My Experience!

Hi All,

New to this group, partner Pat and I have a 2005 van/06 Leisure Travel Van Conversion purchased new in Dec. 05 and am very happy with it. Our experience: After several short shakedown overnights with no problems we took a 32 night 8000 mile trip out to the Colorado Plateau - New Mexico, Colorado, Arizona and Utah, and back to Saratoga Springs, NY - no Sprinter problems whatsoever, excellent fuel - 23-24 mpg. After 2,000 miles changed oil to Mobil 1 synthetic and after 10,000 more, changed again. Excellent running in every respect, up and down some awesome hills and rough roads. On our trip a few minor glitches - the Onan generator quit at 23 hours, would have needed to wait at least two days in Utah for a fix, so we used our inverter for most small things and waited until we got home, took it to Cummins, who removed the unit, discovered a cross threaded inlet, now repaired and with oil changed, seems to work fine. The Initial TV tuner quit a week into the trip and when we returned home I contacted the company but they were very poor in their warranty/communication response, I actually complained to the CA BBB. So I contacted Wally at Leisure and he quickly sent me a new plug-in tuner and the unit now works fine. I'm told that Leisure will switch to Sony for their TV product - a good choice. The water heater works fine, however after 40 times heating on LP I'm seeing a slight heat caused deformation of the bottom of the plastic refrigerator vent on the outside of the van - just above the water heater. Nothing to change yet, but I'm watchful of it. The sliding door has a plastic retainer for the window screens which popped out part way during the trip. We actually saw the same problem on another Leisure Travel Van at Carlsbad Caverns, where, by luck and fun, three LTV units were parked when we were there. Fixed the plastic retainer with - you guessed it - black duct tape. The latch on the refrigerator broke and we replaced that through warranty at Camping World, The door required a spacer to raise it slightly. We were able to keep the door shut on the trip by inserting a small nail into the top right side hinge hole. Minor problems now fixed. Now several trips later with no problems - I love this bucket of bolts, the best purchase I have made.

Nice to hear , I have the same thing.
My water heater cover has a small deflector at top by refrigertor vent. just wondering if yours has the deflector.
Oh the generator will power air for 21.3 hours on the 8.3 gallons of propane we carry, found that out at Oshkosh Air show parked in a field for 3 days. Also check the wire connections on 50 amp breaker at convertor. I lost all 12 volt power, the nut was just half a turn loose but that was it. I have heard from others of same thing.
Wally is a great guy and even nicer in person. At the rally this year the hot item was a inner spare tire cover. When tire is lower it makes a great table for cocktails or a place to put the grill. Oh they also had a spring loaded lift for spare tire.
23000 miles and happy ,leaving the 1st for another 6000 out west ,will end up at Albuquerque Ballon Fiesta.
Gary O

Howdy Dennis & Gary -

As I've heard others say it sounds like you both really enjoy your LTV's. I'm hoping to track a running count of RV ownership by brand (http://www.sprinter-forum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=93) but I only see one LTV listed!

Show your pride and let us know how many LTV owners are on Sprinter-Forum.com!

Zach

I read your experience on the Free Spirit Yahoo! group and it's great to see that you have also found this forum.

I'm enthusiastic about this forum as a place for all Sprinter owners to share information.

I do not like the way the slider door trim springs loose either. I had been told that they now put 6 small black screws in place to hold it. I believe Bill told me that at LTV. However, I do not know if he means through where the velcro is? Bill said they were all made that way now, but we just saw the latest LTV's at the Portland RV show and they were not that way yet.

On a recent trip to the Northern California coast we were unable to make the rear sofa lower electrically. When we pushed the rocker switch there was just a "clunk".

We looked in the Free Spirit owners' manual and saw the directions about how to deal with a failure in the sofa. The directions were helpful but incomplete.

At any rate, it took quite a bit of effort to remove the so-called "cotter pins" and that was partly because they are like nothing we've ever experienced. When the pins were removed it was not difficult to undue the power shaft from it's receptacle or to pull the pins that allowed the drive mechanism to fall. Then it was simple to lower the sofa. We just used it flat for the rest of our trip.

After we returned I dropped the electric motor and removed the drive shaft from one end. I saw then that there was no problem with the motor. I progressed to re-assembly of the entire mechanism and tested it as I went along. The cotter pins were again the major problem (although it was not the simplest task to drop the motor or put it back up). When it was all assembled it worked. Once again, if you take something apart and put it back together, you have fixed the problem; all it takes is a couple of hours and some cursing.

I discovered that if the sofa in our van was raised to the extreme seat position, that it too would jam if left in that position. However it would then sometimes clunk loose as if moving from that jam, when the rocker switch was operated. The left side driveshaft nut seemed to jam, so I loosened it as much as possible without having it come off. The unit now clunks only lightly and never jams. I always make sure that the sofa is not in its extreme up position. One dumb thing I did was when setting up the sofa as a bed one evening, I had installed the table top and other bed piece but kept my hand on the rocker switch while the sofa came down. Too much momentary pressure on the rocker switch and I broke the plastic toggle. I called Leisure and they sent a new switch ($15) and I was able to just replace the plastic toggle on the original switch. Whew! Replacing the entire switch would have been a job.

Hi Dennis and Bill it has a lot to do with those limit travel nuts. I was at the LTV Rally and heard about this happening so I asked Gerald about removing those cotter pins, which is pretty hard. He ajusted the nuts out and said I should never have a problem. Oh I never put the little filler piece in that way I slide the main piece back an inch from the sofa switch.

Good information, Denis & What Next. Get those nuts a little on the loose side.

I take out the solid 1/4" pins with the "C" wire clamp holding the right angle drive mechanizms and replace them with heavy electic wire with it's insulation still on and haven't had the jam any more. As soon as you disconnect the "C" wire clamp and pull the 1/4" pins the jam frees itself. The electrical wire I used in place of the 1/4" pins isn't quite that large a diameter and leaves it all flexible so it won't jam.
Jim