Atlas Fold Out Steps how to Disable Alarm.

[Starliner]

I own a 2021 Airstream Atlas that I purchased new. The fold out steps have been a chronic problem. They fail and are in need of service every 30 to 35 up-down cycles. I’m planning a trip from California to Kennedy Space Center Florida to witness the Artemis 1 rocket launch. This is a big deal. But unsurprisingly the steps are broken once again.

I’m able to use duct tape to hold the steps in the retracted position but the problem is the “In Transit” alarm. It sounds continuously when I drive the unit. The alarm is like the Chinese water torture, after an hour of listening to the constant beeping I’m ready to go crazy.

Does anyone know how to disable it. I know that not an actual fix but I’ve given up on that. With the alarm shut off I’d be able to make the trip to Florida.

On Tuesday I’ll visit the dealership where I bought the unit. I know they won’t be able to help. They don’t service the Atlas or Interstates. They only service the travel trailers. But I plan on really unloading myself on whomever I can. It’s not like me to make a scene but in this case I’ll make an exception. I spent nearly 300K on a vehicle that's largely useless.

[DaveG]

Hi, Out of curiosity I searched Forums and found this:

https://www.airforums.com/forums/f15...on-198708.html

Looks like a good link in post #17

Hope this helps!

[Starliner]

Thank you DaveG

I'm looking over those posts and they might be very helpful indeed. In any case I understand that others have had the same problem.

Gordon.

[pcskier]

Originally Posted by Starliner

But I plan on really unloading myself on whomever I can. It’s not like me to make a scene but in this case I’ll make an exception. I spent nearly 300K on a vehicle that's largely useless.

Sounds like a very productive strategy. Unloading on someone at a place where you stated they do not work on the Atlas.

Maybe drive 1.5 hrs to the dealer who can fix it? (As per your other post?)

[Ronyx]

Originally Posted by Starliner

I own a 2021 Airstream Atlas that I purchased new. The fold out steps have been a chronic problem. They fail and are in need of service every 30 to 35 up-down cycles. I’m planning a trip from California to Kennedy Space Center Florida to witness the Artemis 1 rocket launch. This is a big deal. But unsurprisingly the steps are broken once again.

I’m able to use duct tape to hold the steps in the retracted position but the problem is the “In Transit” alarm. It sounds continuously when I drive the unit. The alarm is like the Chinese water torture, after an hour of listening to the constant beeping I’m ready to go crazy.

Does anyone know how to disable it. I know that not an actual fix but I’ve given up on that. With the alarm shut off I’d be able to make the trip to Florida.

On Tuesday I’ll visit the dealership where I bought the unit. I know they won’t be able to help. They don’t service the Atlas or Interstates. They only service the travel trailers. But I plan on really unloading myself on whomever I can. It’s not like me to make a scene but in this case I’ll make an exception. I spent nearly 300K on a vehicle that's largely useless.

I'm sorry this has happened for you. Indeed after spending $300k on an RV one should expect a higher level of service and attention from the dealer.

Have you contacted Airstream directly to lodge your concern and seek a lasting resolution?

It is understandable that you are frustrated and angry but some perspective may help as catastrophizing rarely helps one's state of mind. Some deep breaths, a call to Airstream, schedule a time with Airstream to fix the issue, and in the meantime figure out which fuse to pull to stop the buzzer. Your unit will be fixed, this is temporary.

[Rocinante]

The thing that gets me here is that it sounds as if these steps have been repaired, repeatedly, and they keep failing. I'm sympathetic to that because of the experience on our 2016 Airstream Interstate with the electric sliding step. We had it replaced last fall at a cost of well over $1k, because the dealer said it was a sealed unit that could not be disassembled and serviced by replacing failed parts. This summer, while camping, the step suddenly jammed half open as we set up camp. By working under the van in the twilight for at least two hours I was finally able to figure out that the only thing that had gone wrong was that a nut (yes, that thing that goes on a bolt) had fallen off the step, causing this pivot point to move out of alignment as the chain pulled on around a sprocket to move the step in and out, and fix that well enough so I could get to a hardware store the next day. I had to disassemble everything on that bolt, get things re-aligned, push the bolt back into place, clamp it so it would not pop out of alignment again before getting a replacement nut, and put a magnet on the door switch to prevent the steps from moving until that critical 10-cent part could be located and installed. What a gigantic pain. Step works now, have had no further issues, but that's the quality of the components Airstream installs in our vehicles. One loose nut that should have been engineered against ever coming loose, and the whole incredibly expensive component failed in a catastrophic way. So, I'm not one bit surprised that the electric steps on the Atlas have proven problematic for some.

