Winnebago Travato thread here

[eric1514]

A little personalization.



Eric

[Exechobo]

That looks nice!
Do you use the cover when you camp or just for storage?

[eric1514]

Originally Posted by Exechobo

That looks nice!
Do you use the cover when you camp or just for storage?

Both. It's way more convenient and compact than the stock parts from Winnebago.

[Scottbaldassari]

What does il Travato Rossi mean in English?I'm still not sure I got the definition of Travato right...

[eric1514]

Originally Posted by Scottbaldassari

What does il Travato Rossi mean in English?I'm still not sure I got the definition of Travato right...

Rosso-It simply means "The Red Travato". The word "Travato" in Italian, is a verb meaning found, so using it as a noun, like I have and Winnebago has, has no real meaning, it's just silly. At least that's my story.

[stanw909]

Way ta go. Idaho. Looks nice.

[bobojay]

So you guys that have just recently bought Travatos, how's the quality of the WGO paint job? Not the original Chrysler paint, but the add-on WGO color....

[ohiobmwbiker]

On the seat swivel alarm, aka rotary dial:

We just purchased our 2015 Travato 59G a month ago. Between Wincrasher's and FitRV's excellent write ups and videos we were pretty well informed and were sold on it before we stepped foot in it.

Anyway, our Travato appeared to have an issue in the wiring of the parking brake related to the swivel seat alarm. The parking brake, when pulled, would not allow us to lock the vehicle and indicated a rear door was open.

Initially I removed the white wire from the parking brake, but then the alarm continued to sound at a low level. I then took the dash apart and disconnected the alarm's two wires.

After downloading and printing Winnebago's wiring diagrams (thanks Winnebago!), I decided to remove the relay for the alarm that is located under the awning switch by the fire extinguisher to completely break the circuit to the parking brake switch. I also found the 5 amp fuse used to auto-retract the step was blown and replaced it.

I also plugged the white wire back into the parking brake. Now, the parking brake shows up as 'Brake' in the instrument cluster as it should when pulled and more importantly we can lock the vehicle with the emergency brake engaged.

The step also retracted automatically when the vehicle was driven.

Wow - I guess that's a bit of a long explanation. Maybe it will help someone else with the same symptoms, although technically I didn't find the root cause. I had planned on disconnecting the swivel alarm anyway but the parking brake - door locking problem sort of accelerated the need for the modification.

[bobojay]

Good work!!

[eric1514]

On mine, the red one, I believe the red is a Dodge paint job and is pretty good. The black stripe that is supposed to mimic full length windows is applied well enough, but is very difficult to maintain. It water spots immediately and like all gloss paint jobs, it highlights any imperfections. It really screws with my OCD tendencies every time I walk past it and see some dirt. If it wasn't there, that would be OK, too.

Eric

[eric1514]

Originally Posted by ohiobmwbiker

On the seat swivel alarm, aka rotary dial:

We just purchased our 2015 Travato 59G a month ago. Between Wincrasher's and FitRV's excellent write ups and videos we were pretty well informed and were sold on it before we stepped foot in it.

Anyway, our Travato appeared to have an issue in the wiring of the parking brake related to the swivel seat alarm. The parking brake, when pulled, would not allow us to lock the vehicle and indicated a rear door was open.

Initially I removed the white wire from the parking brake, but then the alarm continued to sound at a low level. I then took the dash apart and disconnected the alarm's two wires.

After downloading and printing Winnebago's wiring diagrams (thanks Winnebago!), I decided to remove the relay for the alarm that is located under the awning switch by the fire extinguisher to completely break the circuit to the parking brake switch. I also found the 5 amp fuse used to auto-retract the step was blown and replaced it.

I also plugged the white wire back into the parking brake. Now, the parking brake shows up as 'Brake' in the instrument cluster as it should when pulled and more importantly we can lock the vehicle with the emergency brake engaged.

The step also retracted automatically when the vehicle was driven.

Wow - I guess that's a bit of a long explanation. Maybe it will help someone else with the same symptoms, although technically I didn't find the root cause. I had planned on disconnecting the swivel alarm anyway but the parking brake - door locking problem sort of accelerated the need for the modification.

Good work. I'll take a look at mine tomorrow morning before it gets too hot. My alarm doesn't sound, which is OK, but the step doesn't retract automatically, either, which I'd rather it die.

