Foretravel Owners' Forum For owners and Fans of Foretravel Motorcoaches September 14, 2025 ...

Our maiden voyage

October 10, 2011, 11:45:59 am

DW & I bought our new to us 97 U320 Foretravel from Jimmie Sowell. We picked it up in Paradise CA from Jimmie on Aug 9. We bought this coach sight unseen from Jimmie. When we arrived we found the coach to be everything Jimmie had told us it would be. Jimmie spent from 9:00 in the morning until 6:00 in the evening coaching us (pun) on all of the aspects of the coach, what a learning curve that was. But I must give alot of thanks & respect to Jimmie for the training & patience he gave us. We left him & headed on our way, making 20 miles to Chico & the first nights camping at the first Walmart we came to. Jimmie had shown us where it was! $890.00 later we had the coach stocked. The next day we left Chico after a call to Jimmie to ask why we did not have any 12 volt power, one of us had inadvertently hit the stairwell switch, with Jimmies excellent over the phone trouble shooting we were on our way. You must realize also that we are from the middle of the Canadian prairies & had said we did not want to do any major mountainous highways until we got comfortable with the coach. What Jimmie had forgot to tell us was that he lived in a mountainous area so to even get the coach out of his yard I had to have him back it out around & up to the top of the hill. We headed off the next morning after Jimmies help & we had a great trip through Reno to Elko Nevada (mountains do not pose a problem in this coach) for our 2nd nights stay at a Walmart $180.00 later we had our coach now stocked.

This day we drove up through Jackpot Nevada, Pocatella to Butte Montana, great drive, one small conversation with Jimmie, all OK. Stayed at the Walmart camp site in Butte. $192.00 later we had or coach stocked. left Butte & drove to Glasgow Montana that day, stayed at a nice camp ground that night as we found staying at Walmarts to be very expensive.

Now to the technical problems. I tried to level the coach once I had it parked, no go. All of the lights came on in the controller everytime I pushed the level button. Checked everything I could think of, read all instruction manuals, checked all fuses I could find including the resetable beakers in the basement, NO LUCK, three hours later, I am beat. Thought I should look under the dash lid just to see what the back of the controller looked like. When I opened the dash I can see the flat wire & plug where it plugs into the controller, touch it & it falls off, plug it in properly & coach is levelled in seconds! EUREKA!!! Emptied the Grey & Black water tanks, filled with fresh water. Did not even splash myself & did it in the right sequence.

The next morning we found we did not have any water pressure! Again I checked everything I could think of but could not seem to get power to the water pump. I did not have a test light with me so could not be sure if I had power or where I had power. Oh well we left Glasgow to Wolf Point where we headed North up through Scobey Montana to our home in Moose Jaw Saskatchewan. When going through Wolf Point I noticed a NAPA store that was open so stopped & bought a test light, now we are sure the coach is stocked. We stopped on the road to have lunch & while DW was making it I decided to check out our water system. After alot of testing what I found was that the night before when I could not level the coach I had pushed all of the resetable breakers in the storage bay. Five of these breakers had not reset therefore I did not have power on the other side of the beaker. I pushed the little buttons several times but they would not reset. It turns out that the rubber cover over the reset buttons has gotton old enough that it will not allow the small button to come back out therefore not allowing the breaker to reset. I stuck the point of the tester into the rubber & pry-ed it out & the breakers were reset. Eureka!!!

Rest of the trip went fine. I parked the coach at home & we have not used it since other than for a few trips into town to have it inspected, filled with fuel & cleaned. Levelled & door locks all working fine every time. This past Friday we were making our first short trip of six hours out to Lethbridge Alberta to our nieces wedding. When we got there I could not level the coach no matter what I did, made worse because everyone was watching me work with this wonderful coach, me as proud as a Peacock, that is until I could not level the coach, & oh yes the remote locking fob would not lock the doors, oh well I will deal with this when I have time. Later in the day I had some time so started to troubleshoot the problems. I got down to reading the manual as I could find nothing wrong. Second or third line down in the instructions it said to push the levelling button twice, oh my God, EUREKA!!!! Coach levelled in seconds. When I got out of the coach I thought I would try the remote door locks pushed the first button & nothing would work oh well will work on it later, but wait there is another button, pushed it & EUREKA!!!!!

We absolutely love our Foretravel, Jimmies training was excellent, my memory is not. As is human nature, when something goes wrong we think the worst but as I have said this coach is smarter than I am & very forgiving of my short comings.

Waiting for our next excursion.

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Re: Our maiden voyage

Reply #1 – October 10, 2011, 11:58:08 am

Welcome mcmogo.  Wow, does that story sound familiar....and I bet to a bunch of us...Great write up..thanks for sharing.

