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The saga of the 87” theater seats

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MapNerd

RVF 1K Club
Joined
Nov 17, 2019
Messages
2,298
Location
Prince William, VA
RV Year
2020
RV Make
Newmar
RV Model
Ventana 4326
RV Length
43
TOW/TOAD
2020 Ford F-150
Fulltimer
Yes
So, we have 87” theater seats in place of the three-seat hide-a-bed sofa in our coach. We actually never wanted theater seats but because we wanted cabinets in place of the jack knife sofa, Newmar forced us to get the theater seats in order to reach a 1:1 seating-to-sleeping ratio. I still think our arm was twisted during that endeavor as it occurs to me that those with a fireplace instead of a jackknife still get a sofa, but I digress.

Yesterday while sitting in the living room, my wife and I started to smell something awful, it smelled like burning or melted plastic.

We started looking around and originally thought it was coming from the 110v USB combination outlet on the FWS between the dinette and the theater seats. I quickly removed the faceplate and found nothing going on inside. Gave it a good whiff and the smell wasn’t coming from there. At the same time, the smell was getting stronger and we could tell it was coming from somewhere in that general area of the coach.

That was when my wife who was sitting in the theater seat closest to the dinette decided to help investigate and she she noticed the theater seat she was seated in would not retract. So then I went to the 110v wall plate on the FWS near the floor, centered on the theater seats and pulled the plug for the theater seats which was very hot to the touch. I popped the face plate off of the receptacle and slid under the extended theater seat closest to the dinette to try and get a look into the receptacle. It was tight but I could see. The smell under the seat was very strong but there was nothing obvious going on inside that receptacle. I saw no burned wires, no scorch marks, everything looked normal.

We turned on the fantastic fans and left the theater seats unplugged and extended for the day. I stayed with the coach in case a fire started while my wife and the kids went and enjoyed the beach.

This morning with the smell completely dissipated, I plugged the theater seats back in and without issue, retracted the theater seat closest to the drivers seat where I had been seated at the time. I went to retract the other seat closest to the dinette but depressing the button would not retract the seat. Normally, when something is preventing the seat from retracting and the motor is spinning, you hear a clicking sound. Each seat has an independent motor which extends and retracts an actuator that is connected to the footrest. As the foot rest extends, it pulls the seat bottom forward and the seat back down and rearward, so all of this is being done by that single motor and actuator under each seat. We didn’t hear the motor on the seat running at all.

Again I slide under the extended theater seat closest to the dinette and I checked all of the connections to ensure they were tight. At this point, I could faintly smell the same distinct burnt plastic smell we had experienced the day before and that was when I realized it was likely the motor had burned out.

With no way to retract the seat using the motor, I became a little worried as we’re supposed to leave Myrtle Beach tomorrow and I can’t close the slides with the footrest on the theater seats extended. Thankfully, I was able to locate a cotter pin which attached the actuator to the footrest. Removing the cotter pin allowed me to disconnect the extended actuator from the footrest and manually slide the footrest down and in. The rest of the seat followed as well.

I know Flexsteel is no longer making these theater seats so I imagine that a replacement motor might be hard to come by.

I sent an email to VentanaService and explained what happened pretty much just the same as I have above, asking them what the options for remedy are.

So if you have theater seats and you can’t get them to retract, remove that cotter pin attaching the actuator arm to the footrest and everything will retract nicely so you can close up your slides.

I’ll post what happens to this thread as it all unfolds. I feel confident Newmar will come up with something acceptable.
 
Newmar has responded:
Hello John,
Sorry to hear about the theater seat. We can still get the motor, see the attachment for part number and price. You would need to contact our parts department at 1-800-731-8300, to place the order.

Thank you,
Jeff Johnson

Owner Relations
1301 Stahly Dr. Building 42
Nappanee, IN 46550
[email protected]
1-800-731-8300

A106E81D-F346-462E-B71E-18049731EA6A.jpeg

Ouch
 
Yikes. Any way to source it elsewhere?
 
Yikes. Any way to source it elsewhere?
You better believe I’m gonna wedge myself under the seat once more with a flashlight, looking forward manufacturing stamps on that motor.
 