[Kstills]

Originally Posted by Rocinante

The thing that gets me here is that it sounds as if these steps have been repaired, repeatedly, and they keep failing. I'm sympathetic to that because of the experience on our 2016 Airstream Interstate with the electric sliding step. We had it replaced last fall at a cost of well over $1k, because the dealer said it was a sealed unit that could not be disassembled and serviced by replacing failed parts. This summer, while camping, the step suddenly jammed half open as we set up camp. By working under the van in the twilight for at least two hours I was finally able to figure out that the only thing that had gone wrong was that a nut (yes, that thing that goes on a bolt) had fallen off the step, causing this pivot point to move out of alignment as the chain pulled on around a sprocket to move the step in and out, and fix that well enough so I could get to a hardware store the next day. I had to disassemble everything on that bolt, get things re-aligned, push the bolt back into place, clamp it so it would not pop out of alignment again before getting a replacement nut, and put a magnet on the door switch to prevent the steps from moving until that critical 10-cent part could be located and installed. What a gigantic pain. Step works now, have had no further issues, but that's the quality of the components Airstream installs in our vehicles. One loose nut that should have been engineered against ever coming loose, and the whole incredibly expensive component failed in a catastrophic way. So, I'm not one bit surprised that the electric steps on the Atlas have proven problematic for some.

I think I would go back and have a word with the Dealer about those 'sealed units' that can't be worked on.

Holy moly, I've read and watched literally hundreds of horror stories on bad rigs and bad dealers, but I never expected Airstream to be one of them. And I'm not talking about a random part failure, that happens to any mechanical device built by men, I'm talking about blatantly lying about servicing the parts on the rig. Obviously, if you were able to affect the repair at a campground then this is a serviceable part.

Granted, maybe it's just that dealership, but that should be cause for an investigation by corporate on their practices. Because frankly nothing happens in a vacuum anymore.

[jeffb831]

Unfortunately, the lack of serviceable parts is becoming the norm these days for factory service. Many dealer service departments couldn't be bothered with taking apart a unit, hoping to find the cause, fixing the problem, and then re-assembling the unit.

At typical shop rates approaching $200/hr, 4 hours labor + some parts would almost equal the $1000 to replace the thing. What if the "diagnosis" phase took longer? Or it was determined after spend 3 hours looking at it that the thing actually need to be replaced? Then the cost would easily exceed the replacement.

Servicing parts is now left to local mechanics and owners. For example, on my wife's BMW, the windshield washer pump stopped working. The dealer said to replace it, we needed a whole new tank, which has the pump inside, and some hoses for $600. I was able to search and found the replacement pump for ~$35 and fix it myself.

[Kstills]

Look at it this way.

You, at the campground, not having any idea how those steps work, was able to figure out what failed in 2 hours.

Someone who actually works on those things for a living should have a whole list of things to look at as failure points that should take them a few minutes to diagnose.

So a three hour labor charge to find the problem seems unlikely. That, plus they flat out lied about it being a sealed unit makes me believe they thought you were someone who didn't know how to work on your own rig.

I had a car I took in for an inspection and was told it would cost 1k to pass. Because I was a valuable customer, the shop owner told me I was going to get 10% off. It needed a fuel filter, a special 90 deg hose for the emmissions and a new battery bracket. The shop owner was not aware that I knew how to work on my own cars. That type of fraud is epidemic among unscrupulous shop owners, I'm just surprised an Airstream dealer would be involved in something like that.

[Zach05855]

You should be able to cancel the alarm on the touch screen.