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Re: Our maiden voyage

Reply #2 – October 10, 2011, 12:00:48 pm

Great post. I got several laughs because your trials struck home on several levels. We all have had similar challenges. That's part of the fun. When you solve something you get a real feeling of accomplishment. 

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Re: Our maiden voyage

Reply #3 – October 10, 2011, 12:34:37 pm

If you think camping at Walmart is expensive try camping at the Foretravel campground!

Welcome to the Foretravel club and congrats on the new (to you) coach.

see ya
ken

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Re: Our maiden voyage

Reply #4 – October 10, 2011, 01:00:40 pm

Satisfaction in life is not the big paychecks, promotions, etc. but the little triumphs, mystery's solved. Nothing like the couple of sentences in the above post:

 "Five of these breakers had not reset therefore I did not have power on the other side of the beaker. I pushed the little buttons several times but they would not reset. It turns out that the rubber cover over the reset buttons has gotton old enough that it will not allow the small button to come back out therefore not allowing the breaker to reset. I stuck the point of the tester into the rubber & pry-ed it out & the breakers were reset. Eureka!!!"

Easy to pull out your credit card, much more satisfying to figure it out yourself.

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Re: Our maiden voyage

Reply #5 – October 10, 2011, 01:02:39 pm

Howdy mcmojo,

Great post!!!  Found myself LOL several times!!!!  Sounds very famiiar to our first trip in our Foretravel..Welcome to the foreformns...Can't wait to see your next post!!
Good Luck,  Dave Abel

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Re: Our maiden voyage

Reply #6 – October 10, 2011, 01:10:32 pm

Mcmogo, Your post  just proves the point.... When all else fails read the instructions..... and then.. check with the forum .... and then call the former owner.... and then fix a cold one and go to bed, everything will be working in the morning.. I think. 
Welcome aboard.
Gary B

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Re: Our maiden voyage

Reply #7 – October 10, 2011, 01:39:00 pm

mcmogo,

We bought our U300 by phone and some photos. Very happy and had a great trip across the US.

Might want to go to your profile and include engine model, etc. Members can contact with questions or if you have a problem it makes it easier to figure out what the best solution might be.

Keep those posts coming in!

Congrats again,

Pierce & Gaylie

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Re: Our maiden voyage

Reply #8 – October 10, 2011, 01:50:38 pm

Also, took me about six months to find out where all the light switches were and being super ADHD, never read the manual about leveling. Pushed the button once but found ourselves rolling to one side during the first night. Punching buttons the next day found it hissing like a snake but leveling the coach. Fine after that. I still hit the generator start while trying to find the light switch in the middle of the night.

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Re: Our maiden voyage

Reply #9 – October 10, 2011, 03:46:28 pm

Nice job!  We get to meet George & Sandy tomorrow to buy our also "sight unseen" RV, Moose   Not my 1st RV, and can relate to the problems, but all said and done, we found that our biggest dilemma was trying to figure WHERE we wanted to stay next - and how to get there.
One thing about Rving... ya never know what the day will hold for you. HA!

We have a bedroom full of "stuff" waiting to get relocated to the Moose as well. 

Cheers!

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Re: Our maiden voyage

Reply #10 – October 10, 2011, 04:03:56 pm

Mcmojo,
Welcome to the Foreforums and Foretravel ownership.  Indeed all your learning so far is par for the course at the beginning.  Then, you gradualte to preventing those things that work today from not working tomorrow, if you know what I mean.  Then, you graduate to breakdowns for no good reason other than use and time...those you just gotta hate when you know the're gonna happen but there's nothing you can do about it 'cause you don't know what you don't know...
 
Good luck with your new coach, and keep posting!

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Re: Our maiden voyage

Reply #11 – October 10, 2011, 04:39:11 pm

Peter,

Is that a Selmer in your photo?

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Re: Our maiden voyage

Reply #12 – October 10, 2011, 05:18:00 pm

I think Peter is in the finance industry so it must be a Conn. Only Joking Peter. I just couldn't resist.

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Re: Our maiden voyage

Reply #13 – October 10, 2011, 07:38:10 pm

Loved your story, Mcmojo!!  You are SO the right fit for this group!!  Hope we see you down the road some day!

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Re: Our maiden voyage

Reply #14 – October 18, 2011, 12:49:42 am

Mcmogog
Welcome to the forum.  I know that coach and the Sowells.  You got a great coach.  We were at Foretravel when he had it repainted. I hope you enjoy it as much as they did.  I spent a lot of time reading the manual, and searching the forum our first year.  Laughed at your write-up.

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