New Member
Join Date: Jul 2013
Posts: 6
|
Driving experience with a 1997 Rialta 22' 6 cyl
Hi Rialta fellowship, my husband and I have owned at least over 200 vehicles, motor homes, travel trailers and tent trailers. We own A1 RV Repairs and Services and besides owning hundreds of them that we flipped, we have also repaired all the ownes that we sold and still repair hundreds of RV's in San Diego County.
My current ex-family vehicle is a 1998 Chevy Suburban 2500 4x4 lifted 6" with a 7.6 L eng., which needless to say it only gives us 7-8 mpg, but torque, horsepower and ponch is insane (power). My other vehicle is a 1985 Chevy Corvette TPI, which by the same token the power is insane. Our current camping motorhome is a 1987 Ford Shasta 27' class C, which of course is an 8 cyl massive 4 barrel carburator engine.
I mentioned the above because you need to understand that our own vehicles preference has always being massive 8 cyl huge blocks and power has being at most to have. Therefore when we aquired this Rialta with just 6 cyl 2.6 L eng., it has being a huge downgrade in torque and take off.
This vehicle is amazing, you need to understand that is a very small engine for such a "large" vehicle, torque and ponch is definetely not there and I would highly not recommend towing anything heavy.
It has several cosmetic issues and mechanical issues, which I will be addressing individualy as I started getting acquianted and expeirence with it so I don't provide false or ignorant information. I need to assure that this vehicle is the best thing it ever happened to us. It is now our daily driver family vehicle. I can comfortably get it with my toddlers, my dogs, walk straight, and go shopping. There have being a total of 3 adults, 1 teenager, and 3 small children with big car seats at one point. The car performed great and there was still for two more persons to seat comfortably.
The first most noticeable issue (of course) is the huge lack of power when you first take off, you need to remember this is a very small engine/tranny and HAVE to take of VERY SLOWLY & GENTLE. Must specially if have a gentle slope (hill) ahead of you. It does REALLY bad (slowly) on uphills. But I'll tell you what, once you take speed, you will be going EASILY at 85 mph and you won't even realize you are going at that speed. The Rialta has performed very stable, easy to handle, AWESOME mirrors (NO blind spots at all), takes a little longer to stop. But overall is a great experience.
Don't for one second believe or dream that this car has decent torque and power as I said when taking off and uphills. Maximum speed on taking off and hills is at the most 30 mph at 2,500 to 3,000 rpm
Once you reach 65 mph and start going above your rpm will go up to 3,500 rpm. This is the normal rpm that you will get at speeds higher then 60-65 mph.
Gas mileage has being very bad for us, I get approx 9-10 mpg, not sure yet if it is because most of driving miles are in the City, or because the EGR is bad, and/or because since it is summer and the AC is on all the time, it has resulted in bad gas mileage. One week I drove mostly driveway miles and I got 11 mpg. That's the most I ever got. It will be nice to know if others have experience the same or is it just mine.
The one IMPORTANT thing to learn is that: this VW vehicle uses SPECIAL transmission and power steering oil, they are at least twice if not three times more expenssive then regular oils. And no, you can only buy them at specialty places or custom order it through Auto Zone, CarQuest, Chief, etc. rarely would they be available in stock (or so at least on the auto stores in Lemon Grove, CA - San Diego). However they are very available and always in stock at any VW Dealer.
This VW vehicle can't be serviced at most VW dealers BECAUSE the RV although is within the weight capability of the VW shops, the HEIGHT can't be safely accomodated to lift it high enough to do the work underneath and not being to close to the shop ceiling roof. And for some reason I also suspect that there must be a conflict of liability between VW and Winnebago since modifications must have made to the unit to provide specific needs.
I found out that all mechanical components can be supplied at any VW dealer, but body parts, decals, interior, etc can only be supplied mostly by Winnebago, or the part in question by the manufacturers, and some times also on other social websites such a ebay and Craigslist.
With that being said, it is very handy and important to have the manuals for all the wiring, mechanical, suspension, generator, AC, plumbing systems, etc. so you can easily find the manufacturers parts numbers.
I will be posting several very informative troubleshooting and repairs for everything that we encounter, which has being a few so far.
Enjoy your day and God bless....
|