WINNEBAGO Complaints

My Van is a Winnebago Revel and I received a Winnebago recall # 24V-318. Called Meyers RV of SYR, last week and was told to bring in vehicle. Today I called Meyers to confirm that I'd bring in on 12/18/24. Rachel and service manager at Meyers now tells me it is a Mercedes Sprinter repair. MB denies it, and after going back and forth 3 times I call Winnebago National Service. National service rep Lonnie states it is Winnebago recall and to look up technical bulletin. Meyers still refuses and I go back to Winnebago national. National states district manager will contact the Meyers office, I call Albany Meyers and they agree it's a Winnebago issue, not Mercedes. Recall states to contact NHSTA and Winnebago National agrees Eventually I call another Winnebago dealership, and no problem they will inspect. WGO of SYR texts me back that they are not refusing, but now are not accepting new customers. After 4 hrs, Winnego National, says to just go with other Winnebago dealership.

The vehicle is a 2021 Ford Transit with a 2022 Winnebago Ekko RV. The incident occurred when I started the engine and noticed an unusual high pitch whine. When I opened the hood the Balmar unit was extremely hot with a strong burning smell. Since the Ekko models have had numerous reports of secondary alternator / Balmar malfunctions I knew enough to disable the alternator by unplugging the 4 pin connector on the Balmar 618 regulator before traveling any further. The following morning I plugged the Balmar unit back in place to see if the high pitch sound reoccurred. The sound immediately returned and I used my infrared thermometer which read 438 degrees Fahrenheit on the Balmar alternator. The Lithionics battery app indicated the batteries were 90 percent full but would no longer charge, leaving me only shore power to recharge the batteries. There is a NHTSA Safety Recall 23V-234, Campaign # 174 Ekko 12V Charging System, sent out by Winnebago for this very safety issue due to fires. We had this recall completed at the Forest City Iowa Winnebago factory in April of 2024. There have been numerous failures on Balmar units that have had the campaign #174 recall completed, including ones performed at the factory. The Winnebago fix is obviously not working and is still an extreme fire issue.

The contact owns a 2023 Winnebago Ekko RV built on a 2022 Ford Transit Chassis. The contact stated that the RV blind spot monitoring system had become inoperable. The contact stated that the red light on the passenger's side and the driver's side of the windshield had failed to illuminate, and the alarm failed to sound while there was another vehicle in the blind spot. The RV was taken to an RV dealer, where the blind spot monitoring system was replaced; however, the failure recurred approximately 3 months later. The RV was taken to a second dealer, Lichtsinn RV (505 IA-9 East, Forest City, IA 50436), where it was diagnosed that the exterior modules of the blind spot monitoring system were susceptible to water damage, which caused the interior of the modules to become wet and to fail. The dealer determined that the modules needed to be replaced. The RV was then taken to the first dealer, where the parts were replaced; however, the failure persisted. The RV was not repaired. The manufacturer was initially notified of the failure but had become unreachable. The failure mileage was approximately 3,000.

SUDDEN LOUD WHINE VARYING WITH ENGINE SPEED, COMING FROM ENGINE COMPARTMENT, TRACED TO SECONDARY BALMAR ALTERNATOR. ALTERNATOR WAS EXTREMELY HOT, WE SHUT ENGINE OFF AND ELECTRICALLY DISCONNECTED ALTERNATOR. WE KNEW TO DO THIS BECAUSE OTHERS HAVE POSTED THIS INFORMATION, SOME HAVE CAUGHT FIRE. THIS WAS CLOSE TO COMBUSTING AS WELL. NO NOISE IS PRESENT WHEN ELECTRICALLY DISCONNECTED, BUT NOISE RESUMES IF CONNECTED AND LOAD PLACED ON ALTERNATOR. THIS WAS THE SUBJECT OF WINNEBAGO PRIOR RECALL 174 (WHICH WAS PERFORMED IN 2024). WE BELIEVE IT IS UNSAFE TO OPERATE THE VEHICLE WITH THIS ALTERNATOR CONNECTED, THAT IT WILL RESULT IN AN ENGINE COMPARTMENT FIRE.

