Owners' Manuals

[nicholsong]

It is quite apparent from some of the questions asked on this and other forums that many MHs are bought without receiving an Owners' User Manual, otherwise the answers to the questions would be in there.

We are fortunate to have a very good N&B Manual and FIAT manual for our Arto 69GL (2003) in excellent English, plus all the manuals for ancillary systems and equipment, even though we are the 4th owner.

It seems to me that many buyers are not aware of the need to have these manuals, especially if something goes wrong up a mountain.

If buying, whether new or S/H I think all buyers should make supply of the manual(s) part of the contract, so that if the manuals are not in seller's possession then it is on the seller's head to find and supply relevant copies, in the language specified.

For Jim, The Motorhome Buyer's Guide at para 85 does refer to the pre-purchase checks and there at para 43 at the bottom of 'documents' it does refer loosely to such documents, but not specifically to Owners' Manuals and other manuals for all equipment. I think this could be more specific and emphasise my points above.

I hope this helps.

Geoff

 

[G-RMPS]

I have the opposite problem. 4kg of manuals - I cannot spare the weight. I’ve got JPEG files of the ones I can find, and digital photos of the rest.

 

[Coolcats]

I have the opposite problem. 4kg of manuals - I cannot spare the weight. I’ve got JPEG files of the ones I can find, and digital photos of the rest.

Agreed most manuals can be found in the internet if you don’t have them to hand.

 

[Langtoftlad]

My WildAx came with a whole satchel of manuals - trouble is, they're often incomprehensible.

 

[nicholsong]

Agreed most manuals can be found in the internet if you don’t have them to hand.

Most but not all. I think there are many MHs of e.g. our age (2003) or older where the manufacturers have not bothered to translate the manual edition onto internet availability.

I think it should be incumbent on the seller to establish whether a manual is available on-line or to supply a hard copy.

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[ManTheVan]

Most but not all. I think there are many MHs of e.g. our age (2003) or older where the manufacturers have not bothered to translate the manual edition onto internet availability.

I think it should be incumbent on the seller to establish whether a manual is available on-line or to supply a hard copy.

That’s certainly the case for Rapido. The manuals are only available from the parent company in France.

 

[Coolcats]

Most but not all. I think there are many MHs of e.g. our age (2003) or older where the manufacturers have not bothered to translate the manual edition onto internet availability.

I think it should be incumbent on the seller to establish whether a manual is available on-line or to supply a hard copy.

Probably the best thing to do is contact the manufacturer they may have a manual but if something is 20 years old it could be considered unserviceable (vintage component) I do not mean the vehicle but other components such as a control unit the first iteration could have been 1990 and end of production 2000 so by 2010 it is end of support life. And by now it’s a museum piece. Harsh but that’s product life span.

 

[Reallyretired]

My last couple of motorhomes have come with a huge pile of manuals. Not always helpful, my Rapido manual showed a picture of the boiler dump valve but provided no information on where it was hidden, took me ages to find it. The present Hymer manuals are better but somewhat generic for the multitude of layouts and some of the ancillary manuals are in German.

 

[peterc10]

Our Hymer came with a printed manual for the habitation side with over 200 A4 sized pages. And a very thick Fiat manual.

It addition it came with separate instructions or manuals for the various main fittings such as Alde heating, Dometic Techtower, Thetford toilet, Schaudt EBL, awning, etc.

All of this was in a large plastic folder. I also keep in this the instructions for all the additional fixtures and fittings that have been fitted such as alarm, hydraulic Jack's, solar controller, mifi, refillable gas bottles etc

 

[Coolcats]

Same here our Hymer came with a lot of manuals including a 'Core' Hymer Car owners manual which covers the range. but also all the manufacturers stuff and warranties came with it its all stored away in a concertina folder, even have the box for the Zenec media unit. its nice to see a manufacturer do this but I wonder how many dealers remember to pass these packs on to new owners.

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[ManTheVan]

The manual that came with our Rapido was in Finnish! The dealer had no record of any other manual but I contacted Rapido in France, who were extremely helpful.

I‘ve since tried, unsuccessfully, to find someone who might like the Finnish version, but it seems that there must be few Rapido owners in Finland who are missing a copy of the manual for that particular model!