[wincrasher]

The parts that Winnebago paints are the bumper covers and the black stripe on the sides. The paint quality on the stripe is OK for a very high gloss paint finish - I don't see any orange peel or bubbles.

The do need to work on their edging techiques though - there are imperfections in some spots where they masked the van to paint the black stripe. It's perfectly fine at 6 feet away, but if you get close you can see some spots where the edge isn't perfect (in corners, seams, etc.) Not really a big deal, but not perfection as you'd expect from the manufacturer.

The bumper covers look alittle uneven in some spots - mostly on the rears. I think this part is pretty wavey anyways, so you see that in reflections from the paint. To me, it just looks like the soft part that it is.

Overall, I'd say the Red vans have more issues with these paint issues than the Silver ones. Maybe that is just the nature of these colors and what is more visible. But in all that I looked at, I thought the red ones had more issues with the paint edging on the black than the others.

One note to Travato owner's though. On that gloss black, be sure to use a non abrasive wax, and only use soft microfiber cloths on it. With the ultra high gloss finish, it could easily show swirls and tiny scratches if you don't use the right products on it.

[Davydd]

Red is a tough color to match. I went through this at Target trying to match the Target logo RGB printer color chosen to an actual paint for a building.

I just went through it again painting my garage trying to match the classic red barn at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum. Rather than just picking a red I liked that I thought was barn red I went out with a wide range of samples checking red barns in the country side. Finally I just decided to match the Arboretum barn and discovered from weathering and sun all four sides were different. The exercise was interesting. My preconceptions were way off. BTW, never choose a color from small samples or in a paint store. Colors change under different lighting conditions drastically.

[bobojay]

Wincrasher, thanks for the reply. Our ERA has some issues with paint edging on the side mouldings also.
The bumper covers on the lower areas of them, have some spots where the surface wasn't cleaned properly before painting, so there's dirt specks under the paint.
Our dealer said the paint was contracted out by WGO and they were having a very rough time getting and keeping reliable help at that facility. An ongoing concern

[Exechobo]

Today I looked at a red 59G that had the lower panels all the way around sprayed with black truck bed liner. It looked pretty rugged. The application was decent, with a few spots where the build up at the taped edges was sloppy.

We also looked over that 59G and another 59K carefully. These were finished far more carefully than the oneswe looked at last week. There were no issues to speak of in fit and finish.

[wincrasher]

That one is a prototype show model we've posted about. The ad shows a price over $100k. I guess all these ones you see at the shows get sold off. I wouldn't want it - who knows how it was put together.

The cabinets are quite different - looks like something out of the new Brave - aluminum frames and sliding doors. They could have taken some of those and cut them down - could be why you didn't like the fit and finish compared to the production vans.

[Exechobo]

Interesting. The one whose fit and finish was not up to par was not the red show model. It was at a different dealer, different state. I didn't realize the red one has been discussed. Sorry for bringing up old news- I had thought I have read every post in all the threads on this forum relayed to Travatos! I'll go back and re- read my homework!

[Scottbaldassari]

Originally Posted by Exechobo

Today I looked at a red 59G that had the lower panels all the way around sprayed with black truck bed liner. It looked pretty rugged. The application was decent, with a few spots where the build up at the taped edges was sloppy.
.

That is really interesting to me. This was a Winnebago application? or an aftermarket thing done by an owner? I Would love to see how this looks... Do you know if it some sort of "special edition"? or an option? Did you see this at a dealer or a show? If a dealer, did you get their name?
(sorry for all the questions)

[Exechobo]

Scott, as Wincrasher points out, this unit was discussed here before, sorry I can't refer you to that discussion, I didn't read it and have no idea what terms to use to search for it specifically.
To answer you with what little I know: it was not an owner since this is a new unit I saw at Roy Robinson RV in Marysville WA. It is listed on the RV Trader web site.

[Scottbaldassari]

Originally Posted by Exechobo

I saw at Roy Robinson RV in Marysville WA. It is listed on the RV Trader web site.

I called the dealer: It was "special edition" coach with the aforementioned rhino coating and a couple other ext. options.. custom paint, a brush guard and fog lamps... wait... a brush guard? ...someone planning on driving through bushes with their new travato??
I guess that would explain the rhino coating also, to keep those bushes from scratching up your new fire engine red paint job....
The "extras" added almost $10,000 to the price tag. yikes.
..but, it does look cool.