RV Show Day And Blog’s…

This morning as I sit here lazily reading blogs as Ronda cooks in the kitchen (I ask to help, but get “the look”, so I sit on the couch) I see all the wonderful blogs I follow and can’t seem to keep up with. So many stories that are interesting to read, follow and learn from.

Thank you all for sharing your lives so freely and openly. Believe it or not it helps me shape some of my days, makes me smile or even cry (don’t tell anybody!) and gives me a lot of ideas for the future which probably wouldn’t be possible if I hadn’t read many of your blogs.

Ok, time to eat and then head out to the RV show! Woohoo! Oh, I have been given one standing order, DO NOT BUY ANYTHING!! Who me??

Saturday Thoughts… RV Show Tomorrow

It’s Saturday and I didn’t call the dealer yesterday or today, and they didn’t call me… I’m practicing getting in touch with my Zen side, my boss mentioned staying Zen during situations you can’t control and he’s right. So, today I am Mr. Zen, glad ta meetcha.

Tomorrow I’ll be going to the Lake County Fairgrounds to look at a bunch of rigs I can’t afford but can drool over. Looks like nobody wants to go with me so I’m going alone. I’ll bring my camera along and take lots of pictures!

RV Dealer Too Busy… Forgets To Call…

We dropped off the rig last Monday to get the slide topper/awning repaired and so far they haven’t touched it. Promises are made to get back to me but no response from email or voicemail. I call them and it’s like “oh yeah, meant to call, I think we might be able to get some parts, let me talk to the tech and call you back” do they call me back, no. If they find out they can’t get parts there will be more delays while they order a new awning and it will continue to sit.

This tells me we just aren’t important enough to call. They told me they were busy when we dropped it off and I told them this wasn’t a problem, and it isn’t, where I have a problem is when they tell me they’ll call with an update and then forget or don’t bother. A good service tech will always call the customer back, if he wants recurring business. Unfortunately I am learning this is the norm in the RV business. I read Dennis and Carol’s blog and find that they go through the same crap. Right now they are trying to get work completed by RV Renovators and cabinets are cut to the wrong size, the workers go on to other projects when they should be completing the one they are on. It just boggles the mind how opposite companies are run today compared to the past when satisfying the customer was paramount. Not anymore,

I digress, Scott’s RV is waiting for their turn as well so the water pump can be repaired and they are getting busier and busier. I have a feeling if I want any of this to get done I’m going to have to get upset with somebody (ask my wife, this usually works but I hate it). Let me ask you good folks in blog land why is it that honey gets you nothing but getting pissed off gets action? Ok, it’s a rhetorical question, I know the answer but feel really disappointed by it.

In my job when I tell a customer I’m going to do something, I don’t stop until I’m done or arrangements have been made that are satisfactory to my clients, period, even if I LOSE MONEY. You do it right and if you screw up you make it right. Why has this been lost today, why is mediocrity the accepted norm?

Good news is, State Farm will cover this under our comprehensive with no deductible at any dealer or RV repair center, so that is looking like a smart decision on our part when we insured this thing. I’m going to avoid calling them today, I’ll call them tomorrow and I’m sure there will be apologies and excuses but hopefully there will also be progress. Or on Saturday I’m going to go there and remove the rig and tell them I can get crappy service from where I bought the rig, I don’t need this aggravation.

I’m just a tad bit frazzled…

House “Bucket List”….

While waiting for the verdict on the repairs to our awning and water pump I figured I would get a list of items I need to attend to in the ‘ol sticks and bricks house we own. I know it’s not really a bucket list, but I like the name.

Outside Stuff:

1. Clean up the front yard, the dog has pretty much ruined the front yard and winter has done her fair share of damage as well. I need to fill some holes the dog dug and spread some top soil and put down some seed so I can get the yard to the beauty it typically is.

2. Cut up the tree that was knocked down by a previous storm a few months ago. This will provide serious wood supply for camping this year.

3. Repair the brick deck out back, clean out the grass/weeds from the rock beds that surrounds it and level the bricks again and replace the plastic border that surrounds it. This will be a big job.

4. Get our town to finally fill the hole next to the storm drain, they used to come out and fill the hole whenever the sink hole would form but they haven’t responded for over a year. Maybe if I broke my leg they’d respond? They own this as they keep telling me when I ask to put up a shed.

5. Rake and prepare for summer, put down Spring weed and feed for the lawn and repair the West facing spigot that broke last Fall.

6. Clean the garage, it’s a disgusting mess.

Inside Stuff:

1. Finish the bathroom I started, I fully gutted this bathroom in 2009 and stopped working on it when my Mother died. I bought a new tool that will help me remove the few thousand staples they used to put down the sub floor, it’s almost like they got paid per staple, it’s overkill on a new scale.

