OK?

This question in particular will still get the "It Depends" answer but for more reasons. Not trying to avoid giving you a solid answer; it really does depend on a number of variables. And... this question in particular really needs to know if your going for an L suffix model or the standard G or K.

The latest Travato's have 12 volt only refrigerators but the microwave oven still has to be fed 120 volts AC. The inverter now included in the new Travato's will handle that although Inverters do place a moderate demand on the 12 volt DC supply. Everything else will run on DC in these newest ones but you do need to do some trips to see what your usage levels of everything electric will be. This is all better if you spend the extra $20k or so for the L option because of the way the Lithium batteries, controller electronics and the 2nd "power generator" on the vehicle engine works. You have to give this some thought whether the extra $20k+ is of value to you. If money is freely available, I would definitely go for the L models. But the non-L models like ours do very well. My wife and I mostly go into RV campgrounds with at least electrical AC hookup so we do not have to use the somewhat noisy (not to bad these days) generator.

IF MONEY IS NOT A CONCERN, WOULD YOU GO WITH BATTERIES OR GENERATOR?

This question implies that you are looking at the current new models if I assume you mean this:
BATTERIES I am assuming means the pair of AGM batteries and the CUMMINS-ONAN generator underneath the Travato.

GENERATOR I assume means your talking about the L suffix on the model number (e.g. 59KL) that for understandable reasons is easier to just call it a "GENERATOR". The systems in the L models is quite sophisticated. And most importantly; WINNEBAGO co-partnered with a firm to engineer this solution quite well. It is reliable and works as designed. Some of the other attempts on the market have not gone so well. Teething problems can always exist but in my opinion, WB got this right the first time with only some minor issues out of the start gate that you will not see if you buy one today. At least that is as much as I have heard. It IS a complex and expensive solution. On the other hand, the ye olde, actual generator systems while simpler, do need the owner to keep them maintained. Maintained, they will run for years. Not maintained, you might be lucky if the Onan generator works the following year without some expense to work on the carburetor and fuel passage/filter/pump system. A little bit of advise here;
If you go with the Onan generator system in a brand new purchase, do yourself a favor and start that generator say, every two to three months. Let it run for about 10 or more minutes. Ideally I would run the AC or something to give it a little load but even just running it without turning on an appliance will do this one important thing - CIRCULATES the fuel through the fuel system and engine of generator so that fresh gas is always maintained. I personally never use additives that claim to help the fuel. I am not saying they don't; you just do not need to spend the money and still might end up with bad fuel. Time is the enemy of gasoline in particular. The additives will extend that time but not where you can still ignore it "forever". I have to use the "It depends" card again. If the fuel lines and carb bowl are full, they will tend to last a bit longer than those items having some air in them as they will inevitably have. Air changes in moisture content and moisture is your real enemy, or catalyst in gasoline systems. Keep it moving once in awhile and you will never have a problem. I haven't rebuilt a carburetor in anything I purchased new, ever. My rebuilds/fixes have been to correct badly maintained fuel systems from other folks. You can add Stabil or similar additives to your fuel tank if you want but its not necessary if you start the Onan, your lawn mower, snow thrower, weed trimmer, chain say 4 to 6 times a year and let them run at least half throttle for a number of minutes. The Onan is speed regulated and will run at a good RPM to circulate oil and gas. Change or have that oil changed once a year regardless of minimal use. No sense in having some engine carbon in the oil help to break down the oil over time when you can keep it cleaner and fresher regularly for just a few dollars.

I know this was long. Hope it helps. My wife and I love our Travato. Zero issues with the RAM Promaster 3500 EXT WB uses to build-in the Travato coach. Only three very minor issues in the coach; one connector pair that I think was not seated together and just needed to be plugged tightly together. The electronics in the refrigerator didn't work quite right; NOVA allowed me to swap that out myself with replacement module free of charge. And the LED light on the AC power inlet stopped working although the inlet itself still worked fine; the manufacture of that assembly sent me an all new one for me to swap out myself too. These were all within 2 months of new. Zero since and our 59K has been used a fair amount since we picked it up in February 2018.

An exceptionally comprehensive and articulate review. Thank you!

[avanti]

Originally Posted by bobojay

The warranty requirement for generator running time is 2hrs per month under a 50%+ load. That's 2 hrs in one run, not a bunch of short runs to reach 2 hrs.
Onan can see this from it's onboard computer (control board) if the Genset needs warranty work.

It is not correct that failing to maintain your genset according to manufacturer's recommendations will in itself "void" your warranty. By federal law (and the wording of the warranty itself), they would have to PROVE that the malfunction was specifically caused by the failure to maintain. Simply demonstrating running time would not in itself constitute such proof. And, in any event, warranty coverage of faults unrelated to "exercise" would remain intact.

Also, Onan seems to have backed off from the "2hr/month" requirement. My manual (dated 2013) says "45-60 minutes/month".

[bobojay]

Avanti, mine dated 2/2018 says the 2hr per month. But it's gasoline not propane

[avanti]

Originally Posted by bobojay

Avanti, mine dated 2/2018 says the 2hr per month. But it's gasoline not propane

Interesting...
I just checked, and my manual applies to both propane and gas.

The exact wording is noteworthy:
onan exercise.jpg

Note the reference to "two hours" as well as "45-60 minutes". Obvious sloppy editing.

These inconsistencies don't reduce my skepticism that all these recommendations are random editorial content, rather than a real engineering-driven regimen.

[Bud]

Originally Posted by avanti

Interesting...
I just checked, and my manual applies to both propane and gas.

The exact wording is interesting:
Attachment 7911

Note the reference to "two hours" as well as "45-60 minutes". Obvious sloppy editing.

These inconsistencies don't reduce my skepticism that all these recommendations are random editorial content, rather than a real engineering-driven regimen.

avanti, my 05 Roadtrek manual states 30 minutes. So way back I computed a scientific weighted average. 30 minutes Roadtrek and 120 minutes onan which resulted in 35 minutes!

Zero problems for 12+ years, which is called Luck.

Bud

[avanti]

Originally Posted by Bud

avanti, my 05 Roadtrek manual states 30 minutes. So way back I computed a scientific weighted average. 30 minutes Roadtrek and 120 minutes onan which resulted in 35 minutes!

Zero problems for 12+ years, which is called Luck.

Can't argue with science.

Of course, I've had zero problems in almost 14 years (and two units), and I almost NEVER exercise mine.

[cruising7388]

Originally Posted by avanti

These inconsistencies don't reduce my skepticism that all these recommendations are random editorial content, rather than a real engineering-driven regimen.

Moreover, I don't think even an engineering-driven regimen buys you much because of variations in any particular load of fuel with respect to ethanol content, proprietary refinery additives, local introduction of fuel stabilizers, the age and longer term temperature of the fuel etc.

[bobojay]

Originally Posted by avanti

Interesting...
I just checked, and my manual applies to both propane and gas.

The exact wording is noteworthy:
Attachment 7911

Note the reference to "two hours" as well as "45-60 minutes". Obvious sloppy editing.

These inconsistencies don't reduce my skepticism that all these recommendations are random editorial content, rather than a real engineering-driven regimen.

I agree with you, LOL. Personally, I think 1 hour under a good load is plenty. I very seldom exercised our propane unit and all was well over a 4yr ownership