2023 Winnebago Revel Owner Complaints

The secondary alternator on our 2023 Winnebago Revel failed and caught fire. Fortunately, it happened when the vehicle was stopped so the fire was quickly put out and the damage limited to the alternator itself and the belt that ran the alternator. Had the failure happened in motion, a broken belt could have completely disabled the van, possibly endangering other traffic. Had we not noticed and extinguished the fire immediately, it could have consumed the entire vehicle and spread to the surroundings. This issue of faulty secondary alternators is well-known to Winnebago. Our unit was a warranty replacement of the original and we had recall work done on it as recently as July 15. The recall work only involved changing settings on the alternator's regulator and did not address what is a failure mode of the hardware itself.

NHTSA ID

11690023

Incident

Sep 23, 2025

The secondary alternator of our 2023 Winnebago Revel failed, was smoking heavily, and was seconds away from catching fire had I not stood by with a fire extinguishers. I noticed the issue after driving for about an hour and only noticed smoke when I had pulled into a Home Depot to park. I only noticed the smoke when I had parked (not while underway). This is a well known problem with Winnebago Revels, with many owners reporting (on Facebook Winnebago Revel 4x4 page) these Balmar 170 alternators catching fire and failing. This is an extreme fire danger and life safety issue. My safety was at risk because the alternator was in thermal runaway and was about to catch fire. I may not have noticed the issue had I been underway. The problem is well known by our dealer (Camping World, Marysville, WA) and Winnebago. I have since had them address the problem, but their solution and current procedure on this is to put back in the exact same Balmar 170 alternator! Other Revel owners are reporting this second install is also failing in many cases. No inspection to date other than that of the dealer. No warnings were given by the vehicle of the problem.

NHTSA ID

11637651

Incident

Dec 16, 2024

Winnebego Revel BMB44E 15B443122871; The Lithionics battery installation allows movement which has caused fraying of insulation on a wire and resulting in a spark and activation of the 250A circuit breaker. This is part of the Winnebego aftermarket build of the Mercedes Sprinter based camper van.

NHTSA ID

11548759

Incident

Oct 6, 2023

We bought Winnebago Revel RV from La Mesa RV center at Davis, CA in May 2023. We took a trip from San Jose, CA to San Luis Obispo in June, the brake fluid was total running out during our driving on Hyw 1! We contact a local Mercedes-Benz shop, they found out the issue was caused by an aftermarket suspension installed improperly. This incident is a life threaten one, luckily we were driving at 35 Mph zone, otherwise we couldn't imagine what could happen to us! BTW, we went back to the dealer last week, we found out the same model RVs all had the same aftermarket suspensions installed! This could cause very server accidents in future!!!

NHTSA ID

11535074

Incident

Jun 28, 2023

The contact owns a 2023 Winnebago Revel built on a 2022 Mercedes-Benz Sprinter chassis. The contact stated that the awning alarm was chiming every 30 seconds. The contact disconnected the awning fuse to stop the alarm from chiming. The vehicle was taken to the dealer, where an unknown repair was performed; however, the failure recurred. The contact later received notification of NHTSA Campaign Number: 22V863000 (Structure) however, the part to do the recall repair was not yet available. The contact stated that the dealer had exceeded a reasonable amount of time for the recall repair. The dealer was made aware of the failure but confirmed that parts were not yet available. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure and confirmed that the replacement part was shipped to the dealer to perform the recall repair. The failure mileage was approximately 3,000. Parts distribution disconnect.

NHTSA ID

11524644

Incident

May 8, 2023

Mileage

3,000 mi