Soliciting Forum Member Input for GDRV

[TucsonJim]

Your moderator team will be heading to Indiana in a couple of months to spend a week at the factory. We will be getting some additional technical training and getting up to date on changes that affect us all.

The last time we went, we solicited your input on topics you wanted to know about. We met with the leadership team and went over all your questions, concerns, and suggestions. We provided their responses when we returned. GDRV was very enthused with the feedback and discussion we had.

We'd like to repeat this activity when we head back in April. Please use this thread to brainstorm ideas you'd like us to discuss with GDRV. We will do our best to represent you and report back on the topics that interest you.

Jim

howson
Cate&Rob
Country Campers

[hduring]

Moderator note: copied from https://gdrvowners.com/forum/operati...-wiring-issues -Howard

We see a lot of write ups from GD customers about having to re-wire under the RV mattress because fuses are blowing. Write ups not just on this forum, but on various FB GD groups. We have to admit that this has not happened to us (fingers crossed). Some of the write ups are for older GD RVs. Made us wonder whether Grand Design knows of this issue and has addressed this in their current / future builds. If no one knows the answer, could we ask the @moderators to bring this up in the April GDRV show. TIA.

[Country Campers]

I am sure that we can add this to the list. Some time here we will have a post asking for details such as this to take with us to the factory. It was a really good list last year and Grand Desing really appreciated all the input from last year.

Brian

[Jlawles2]

Nautilus panel. Can they do something where when disconnecting things like the black drain and drips occur that it does not fill the entire lower compartment tray.
Slide out utilities. The springs do not put the utility lines in to a good place. On both sides of my unit the lines hag where any road debris or tire damage can possibly cause massive amounts of damage to the utility lines.

[Scott'n'Wendy]

My main concern involves Compass Connect. Specifically the Tire Linc accessory used with it.
The Compass Connect (CC) app is a bit glitchy, but if I can't turn a light on or off or put an awning in with it, it's not a big deal.
With tire linc connected and sync'ed up, everything appears to be fine. But travelling down the road the TPMS and CC randomly stopped communicating.... with no alert..THIS IS A BIG DEAL.
Numerous times this past camping season my wife has looked down at the phone and seen the message "Last Update 46 minutes ago" on the tire linc app. (46 being the largest number seen). Then you have to shut down the app and restart, sign in etc, or sometimes that doesn't work and you have to reboot the phone and start over. Paired with this is the alert indicator that randomly alarms once or twice an hour. The first few times we stopped and checked tires. Pressures/temps were fine. Eventually after getting dozens of fake alerts, we threw the alert indicator into the trash.
I can honestly say the Tire Linc system has caused more travelling stress than no TPMS.

Have they made any headway into making Tire Linc a reliable system integrated into the CC app?

Secondary issue. There is no way to shut down CC without going to settings and initiating a 'Force Shutdown' by the OS.

[Jlawles2]

Manuals - Digital would be nice, supplied by GD on flash drive (even downloadable per vin) along with the serial number page scanned in. Hopefully electronic files will be in folders for quick reference.
Manuals - Paper in a binder. The bag is nice, but finding a specific manual is difficult. Would be nice if there was either a bound book or accordion file of all of the manuals to make locating them much easier.

[TedS]

On the fifth wheels, increase the hitch reach to get more open tailgate clearance from the basement wall. Ten more inches would good, 12" more even better.

[TedS]

Build in an EMS. With the trend to installing more electronic stuff, add the protection.

[TedS]

Put a full shut off valve in the shower in place of the 'dribble' valve so you don't get a cold water surge after interrupting the shower flow to lather up.(navy shower to conserve water). The dribble idea doesn't work.

[Jkwilson]

Something we see over and over are new owners who don’t understand how the systems and equipment in the rig works. Obviously partly a dealer issue, but for non-technical people the dump of information at trailer delivery is going to be too much, then you are on your own. Not to mention that the people doing the explanation at the dealer may have never actually used the equipment.

Just off the top of my head, I’ve seen people ask why their outlets don’t work when they aren’t plugged in to shore power. People who can’t find the breaker box, which is often hidden. People who don’t know how to manage waste tanks, how many there are or where the valves are. People who don’t inspect their roof or have it inspected. People checking fuses in the panel when the TV and microwave don’t power on. People who can’t find the dump valve for the fresh water tank.