You might want to give these folks a try. Here is what they posted on FB:

My family owns an RV parts and upholstery company located in the Dubuque, Iowa area. We are the ONLY place in the country where you can find genuine replacement parts and seat upholstery for Flexsteel RV furniture.
Our owner (my mother) worked at Flexsteel in Dubuque for over 20 years until Flexsteel closed their Dubuque plant due to COVID-19. With the closure, Flexsteel will no longer service the RV industry, meaning there will no longer be replacement parts or upholstery being made.
That’s where we come in!
We’ve decided to help those customers left high and dry by Flexsteel by cutting and hand sewing brand new seat covers to the exact specs of O.E.M patterns. We also purchased thousands of replacement parts from Flexsteel after their closure, making us the only place to find such parts.
We will do anything we can to help owners with Flexsteel seating! Follow along with our journey!

Bauer RV Upholstery
449 Clark Dr
Dubuque, IA 52001
563-542-4902
[email protected]

Hope this helps
 
You might want to give these folks a try. Here is what they posted on FB:

My family owns an RV parts and upholstery company located in the Dubuque, Iowa area. We are the ONLY place in the country where you can find genuine replacement parts and seat upholstery for Flexsteel RV furniture.
Our owner (my mother) worked at Flexsteel in Dubuque for over 20 years until Flexsteel closed their Dubuque plant due to COVID-19. With the closure, Flexsteel will no longer service the RV industry, meaning there will no longer be replacement parts or upholstery being made.
That’s where we come in!
We’ve decided to help those customers left high and dry by Flexsteel by cutting and hand sewing brand new seat covers to the exact specs of O.E.M patterns. We also purchased thousands of replacement parts from Flexsteel after their closure, making us the only place to find such parts.
We will do anything we can to help owners with Flexsteel seating! Follow along with our journey!

Bauer RV Upholstery
449 Clark Dr
Dubuque, IA 52001
563-542-4902
[email protected]

Hope this helps
I will definitely give them a call. Sourcing a replacement motor from anyone but Newmar has been challenging.
 
We ordered our with recliners, and they are manual with handle. The reason we opted for this model, was we had before the "techie dream coach", and when the computer board die, you couold not get water into the tank, and a whole host of other things which would not work. We got the kind of Motorhome that everything is manual, or small enough chip, to replace faulty part, easily. I also did not want hydraulic slides, because hoses need to be fixed/replaced, and believe me, not something an old man can get down and do easily. Now, fixing the electric ones also would be challenge. FWIW-Our 5th wheel (alpenlite-Western RV-Out of business), had electric slides, and they worked wonderful. The Alpine MH, all hydraulic slides, and they worked, but some hoses needed to be replaced. HWH, is easy to work with. So electric theater seats are not something I personally would get, manual ok, electric I aint that old yet. We wished we had gotten the electrictly heated floor, sorta.
 
You might want to give these folks a try. Here is what they posted on FB:

My family owns an RV parts and upholstery company located in the Dubuque, Iowa area. We are the ONLY place in the country where you can find genuine replacement parts and seat upholstery for Flexsteel RV furniture.
Our owner (my mother) worked at Flexsteel in Dubuque for over 20 years until Flexsteel closed their Dubuque plant due to COVID-19. With the closure, Flexsteel will no longer service the RV industry, meaning there will no longer be replacement parts or upholstery being made.
That’s where we come in!
We’ve decided to help those customers left high and dry by Flexsteel by cutting and hand sewing brand new seat covers to the exact specs of O.E.M patterns. We also purchased thousands of replacement parts from Flexsteel after their closure, making us the only place to find such parts.
We will do anything we can to help owners with Flexsteel seating! Follow along with our journey!

Bauer RV Upholstery
449 Clark Dr
Dubuque, IA 52001
563-542-4902
[email protected]

Hope this helps
This was super helpful. I gave her a call after your post and she mentioned she had some on order and would call me when they arrived. Got the call yesterday - $95! What a deal! I’d called around everywhere looking for this stupid motor or anything that could be a direct replacement and no one had anything. Saved me a lot of $$$! Thanks so much @Aweese2!
 
This was super helpful. I gave her a call after your post and she mentioned she had some on order and would call me when they arrived. Got the call yesterday - $95! What a deal! I’d called around everywhere looking for this stupid motor or anything that could be a direct replacement and no one had anything. Saved me a lot of $$$! Thanks so much @Aweese2!
Glad to be of help.
 

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