We are fixing up our Forest River, Sunseeker Class C. Is it broken? You ask. Well sort of. Isn’t it new? you ask…. Well yes it is. Doesn’t Forest River make a quality product? Says so in their glossies. Nope. Its been broken since the day it was put together. No it was broken the day some Forest River designer/planner finished the specifications.
Our dash radio sucked. It was a new Pioneer unit. Probably a model that Pioneer couldn’t move off the shelves and Forest River got a good price on. Besides having a clunky interface – it had an annoying habit of connecting to my wife’s phone and playing music any time the van was started. She wanted Bluetooth to work for phone calls but didn’t want the music starting up at in-opportune times.
The radio was also set up to be the Rear Camera and Turn Camera monitor. The rear view mirror on a class C is useless for seeing what is behind – so having a full time rear view camera is useful and an important safety tool. So we had the radio configured to show the camera full time. When we hit a turn signal – the view switched to the side camera. Those cameras by the way were junk. But that part worked. When the turn signal went off though, the video would switch back to the rear camera for 1/2 a second, then switch to the radio primary view for 5 seconds, then most of the time, switch to the rear view again. When it didn’t switch back, a manual walk through the menues was required to bring it back.
Also when in rear view mode, no radio functions, including the clock were visible – and if you wanted to go wade through stations – there was no rear view.
Oh, and the sound quality sucked. That was in part at least, the cheap speakers Ford or Forest River installed.
So, we bought a new radio and XMradio receiver and speakers and tore the dash apart. While we were there, we installed a compass, outside temp gauge, and additional cigarette lighter port and USB charger. And a CB radio(down on the engine bump).
In order to access wiring, I needed to pull the plastic panel under the steering wheel in front of the driver’s knees. It is held in with four clips – two on top, two on bottom. I noticed the two clips on the bottom were NOT plugged into their spots. When I pulled the panel down this is what I found. Crimp on
connectors going to crimp on connectors going to fuses going to wires that ran everywhere. What this picture doesn’t show is the wire coiled up and shoved up into the dash and the video switcher also up higher under the dash. The reason the panel wasn’t clipped in was that there was too much wire and crimp connectors in the way.
So I tried working with this mess, but eventually decided to just fix it up right. All power was being drawn from a 8 or 10 gauge wire run to that spot by Ford that went to a 50 AMP fuse up in the main fuse box. Yes, 50 amp. So some circuits that were connected in had their own fuses, as they should. Some didn’t. When you run a 16 gauge or even smaller away from a wire that big on a fuse that big, you HAVE to put in a fuse because that small wire may not be able to blow the 50 amp fuse if shorted to ground and thus would turn into a really long toaster element.
I purchased a 6 slot fuse panel and ran everything through it. All wires were soldered and shrink tubed. connection ends were crimped and soldered and screwed into the fuse panel.
But I wasn’t done. I needed to run the CB antenna coax out through the wire path from the driver kick panel 
through the door and out by the mirror as we were mounting the antenna behind the left rear view mirror. To get access to that path, I needed to remove the cover for the hood release – and to remove that, I needed to pull up the cover on the driver side entry step. The first thing I noticed was it was loose – and it came up way too easy. The picture to the left is what I found. A bunch of loose wire with zero attempt to corral it into the channels so it wouldn’t be crushed between the step and metal frame. I cleaned it up, and wire tied into the channels. The image on the right shows the rear view camera wire crushed in two places and somehow, part of the insulation burned off in a third. Oh, and the step normally has 5 clips holding it in place – three of them were broken off. It took me only a few minutes to clean up the wiring and restrain it into the channels with a few tie-wraps. And just a little care and the step clips wouldn’t have been broken. The step needs to be repaired or replaced as it flaps loose and rides up higher than it is supposed to be – meaning someone could catch a shoe on it, getting into the van. I also ran video for the rear view and power up the left side to the rear view mirror area, where I put the Rear Videw Monitor as well as the Dashcam.
Moving on. Forest River decided that the left side of the main bed didn’t need any power. No A/C, No 12V DC. Nothing. For the first trip, I ran two extension cords from the right side of the bed behind the mattress. So, I stand the mattress up and take the screws off the two pieces of plywood covering the bed box. Because the bed box is part of the slide – there were a number of arrangements under there to handle water, grey sewer and power. So the first thing I noticed was – there as NO reason not to have run power to the left side. Right there is a 120 V A/C junction box less than three feet away. Also – the white wires are DC power runs to various parts of the slide, including the 12 V and USB ports on the bed’s right side. Easy, Peasey, right?
So, I get an electrical box, GFCI plug, DC cigarette lighter and USB charger port and install them into the space below the left bed shelf. It’s not all that convenient, but it works and is out of the way. Its not that I need to plug and unplug stuff all that often. I ran the AC line over to the junction box attached to the slide, added a cable clamp and used proper sized wire nuts to add the connection into the existing wire.
I also used some nail-in clamps to lock down the wire. Half done. 
I created a DC line to run over and connect into the DC wires going to the slide. When I started separating the wires – A CRIMP FELL OFF!!! sigh…. Over and over again, I find these crimps either LOOSE – or when the wires are shoved in – they aren’t properly twisted so half or more of the wire strands bunch up at the bottom of the crimp and never get crimped. Yes, it makes connection but also creates a resistive spot – that will heat up first if there is a heavy load on that line.
I get the impression from examining the outside of the crimps – that they are using regular pliers to do their 
crimps. If they were using your average electrical crimpers, there would be marks. The outside just shows a flattened crimp, nothing more. I found THREE loose connectors in the wires under the bed. Other things I found while I was down there? The AC lines are in a flex conduit – which is supposed to reach all the way into the junction box. That line came up out of the floor – couldn’t bre moved so I could only tape it up.
Where grey waste pipe exited through the floor – only two thirds of the gap around the pipe was sealed with foam. I grabbed a can of foam spray and sealed it up proper. A quick test of AC and DC ports, some tie-wraps 
to neaten things up and one last task. The under bed storage – a piece of plywood on a hinge cover the storage. The problem is to open it, one has to lift the mattress with one hand, then try to wedge your finger tips under the edge of the plywood to pry it up. Then stand there while someone else actually accesses the storage area. Its a real pain. Mod 1, was to take some nylon webbing and screw a couple of loops into the underside of the plywood. This at least will make it easier to get a hold of the wood. Mod 2 will be to install a couple of spring pistons to help hold the plywood up once it is open. I have a pair but ran out of time to get them installed.
This crimp thing seems to be systematic. The odd thing is the AC connections were well made. Perhaps they have to have someone different do AC circuits and DC circuits can be done by whomever walks in the door. Now I feel like I need to pull the power panel and most every other cover hiding connections and check them for loose crimps.
Way to go Forest River. Poor quality as usual. Next up – the trim over the front cab bunk is coming loose.