I think it would improve the ownership experience greatly if there was a book or even video that walked people through operation in a simple way. I wrote a one page answer to someone who got in touch with me on FB explaining the two electrical systems, the difference between 30A and 50A, what an inverter is and what a converter is and they acted like I had lifted a veil on some deep dark secret. They had been using their rig for a year!

I used to have to write and critique technical test documents, and I can tell you the provided documentation for the trailers, appliances and systems is just not clear unless you already understand it. Even if you already understand it it’s not always clear. If someone outside GD wrote an ebook for new owners, it would do wonders for the ownership experience for newbies. I entertained the idea of doing it myself to sell, (Think “New Owners’ Guide to the Grand Design Imagine 22MLE”) but without at least some access to every model and a source for change information, I could never get enough detail or keep up with production changes.

[Scott'n'Wendy]

Ten more inches would good, 12" more even better.

If I had a dollar for every time I heard that........

[Jimmer]

How about using a reasonable hose for the hot water lines that is the right size?

I've seen a number of posts on this forum about people having leaking or bulging hot water hoses. I get that cost is an issue and Grand Design doesn't want to use PEX lines. No problem at all. The cold water soft hoses don't seem to have this problem and look to be the right size. The hot water lines might be oversized for the fittings or just really poorly made. Maybe they are the right size, and are just expanding due to the hot water passing through them.

While I still have 6 weeks left in my one year warranty, one of my hot water lines was leaking at a clamp. I called Grand Design and they said put on a new/tighter clamp. I know that some people have replaced their soft hoses and I believe this is something that will become mandatory for anyone that uses their 1+ year old RV on a regular basis, especially for the hot water lines. The leaking hose in the picture is hidden behind the nautilus panel. If it weren't for the kink in the intake hose to my water pump which was greatly constricting the throughput of the water pump, I never would have explored what was behind the Nautilus panel, and never would have seen the leak. Thus, something good came out of the bad install of the water pump.

Come on Grand Design, you can do better than using the wrong size hose and/or hose which doesn't even last a year.

[hduring]

This may be a farfetched request, but could GD consider constructing a battery shutoff switch right next to the battery as part of the build. The one in the basement does not shut everything off. A lot of you have built your own but we don’t trust ourselves to do something like this. We for now just remove the battery from the RV or the negative cable.

[TedS]

How about using a reasonable hose for the hot water lines that is the right size?

I've seen a number of posts on this forum about people having leaking or bulging hot water hoses. I get that cost is an issue and Grand Design doesn't want to use PEX lines. No problem at all. The cold water soft hoses don't seem to have this problem and look to be the right size. The hot water lines might be oversized for the fittings or just really poorly made. Maybe they are the right size, and are just expanding due to the hot water passing through them.

While I still have 6 weeks left in my one year warranty, one of my hot water lines was leaking at a clamp. I called Grand Design and they said put on a new/tighter clamp. I know that some people have replaced their soft hoses and I believe this is something that will become mandatory for anyone that uses their 1+ year old RV on a regular basis, especially for the hot water lines. The leaking hose in the picture is hidden behind the nautilus panel. If it weren't for the kink in the intake hose to my water pump which was greatly constricting the throughput of the water pump, I never would have explored what was behind the Nautilus panel, and never would have seen the leak. Thus, something good came out of the bad install of the water pump.

Come on Grand Design, you can do better than using the wrong size hose and/or hose which doesn't even last a year.

At least use hose with a pressure rating higher than 80psi.

[Jkwilson]

This may be a farfetched request, but could GD consider constructing a battery shutoff switch right next to the battery as part of the build. The one in the basement does not shut everything off. A lot of you have built your own but we don’t trust ourselves to do something like this. We for now just remove the battery from the RV or the negative cable.

I understand why you want it, but liability concerns would probably prevent them from building it this way. If someone were to be overcome by gas or injured or killed in a fire while the gas detector was disabled the lawyers would have a field day.

[Jlawles2]

How about a battery box with some type of clasp vs screws for the lid? May have to get something "custom" made by B&B moulders, but it would rock the RV world and with volume become reasonably priced.