We’ve been living full-time in our LMTV / Bliss Mobil RV for almost one year and as expected, things wear down, break or need repairs. Aside from an LMTV surprise issue, things have held up as expected – exceptionally solid and stable. Throughout it all, Couch and Bliss Mobil support has been awesome!
LMTV Truck
Starter – April ’18
Our first failure! Around two weeks in to full-timin’, the LMTV failed to start after loading diesel at a service station in Texas. I phoned Jay Couch in a total panic and he very calmly walked me through trouble-shooting the issue. Kudos to him and Nemo, his top gun, for patiently working with me to get us back on the road. I whacked on the bendix while Lily turned the key and we got back on the road.
Rather than rebuild the existing starter, I purchased unused, old stock off of EBay – total cost $177 for the part and $150-ish for labor. Jay helped locate Ian, an Austin, TX based mechanic, to help install the new starter. Not only a solid mechanic, he’s also a rockabilly musician and all-around great guy!
Fuel injector & sensor – November ’18
This failure is more surprising than the starter since there was only around 8k miles on the engine when it failed. Possibly a marginal part from the factory that was pre-doomed to fail.
The symptom was engine surging once the motor came up to operating temperature and especially under load (driving uphill, for example). The truck seemed totally drivable – I didn’t lose power. We were boondocking in a hospital parking lot near a diesel repair shop so I took it in. Parts were around $2k! Labor was $500-ish. Sheesh!
Bliss Mobil Habitat
We’ve had very few issues with the Bliss Mobil habitat. Almost all of my requests to Bliss service & support are just to get clarification on proper operation – in other words, the issue is my knowledge and experience with the box. The Bliss Mobil service and support team is top notch! To them, there’s no such thing as a “stupid question”. I truly appreciate their patience as I’ve come up to speed on operating this habitat.
Water boiler breaker – May ’18
A very difficult to reach breaker switch was tripping each time we switched on the boiler. Bliss said it was most likely some air in the system and after a few incidents, this problem cleared itself up. Reaching the switch would have been easier if I was double-jointed and the size of a toddler. Other switches and breakers in the habitat are well organized and easy to reach – this particular one was part of the water heater and hard to reach. No problems since the initial two or so in the beginning.
Loose screws on fridge door hinge – Nov ’18
The interior of the Bliss Mobil habitat has a very nice bamboo finish. In this issue, the hinge screws for the bamboo door covering the fridge door were slowly rattling loose. This was not really a big problem except that it required a very small, angular screwdriver and a lot of patience to tighten things up! Cue up the double-jointed toddler!
Kitchen light LED fries – Jan ’19
LEDs pretty much last forever, don’t they? I thought so until the LED over the kitchen sink blew out. Apparently it didn’t get the memo. I had a spare light fixture in the spares kit and the repair was simple.
Black water tank sensor borked…by me – Jan ’19
During an unnecessarily aggressive black water tank cleaning episode, I managed to tweak and break the black water tank sensor. I quickly learned how important it is to have that sensor working as the only way to check the level was “visual inspection”…which is a nasty job. Bliss drop-shipped a new sensor to an RV park, the repair was simple and I had a working sensor within a week.
Black water dump pump – current issue
The black water tank can drain by pump or gravity. The pump turns on but doesn’t pump. I can dump through the gravity drain, so haven’t been motivated to troubleshoot this.
Loxone control system error – current issue
In my usual brutish way, I performed a cold restart of the Loxone system one day and it rebooted complaining of a corrupt SD card. The system appears to be working fine but Bliss says it could cause problems if not fixed. I depend on the Loxone system so no idea why I’m not motivated to fix this one yet…sigh.
In conclusion…
We have lived in this RV 24×7 for about a year. The LMTV and Bliss Mobil habitat take a beating pretty much every day – especially with a teen on board who doesn’t grok a reason to close doors gently, for example. I’m surprised more things aren’t coming loose, breaking apart or falling off.
I’m impressed with the build quality and toughness of both the LMTV and the Bliss Mobil! Very often product support is awesome during the build/buy phase and then drops off post-sale but not with Couch and Bliss Mobil – top-notch, timely and on point support!
Great info!
On a scale of 1-10, how effective is your air conditioning? did they install a unit with enough btu’s?
Happy you find the post useful! When we ordered our habitat over three years ago, the 15′ habitat came with a 6100 BTU unit – they currently show an 8200 BTU unit as standard on the 15′. Our AC will struggle when the habitat is super hot inside (> 90F). That said, we were in hot areas last summer and now in Baja, and we don’t really use it very often. Typically, by the time we go to bed, the outside air is cool enough to allow comfortable sleep.
What plan do you have with ATT for your SIM card in cradlepoint modem. Mine is 10 GB in modem that came with unit. and they say it’s the highest one can get.
Bliss is indeed a fine company.
Happy trails
Our plan is called “AT&T Unlimited Plus Multi Line” and is truly unlimited. I believe it was discontinued a year or two ago. Check out https://www.rvmobileinternet.com for the latest on different plans.
Darrell,
Have you done a video of the interior layout of your habit and LMTV?
If so, please direct me to that video. Thanks,
Unfortunately no video. The primary reason is the inside is so messy most of the time. This is a super common request so one of these days soon I’ll bite the bullet, clean and film. 🙂
Could you post some photos of the inside of the LMTV cab? Does the truck cab have AC? What is the size of the crawl through and do you use it offen. Thanks Jim E
I can’t find good photos of the cab, other than bits of the dash as we shoot outward. I’ll need to take some and post them later.
The pass-through is small and only for emergencies.
The LMTV stock AC is installed and works great. It’s designed to keep GIs in full body armor cool so it is freezing and strong air.