2. De-clutter the basement and the “cats room” which is also now the catch all room and trust me, it has caught it all!!

3. Paint the dining room, foyer, living room and the walls leading upstairs. This is another big job that will require ample time to complete.

4. Clean Berber carpet in the dining room, living room and stairs. Remind myself to never buy Berber again!!

RV Stuff: Why not include this, it’s stuff to do right?

1. Repair slide topper awning if the price is too high from the dealer.

2. Get water pump fixed and water system tested, Scott’s RV is caring for this.

3. Clean the remaining basement bins on the driver side of the rig.

4. Change engine and generator oil.

5. Replace 4 rear tires.

6. Wash and wax the rig, pray my arms don’t fall off while in the process.

7. GO CAMPING!!!!

Slide Topper/Awning Update

Received a response from Collier this morning, it’s looking like we’ll have to replace the entire awning with a new one. Problem is cost and next is the new ones don’t mount the same way so we have to figure out how to cover the holes from the previous brackets.

The slide topper/awning did indeed lock when it was new and there is supposed to be a warning sticker right above the slide in/out switch. I cleaned off some residue after we bought the rig from above the switch, now I know what was there. So they pulled off the sticker and hoped we would never figure it out I guess. It is possible the dealer got it this way, but they shouldn’t have sold it this way, it’s dangerous!

I also received the operating manual for the slide topper/awning from Holiday Rambler/Monaco this morning and saw the information below. I’m a bit angry right now… I want to call the dealer and raise holy Cain but I know it won’t get me anywhere. Time to take a breath and figure this all out.

RV Repairs Update

I spoke to Collier RV today, apparently we have been driving to different places with our slide topper “unlocked”. Ummm Unlocked?!? The dealership never mentioned anything about locking or unlocking our slide topper. The service tech says we’re lucky it didn’t rip off of the RV, also, the extended warranty company denied the claim because “the slide topper was unlocked”. Oy vey, I can’t confirm or deny it was either except I knew we never had to do anything to put out the slide or retract the slide. So most likely it was sold to us broken and never repaired as the dealer had claimed, why does this not shock me.

The cost to repair this slide topper since it’s no longer in production is $400.00. This will restore full functionality and also can be used as an awning for the kitchen and living area which will be fantastic. I believe this is the last item the dealer “touched” that we have to re-repair, I have to go through the list to make sure. This also means we need to add the unlock and re-lock to our check list when we make and break down camp.

I’m tempted to call the dealer and ask why they did what they did but having a full fledged embolism isn’t something I look forward too and I’m sure somehow they would just blame it on me or tell me “an RV is a method to get to a destination, it’s not the destination” blah blah blah. Yeah, I’ll forgo that phone call to stay sane.

EDIT: Hold the phone, I just found pictures I took right before we bought the RV and several pictures after that clearly shows the mechanism in what I believe is the unlocked position. I left a message for the service tech explaining this should prove the dealer had it unlocked since day one or it’s been broken since day one. I’ll post an update tomorrow when I speak to them again, cross your fingers!

Keep in mind, this picture is prior to us buying it so it’s disgustingly dirty. Look at the claws in the open position, I believe they should be closed when the slide is in. If anybody knows please comment ok? Thanks!

Saturday 4/2/11 2.5 Mile Walk, Hennepin Canal

Saturday was windy but nice out so we decided to go for a walk and see what was along this canal at the Geneseo campground.

            Come on already!                      

 

Loki running around the campground–Geneseo, IL - 4/2/11

         How far does this go??                          Loki walks ahead.

 

            Turtles everywhere!                     Property with old trucks, cool!

 

              Cool old fire truck!                      Snowmobile stuck up a tree!

 

What’s on the other side of those tunnels?  We pause to check it out.

 

        It’s a lock! How cool is that?       People were fishing, but not catching.

 

       Hennepin Canal Parkway                 We’re back to the campground.

 

Time to relax!

We’re Home, The RV Is………… NOT

I took some time to decide if I would post this tonight or at all and decided to go ahead and write it and see how it goes. It seems we own an RV that bucks the odds and simply must have problems each and every single time we take it out.  By blogging about each and every problem it seems as if that’s all that happens when it isn’t. We had a great time on Saturday going for a 2.5 mile walk and I’ll be posting about that when I compile the pictures off of our cameras. We went during a time of year when the weather isn’t very friendly and that proved to be the case for this trip. One good day out of 4.5 days isn’t much but the storm we had last night was awesome, I love lightning storms and that one delivered. I took video with my digital camera that I still have to download and see if the video turned out or not, if it did I’ll post it.

