Day#2 in Red Bay, Alabama
We are sitting at the Tiffin repair facility just next to the factory where I beloved home became reality. We pulled in last night around 5:45pm (CST), driving the entire 480 miles. For those that know how we travel, know that this is an extremely long day for us. We always get fooled because of the time change…..forgetting that our bodies are still one hour ahead of us. And because Peg is still “contracting”, that meant I did all the driving, with Christine the cat as my co-pilot. Peg (and Hannah) spent pretty much the whole trip sitting at the dinette table with her PC and the Verizon MiFi card. This was actually a pretty good test; we both wanted to see if Peg could still work while I drove. We both can say this though; there will be no more 480 mile trips in our future with only one driver….way to taxing!
Alas, we are here. When we did pull in to register, we needed to fill out our service request paperwork, and then go to our assigned site. When we called them last week, we were told that by this time of year, the park was starting to thin out, but not from what we can see…it is full. As a matter of fact, they told us we were in the last full-hook-up site. The service writer (Norris, a kindly soul) stopped by this morning to go over our work requests and to get us in line. We are in what is called the “express line” because it should not take much more than 3-4 hours to do pretty much everything, so we may be out of here by this weekend.
They will be replacing both the pilot side front window, and front dining-room slide window. All our windows are dual-pane, and these have lost their seal, so they are all clouded. The pilot side window is the worst. Next they will be checking the house battery charging solenoid, which is a little device that connects the house battery bank so they get charged when the engine is running. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. Normally it is not an issue for us, but when we use the inverter (gives us 110V power off the batteries) we need to keep those batteries charged, otherwise they will shut down after about 6-7 hours of use. This is the first time we pushed that envelope, as Peg’s laptop and MiFi card were plugged in for the entire trip. It was fine when we left Gaffney, SC, (around 9am) but we stopped about 20 miles down the road to get some fuel. Apparently it did not work once I restarted the engine, and when we stopped for lunch (around 2pm) I noticed the voltage was down to 110V and the batteries were in the red, sitting at about 12.2V. normally the inverter is putting out 119-121V and the batteries should be sitting at 13.1V (charged). After lunch when I restarted it was fine again, so we will have the folks here check it out and replace the solenoid if needed. The third thing we are having done is have the guys check out our step cover adjustment. Once we are mobile, there is a pneumatic driven step cover that covers the step well near the door. Last year I replaced the air-step solenoid, and ever since then when we activate the step cover it shoots out like a cannon. My attempts to adjust it have been to no avail. So now, we let the experts handle it. We are also having them recover one of valances over the dinette window. It was in pretty sad shape, so I pulled that off today and took it right up to the fabric shop so they could get a head start on it.
OK, the new windows. This is pretty amazing, and it is a testament to quality customer service. We are very impressed. Our coach is a 2005, making it 6 years old. The initial warranty is 1 year, but the windows are actually warranted for 4 years. That takes us 2 years past the normal period. Ever since we noticed the pilot side window starting to cloud up, and then watching it get worse over the winter, I could not help but think this should not happen. Tiffin had already replaced two windows for us, the pilot side (once before) and one in the back bedroom. When I called Tiffin they did tell me that they were warranted for the four years, and I felt that was fair so I was willing to do it at my expense. I figured I would push the issue once we got here. Anyway, as I was driving yesterday (we were about 30 miles east of Atlanta on I85), and Peg was happily doing her thing at the table, I decided to call Bob Tiffin (the owner) and ask him if he could have someone look at them while we were here and tell me why they are failing. I was not expecting anything but that. I did get his voice mail, left him the message about the pilot window (I neglected to mention the dinette window at the time) and then continued down the road. To my surprise, my phone rings not 5 minutes after I left the message. It was Bob Tiffin, agreed that it should not happen, and no problem, just come in and they would take care of it. He told me to tell the folks at registration that I was to go into the express lane, then talk with a woman named Jena once we got our paperwork filled out as she would be expecting us.When we did arrive, and filled out the service paperwork, I noted that Bob had approved the pilot window, but I did not get a chance to mention the dinette window. When Norris came by this morning to see what we had, and he said they would just order the two windows (if they did not have any in stock) and he would make note of it for the actual service folks. Anyway, this morning after I took down the valance, I needed to drop it off to the service office with a woman named Rita. When I went to the office to see her, I noticed her office mate writing my name on two pink slips. That’s when I noticed her name plate on the desk…..it was Jena. I said “hey, that’s me” and she then told me that she was ordering two windows for us. She also mentioned that when she talked with Bob yesterday he had only mentioned the one, so I explained to her about how my conversation was so quick with Bob that I totally forgot to mention the other one. She said she would check it out and let me know. I went out to the truck to get the valance for Rita, and when I left, I thanked Jena for her help. She then told me that it was all cleared up; they would be replacing the two windows at no charge. Now that’s customer service!
We are still not sure if we will be taking the coach up north first and then drive the truck back to FL, or if we will just take the coach back to Starke for the month. If we get out of Red Bay by this weekend, then we need to make a decision soon.
Later……