MORE WAITING, THEN THE REPAIRS BEGIN

Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, April 13, 14, 15

I am lumping three days into this posting, since the all three were just a clone of the first! These days consisted of waiting, walking around the Tiffin Service Center (TSC), driving to Jack's for lunch, again walking around the TSC (necessary after lunch at Jack's), and watching some TV in the evenings. We did meet some interesting folks when we were out and about, although we had a lot of rain and indoor time. All in all, it was relaxing, interesting at times and boring at other times.

Thursday, April 16

This day started out like the previous three and after an assumption (last we heard we were #15 on the list) that we would not be called into the service bay; we settled inside to relax. We were spread out with computers, magazines, etc. and outside we had full hookups (water, sewer and electric). At noon we got the call; be at bay 5 at 12:30! Wow, with mixed emotions of joy and stress (30 mins to get unhooked and ready to roll) we started hustling to get into the bay on time.

We made it into the bay, met our technician and soon after looking over our list, the work began. He started with our rear ac/heat pump problem, turn out to be the thermostat which he replaced. He also got on the roof and adjusted some kind of band that holds the fan in place (it was hitting the cowling slightly).  Next he replaced the magnetic guage on our propane tank, now for the first time in over a year our propane guages work! Upon completing those tasks, it seemed it was too late to start another, so we left the bay at about 3PM until the next day.

Friday, April 17

We learn our lesson on the previous day and did not hook up anything (except electric) and did not spread out for the night. We easily got ready and were at the bay door before 7 AM. The great thing about this place is that for most of the service, they allow you to stay in the coach if you so desire. Since most all the work is on the outside, we so desired to stay in the coach a while to drink coffee! We offered our service tech (name withheld for now) coffee, which he graciously declined in favor of his usual breaktime routine of sausage biscuit and soda.

Meanwhile, he began knocking out tasks from our list. Our fridge was icing in the bottom of the freezer. The problem was resolved by removing something called a "duckbill" from the drain line. It seems this part was installed to keep out dirt daubers and other critters, however it only freezes up and causes the drain line to back up and freeze as well (or so I was told). Since this is a residential fridge and the back is not opened similar to a propane fridge; I don't know why you need to worry about dirt daubers anyway? Another question that I did not ask, where does the drain line lead? Where does it drain? I will ask that question once we return to the bay.

Next he tackled our rear furnace problem. The furnace just "died" and would not start. It  turn out to be a circuit board gone bad. Once replaced the furnace worked fine, but made a noise while firing up. Our service tech decided (with our avid approval) to pull the furnace, clean it and check for cracks. No cracks, furnace cleaned and re-installed, it now is quieter.

The rest of the day resulted in a replacement power knob that closes the exhaust fan in the front bathroom, a new strap for the generator tail pipe, new caulking for all my running lights and door, the a lock adjustment on a bay door.

One of the arms on my large awning was bowed outward at the hydraulic spring, he ordered the awning arms (only come with two in a pack), but by the time the right parts came to the bay,  it was too close to closing (especially for a Friday) to start the repair.

In the meantime, he took a look at our bedroom slide, which has been making a lot of scraping noise when closing. I thought it was probably out of alignment and could be re-aligned. He informed me that it utilized a Liepart system (probably spelled wrong), which meant the slide room rolls wheels and the track leaves no room for aligning side to side. Wow, talking about bad engineering! His first solution that came to mind is to remove the mirror on the wall where the slide scrubs it. The mirror was factory installed so you would think that the clearance was there for it. Also if you get on the floor and look under toward the slide you can see daylight where the seals meet the wheels on which the slide room rolls. Does not seem like a good system. Anyway, the problem has been deferred until Monday morning, when we are to report to the bay at 7AM again, :)