Put the Atlas in Drive and apply the parking brakes then go to the touch screen and cancel the alarm. You will need to do this every time you put the Transmission in Drive. Or have the Copilot getup and do it.

I have a similar issue but with the Awning.

[Rocinante]

Originally Posted by Kstills

Look at it this way.

You, at the campground, not having any idea how those steps work, was able to figure out what failed in 2 hours.

Someone who actually works on those things for a living should have a whole list of things to look at as failure points that should take them a few minutes to diagnose.

So a three hour labor charge to find the problem seems unlikely. That, plus they flat out lied about it being a sealed unit makes me believe they thought you were someone who didn't know how to work on your own rig.

I had a car I took in for an inspection and was told it would cost 1k to pass. Because I was a valuable customer, the shop owner told me I was going to get 10% off. It needed a fuel filter, a special 90 deg hose for the emmissions and a new battery bracket. The shop owner was not aware that I knew how to work on my own cars. That type of fraud is epidemic among unscrupulous shop owners, I'm just surprised an Airstream dealer would be involved in something like that.

Thanks for the complimentary evaluation of my not-so-handy skills.

Fact is that the step unit is "sealed" because the case is riveted together and the internal parts cannot be purchased separately from the European manufacturer. That said, some folks have in the past successfully drilled out those case rivets to get at the guts of the unit so they could do more work, replacing the rivets with stainless nuts / bolts or screws, or whatever, when they were done.

In our case, I was lucky because the bolt in question is at the front of the unit where it's marginally reachable from the outside with a lot of squeezing of hands / fingers and a good bit of creative swearing. To fix it I had to remove the bolt, which is also the pivot point for the smaller sprocket, which caused a plethora of random parts (including the sprocket) to fall free inside the box. I then had to grab all those parts, work out how they most likely had to go back together on that bolt, put the sprocket back into alignment with the bicycle chain equivalent that moves the stairs, squeeze the bolt back in with all those other random parts on that bolt in the right order, and then get that bolt through the hole in the bottom of the box. Then I jammed a wing nut on the bottom of that bolt. That nut was the wrong (non-metric) size but I was able to get it on just enough so that as long as I didn't try to use the step it wouldn't fall off before I could get to the hardware store for a properly sized metric SS lock nut, SS washer and some thread locker. (I might add that knowing how to service a bicycle served me well in this instance.)

The key point I was making in support of the OP remains true: Complex RV components such electrically operated stairs are fundamentally junk, and Airstream is far from immune to this problem, going with ever more needlessly complicated options that are very sexy when they work, but incredibly expensive to fix when they break down. Other prime examples on AI units include: electric window shades, electric awning, electric macerator hose reel, and no option to gravity dump when the macerator pump fails. Due to our hard work DIY'ing some of it and our open wallet for the rest, all these items are currently working on our new-to-us AI. However, it's been a pain in the backside to get them whipped into operational shape and keep them that way. For our next RV there's no way we would even consider one with this many electric parts for services that could just as easily have been manually operated with much greater MTBF and far lower cost to repair.

One irony here is that the new AI 24X has fewer electrically operated features than any other AI, but at the same time (as of the last time I checked) its starting price is higher. Someone at Airstream knows exactly what value a 24X offers with more manually operated features and fewer electric doo-dads.

OTOH, in a much greater irony, all new Sprinter-based camper vans now come with the one feature idea I despise most: an electric sliding door on the van itself. Like all other electrified features that worked fine in manual mode, sexy when it works, and a huge headache when it breaks.

[Kstills]

Originally Posted by Rocinante

Thanks for the complimentary evaluation of my not-so-handy skills.

Fact is that the step unit is "sealed" because the case is riveted together and the internal parts cannot be purchased separately from the European manufacturer. That said, some folks have in the past successfully drilled out those case rivets to get at the guts of the unit so they could do more work, replacing the rivets with stainless nuts / bolts or screws, or whatever, when they were done.

Ah, I stand corrected and guess I owe the dealership my apologies.