This is a 2024 Winnebago EKKO (drivable RV). It has a second alternator (manufactured by BALMAR) for charging the house (RV) battery(s). On July 26th of this year (2024) our BALMAR alternator started to make a high pitched noise and failed to correctly charge the house battery. When I did some diagnostic work I noticed it was overheating. This issue has been reported numerous times so I knew what to do. I immediately unplugged the BALMAR device (disconnected the 4-wire connection to the BALMAR control center located next to our battery compartment) and scheduled an in-warranty service appointment with Winnebago in their Forest City, Iowa service center. On Sept 10th (2024) we had our Winnebago service appointment where they removed the BALMAR alternator (located under the Ford engine) and informed us it was cracked (like many others they had seen). It was replaced under Winnebago Warranty. They were great and we thank them for their help!

The Winnebago factory installed secondary alternator (manufactured by Balmar) responsible for charging the batteries in my motorhome started to whine and overheat. Luckily the week prior, I had read about another EKKO owner experiencing the same symptoms before it created enough smoke that caused the driver to immediately pull off the road and extinguish the engine bay with a fire extinguisher. In an effort to avoid that, I disconnected the Balmer until it was able to be replaced. This original problem was supposed to be addressed in recall 174. Over a year later the recall supposedly addressed the issues by moving the regulator out of the engine bay, replacing the Balmer and a major reworking of the electrical system. After multiple components failed during the recall repair, my EKKO took over 6 weeks to get a working solution at a Winnebago dealership. That was a year ago. 10 days ago the same symptoms of whining and overheating returned resulting in me returning to the same dealer with them diagnosing the Balmer as defective and a health risk. Had I not disconnected the Balmer it would’ve overheated and resulted in melting the primary drive belt and potentially damaging the engine and other major components as documented by numerous other EKKO owners.

TIRE BLOW OUT AND TREAD SEPERATION AT 70 MPH. 35000 MILES. STARTLING EXPLOSION HARD TO CONTROL BUT MANAGED TO SLOW AND PULL OFF ROAD. HAS HAPPENED TO MANY EKKO OWNERS. NO WARNINGS, TIRES INSPECTED BEFORE TRIP WITH NO INDICATION OF ABNORMALITIES. $1400 IN DAMAGES TO VEHICLE FRONT END.

I have a 2024 Ram Promaster Travato/Winnebago Class B 4 mo. ago I noticed the sliding door window on the right side of the vehicle fell on me as I was walking by the Van. I taped it on with tape and drove to Meyers Syracuse, NY location 730 Interstate Island. May 17th 2024 315-413-0401. They supposedly fixed it. Today I noticed I couldn't close that same window and there was a big gap under the window that's supposed to fit in the intended groove. I am so afraid if that window fell of while driving it could cause serious injury possible death. Thank goodness I check the windows

The A/C on our 24E/24T EKKO stopped working today, October 13, on old Route 66 in Oklahoma. The ICM870-16A-BH5400 easy start circuit board was fried. A portion of the circuit board had melted and the brown wire was loose and the connector melted. The ICM cover fell loose when I removed the GE A/C cover. See the attached photos. The ICM870-16A-BH5400 is included in GE Kit GEASST-1. The BH5400 suffix is unique to the GE sourced easy start. This may not be important, but upon inspection, using ICM680 installation instructions on-line (see attached), I noticed that the red and white/blue wires from the ICM controller were switched on the run capacitor H and C terminals. I assumed that the wire colors shown on the installation wiring diagrams are the same for all ICM680 controllers and all applications. If the installations are the same for all ICM680 controllers, then the red wire from the ICM controller is to be connected to the run capacitor on the C post. On our unit, the red wire is connected to the run capacitor H post and the white wire is connected to the C capacitor post. The wiring diagram on the blackened ICM cover, shows the red wire attached to the capacitor H post (also attached to the motor S post) and the white wire to the C post. As a reference, I am attaching the ICM680 installation instruction wiring diagrams found on web as well as written instructions. I could NOT find a wiring diagram like what is shown on our blackened ICM cover with the red wire attached to the H post. The QR Code for online installations on our blackened ICM680 cover resulted in a 404 Not Found notice. I called ICM technical service but could not leave a message as the voice mailbox was full. No serial number could be found on the ICM box. See the attached photos of the fried controller and the ISM wires attached to the run capacitor with the red and white wires reversed from what is shown on the wiring diagrams.

The plexiglass window on our house door for the Winnebago became dislodged while driving. According to other owners this is a widespread problem and Wimmebago is not recalling this part or offering to fix it.