Ron, I guess you could be right but I don't think you are on this one. My own experience in customer service tells me it is probably more a matter of GS wanting to minimize the number of people it can expect calls for help from, than it is them wanting to "protect" dealer's profits. At least with dealers GS have some control over getting service people to attend formal training on their products and so on.
There could also be a legitimate claim related to protection of trade secrets, although I suspect not. As someone else mentioned, it would be laughably easy for anyone so inclined to disassemble a sample coach and reverse engineer it. I know - I've done it (for a small piece of the coach at least)! My story on this is a little further on in this post.
Based on my own past experience trying to get technical info out of GS, I think it could very well be that they just don't have that kind of information around. Oh, they may have some sort of reference documentation, but the impression I get is that every coach is kind of a one-off deal - that is they don't build 2 exactly the same. This is probably more true for the older coaches. So, truly, they couldn't give you the electrical plans for your coach if they wanted to in that case.
Here's my story: I was puzzled by a switch that I couldn't figure out the function of. It was located in the same panel as the LR overheads, porch light, step, and cargo bay door switches. GS customer service tried really hard to get the information for me, including calling up retired engineers who worked at the plant where and when my coach was built. I got some suggestions, but none of them panned out. Finally, I resolved to disassemble the coach and trace the darn wires myself. I took out the switch panel, traced the wires into a race to the bottom of the wall by the door, tore off the interior door trim, header over the door trim, and found the same race and the wires from the switch in the panel. One pair went up to the porch light, but the other pair stopped about half way up. They appeared to go outside in the vicinity of the grab handle by the door. So I took the handle off and there, much to my surpise were the two wires, running to a burned out light bulb in the handle! Shows you what a low-class RVer I am: I did not expect to own a lighted grab handle!!! So I replaced the bulb and the mystery of the switch was solved.
My point in this is that GS might have been glad to give me the info, but seemed not to have it themselves.
I know there is a push throughout the industry to develop better documentation of the whole coach, because currently this is lacking just about everywhere, not just GS. GS could definitely pick up a competetive advantage by being among the first to offer this level of support, I think.
FWIW....
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Originally Posted by GStream40
I used to be involved in the purchasing of production machinery for the company I retired from. We always negotiated a complete print & bill of material package in any machine purchase.
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Print packages are expensive and they cut out the maker of the equipment and the suppliers of maintenance to maintain it since it allows the end user to find other suppliers and do their own maintenance.
As this applies to the RV Industry, providing complete prints to the buyer/owner could cut out the RV dealer's service department to a certain degree and also the manufacturer suppling some of the parts. With this thought in mind, maybe that is one of the reasons that Gulf Stream has maintained this policy on not releasing prints to the owners.
I...
Ron
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