While trying to get home today and running into issues again we both sat on the side of the road and discussed if this is what we really want to do. My stress level fixing the hot water heater, then the water inlet feed in the basement compartment and also having to work on the toilet had me going for awhile there. Buying an RV was supposed to be a way to relax and unplug a bit from the daily grind and it has proven to be a lesson in RV repair and how to deal with incompetent dealers and repair centers instead of what was intended. I don’t mind fixing things, it makes me feel good that I can, what drives me insane is when I can’t fix something, like the slide topper, well, I could fix it if I had the time and the parts but not on the side of the road during a severe wind storm.

Having said the above I want to stress that in the case of our RV 95% of what has gone wrong has more to do with the dealer we bought from than the RV. Each and every item I have had to work on aside from the water pump that burnt up because of a different repair center was worked on and not done properly by the dealer we bought from including the slide topper (details about the slide topper to follow below). The salesman cut the topper with his knife during the walk through claiming he had no choice, the dealer replaced supposedly the entire unit, as I found out today they hodge podged it together and it finally fell apart.

Lesson learned and this is another point I want to stress because I know people are out there thinking about buying an RV and seeing what we are going through as something they might go through as well so might not buy because of it.

If you are very selective about the dealer and you inspect the rig you’re interested in several times you stand a much higher chance of getting a good RV. Also, and this is the most important part investigate the dealer, had we looked into the dealer we would have found they have a reputation and we would have gone elsewhere and we are now going through the process of fixing what should have been cared for by the dealer the first time. In the end with what we paid I have been willing to handle repairs as they happen since we have saved money overall.

We gave a lot of thought to me staying in Geneseo one more night and Ronda going home because the wind was blowing at a constant rate over 30mph with no apparent lull. The weather reports were showing that high winds are in effect for the next 3 days but of course they’re always wrong since they weren’t calling for high winds today, but yet here they are. If I stayed one more night we were hoping the wind would be less severe tomorrow but of course there was always the chance it could get worse. We decided to head home and drive 50mph or less if needed. Plus, the weight of the Escape should also help keep the rig stable in these high cross winds like it did on our Iowa trip.

We pulled onto Rt. 82 going East and the wind slammed up against the drivers side of the rig, WOW it was blowing hard. We immediately wonder if we made the right decision but kept going, if they are calling for 3 days of this staying an extra day wouldn’t work.

About 30 miles from the Geneseo campground after the wind felt like it was going to tip us over I heard a very loud flapping sound. I adjust my drivers mirror and sure enough I see our slide topper unraveling and blowing in the wind. I pulled over and climbed up onto the roof, which wasn’t easy with 30+mph winds and I find that thankfully the topper reeled itself back in. I check everything and I thought it looked ok but I was wrong, we try again and got up to 20mph and sure enough it unreeled again. I pulled over again and tried to figure out how we were going to get home.

We thought about going back to Geneseo where I would stay overnight and she would go home since she had to be back at work tomorrow. Either way though I had to figure out how to keep the slide topper from ripping off of the RV, this slide topper is supposed to be new. I sat there for a few minutes as the rig rocked back and forth and came up with a plan.

I broke out my tools looking for some plastic tie straps and found 6 of them. I go climb back on the roof and got up close and personal with the mechanism’s that the slide topper uses. I notice this must be the original mechanism and the dealer didn’t replace it, just the canvas even though they told us they replaced the entire thing. I’m not shocked by what I find one bit, it’s too cold and as each Semi goes by I grab onto something because the entire rig rolls like a boat on the water.

I see the mechanism works with a gear and two claws per side that pinch the gear so it doesn’t unravel while stowed. How do I get these plastic tie straps to work, none of them are long enough to wrap around the rod so I combined two of them, made a loop of another and then tied them together so they hold the claw against the gear and then I tried to unravel the slide topper and it stays locked in position. It’s not pretty and only God knows if it will hold with the wind blowing like it is but I climb down, almost get knocked off the ladder as yet another Semi goes by. Ronda was watching through the passenger mirror to see if her husband would go flying by, I’m glad she didn’t see me flapping off of the rear ladder.

We got on the road and slowly ramped up speed and it seemed to be holding, got past 30mph and it’s still holding. Up at 50 it’s still holding so we keep heading home, only now we call Collier RV and ask if anybody will be there so we can drop the rig off and get the slide topper repaired correctly. The service advisor asks me if I have an extended warranty and I tell him yes but no idea if this is covered or not. So to end this very long post as quickly as possible we dropped the tow dolly at our storage facility and then dropped the RV at Collier.

They are going to go through our warranty paperwork and decipher if the slide topper is covered and they are also going to find out of the water pump is covered if Scott’s RV refuses to fix it. I’m to call Scott’s RV and see if they will cover the water pump since they left it running after winterizing our rig so tomorrow will be a busy day as my last day of vacation.

I can’t wait for our next camping trip…