In our case, I was lucky because the bolt in question is at the front of the unit where it's marginally reachable from the outside with a lot of squeezing of hands / fingers and a good bit of creative swearing. To fix it I had to remove the bolt, which is also the pivot point for the smaller sprocket, which caused a plethora of random parts (including the sprocket) to fall free inside the box. I then had to grab all those parts, work out how they most likely had to go back together on that bolt, put the sprocket back into alignment with the bicycle chain equivalent that moves the stairs, squeeze the bolt back in with all those other random parts on that bolt in the right order, and then get that bolt through the hole in the bottom of the box. Then I jammed a wing nut on the bottom of that bolt. That nut was the wrong (non-metric) size but I was able to get it on just enough so that as long as I didn't try to use the step it wouldn't fall off before I could get to the hardware store for a properly sized metric SS lock nut, SS washer and some thread locker. (I might add that knowing how to service a bicycle served me well in this instance.)

Holy crap, I started cussing just reading this bit, lol.

The key point I was making in support of the OP remains true: Complex RV components such electrically operated stairs are fundamentally junk, and Airstream is far from immune to tis problem, going with ever more needlessly complicated options that are very sexy when they work, but incredibly expensive to fix when they break down. Other prime examples on AI units include: electric window shades,

I'm rebuilding a B190 and was considering putting these in because of the 'cool' factor. In my case, I think I'll be able to get to the mechanisms pretty easily, but it does give me pause reading your post.

One irony here is that the new AI 24X has fewer electrically operated features than any other AI, but at the same time (as of the last time I checked) its price is higher. Someone at Airstream knows exactly what value a 24X offers with more manually operated features and fewer electric doo-dads. :rolleyes:

Inflation, lol. Like getting a smaller snickers bar for 10% more.

[Rocinante]

Originally Posted by Kstills

I'm rebuilding a B190 and was considering putting these in because of the 'cool' factor. In my case, I think I'll be able to get to the mechanisms pretty easily, but it does give me pause reading your post.

It should. Electric window shades = worst idea ever. Replacing one pair of shade motors (sun shade and night shade) for one window on the sliding door this summer cost me $1,400 in parts and labor at an Airstream dealer. They work fine for now, but my wallet still feels bruised and abused.

[85MH325]

Originally Posted by Rocinante

The key point I was making in support of the OP remains true: Complex RV components such electrically operated stairs are fundamentally junk, and Airstream is far from immune to this problem, going with ever more needlessly complicated options that are very sexy when they work, but incredibly expensive to fix when they break down. Other prime examples on AI units include: electric window shades, electric awning, electric macerator hose reel, and no option to gravity dump when the macerator pump fails.

OTOH, in a much greater irony, all new Sprinter-based camper vans now come with the one feature idea I despise most: an electric sliding door on the van itself. Like all other electrified features that worked fine in manual mode, sexy when it works, and a huge headache when it breaks.

You have quite elegantly encapsulated why I still have an '04 Interstate with running boards, full propane system, and pretty much manual everything. Eighteen years down the road now, the running boards have never failed, the blinds still go up and down as designed, the gravity tank dump continues to work, and it's all repairable (or replaceable) by just about any RV owner (or shop) who understands basic RV systems.

And while the T1N chassis isn't without its faults, and is getting more difficult to get repairs when necessary, it remains relatively easy and cost-effective to work on compared to the NCV3 and VS30 boxes.

I'm convinced that when the time comes to replace the Interstate, it'll be replaced with something on a Transit chassis with systems as simple as can be found.

[Starliner]

I drove to Airstream in Fairfield yesterday and it was fantastic experience. Everyone was wonderful and the service was first rate. I didn’t have to explain anything. They understood the issues because they read this forum.

In less than an hour they pinned the steps in the up position and disabled the alarm. There was no charge. I realize this is only a temporary fix but I’ll be leaving for Florida on Monday and when I return we’ll see about getting everything perfect.

If you ever do visit Airstream in Fairfield be sure to make time for the Jelly Belly factory tour and candy shop. It’s less than a mile away and quite an experience. I never saw so many Jelly Beans in all my life.

Gordon.

[DaveG]

It's always something
Feels good to get good service!
Thanks for the report!