katanapilot

I’m curious if the never lube axles have high quality (US or Japan made) bearings or if they are “blessed” with Chinese bearings. While I get the appeal of not having to repack bearings every 12k miles - at least you can fairly easily replace the roller bearings if they exhibit signs of wear or if they fail on the road. Can you do that with the sealed bearings or do you just carry a spare hub?

Appreciate the advice. I built the two airplanes in my profile picture, so I am hopeful I have the skills and tools to do this job. 😉Would prefer to have a service manual but it sounds like those are top secret need to know only and reserved for the few Truma service centers. I think the warranty is long expired. My plan B is to have Truma replace this one with a remanufactured unit. They stated they won’t replace the burner only even at my expense. Not the most customer friendly company I have dealt with.

Exactly what I plan to attempt.

Yes, it is an instant on-demand hot water heater (similar to what you might have at home). It works very well and you don't have to take Navy showers - especially when camped at a full hookup site. But right now, the recall issue is causing some real headaches for those of us that chose this option.

Assuming this is true - all the more reason for us as owners to try to come up with practical, near term solutions. Otherwise, it will be years before Oliver gets enough burner assemblies to remedy the recall of 800 units.

No doubt it would be a short term solution. However, with 800 affected units and with Oliver currently only receiving 15-20 replacement burners per month - we are looking at a very long recall process. I was just looking for a risk mitigation strategy versus utilizing a recalled water heater that is a potential fire hazard. I do realize that not all of the recalled units have or will fail - but if one can "fix" the defect without creating additional risk - why not? I also realize that not everyone has the capability or the desire to attempt a DIY repair. I know the recall will have to be performed at some point regardless.

Crazy question - given that the defect appears to simply be a lack of crimped ends on the middle burners - has anyone tried to pull the burner, crimp the uncrimped ends and reinstall? I wonder if the heat cycles have heat treated and potentially embrittled the burner ends and they would crack if this was attempted? Just trying to find a simple and quick repair to what otherwise could be a very long recall process.

Hot water for cooking or dishwashing I can manage without the Truma. Showers are another matter, especially when boondocking. Running the Truma when awake and only as needed is probably the least risk possible with the exception of not using it at all. Oliver service says there are 800 serial numbers affected. Unless Truma gets producing large numbers of these burners soon (and I wouldn't be surprised if they are made by a subcontractor) - it's going to be a while for Oliver to get to all of us.

We do that always. The cycling of the Truma when left on is a little bit bothersome. I understand your logic. If the Truma starts a fire, at least you will be awake to possibly fight the fire or get out of the trailer while it burns. I was really looking for a workaround so as to not use the Truma at all or if anyone had come up with a novel way to actually fix the problem.

Anyone in the affected serial number range have a creative way of dealing with the recall - given that parts and service center availability is very limited, we can't buy this part on our own (at least I don't think so) and there is no current lead time being provided on when we will individually get our repair. I am contemplating trying to purchase a replacement heater and installing it myself. Not at all my first choice, but neither is (a) not going camping, (b) not having hot water or (c) burning up our Oliver. Full hookup sites with camp showers aren't ubiquitous on our desired camping route(s).

So if one has received the recall notice and is in the affected range, they use their AquaGo, it starts a fire and you lose your trailer - do you think Truma will have any liability at that point? I doubt it and I can’t help but wonder if your insurance company might decline coverage for the owner’s negligence.

We never intentionally leave the water heater on when sleeping or when not in the trailer. That's not the point though. If the defective burner is a fire hazard - then we probably shouldn't be using it at all. The failure mode and likely outcome of a failure hasn't been clearly communicated. And yes, we notified Oliver the day after we received our recall notice. Unfortunately, these notices were sent out in batches and not in order of affected hull numbers. So no idea where we are on the list. "Just hook up and go camping" is a "let them eat cake" kind of response, in my opinion.

At the risk of starting a "climate change" debate, I have often wondered if our modern automotive gasoline engines with all of their pollution controls are actually more polluting than a Honda generator? Yes, the Honda meets CARB specs, but I don't think these little engines are really very "clean". We have a golf cart that we drive around the neighborhood (Kawasaki engine) and I sometimes contemplate driving the car instead - as I believe a warmed up automotive engine is actually "cleaner" than the small air-cooled one. Maybe not on CO2 - but I don't see CO2 as a polluting gas. CO2 levels on earth were higher during the dinosaur days and I doubt the dinosaurs were burning "fossil" fuels.

Just a quick note on the use of twist drills - while they will cut through mild steel and do an adequate job, the use of an annular cutter is likely to yield better results. As these cut only the outer "annulus" of the hole versus a twist bit that removes all of the material in the hole - they cut quicker and cleaner. At least that has been my experience with them on several steel and aluminum projects. The smaller sizes are not terribly expensive and have been a valuable part of my shop's tool collection for several years now. One project I used them on was the replacement of the stock Bulldog coupler with the 2 5/16" size when we updated our Andersen hitch. https://www.hougen.com/cutters/annular-cutter-kits/annular-cutter-kits.html

Only because I didn't find any other Truma AquaGo recalls on the NHTSA website besides the one for Oliver trailers. Maybe I didn't look hard enough 🤷‍♂️ And yes, I’m aware that the recall notice received came from Oliver. My question was why there wasn’t a “global” recall for all Truma AquaGo units installed by other manufacturers. Hard to grasp that only Oliver received defective units.