It is hard to decide where to start when blogging a trip like this. I feel I should start at the beginning, the time just after the purchase of the camper finally came together, the camper walk through. This series of events set the tone for launching our trip, but now that I am immersed in our adventure it seems very trivial and unimportant.
I met Joel at RnR RV on Tuesday, March 25th. Joel was a pleasant guy, retired but forced back to work because he had his back crushed and it used up all his savings. I learned all this and much more as I rode around the huge service lot while learning about the new SnowRiver, looking for my truck and just waiting for the camper heating to be repaired.
The techs from RnR were hard at work diagnosing the heater problem when Joel started the run through. We walked around the camper as he pointed out all the boxes and items that would be of interest. We did a quick set-up of the rear awning and he accidentally pointed out the touch pad light switch by putting his hand on it. When I told him it was one of the special features of the TC he got pretty excited. I said there were a bunch of new features and as we went through the camper I explained what Al, from SnowRiver, had showed Linda and I at the RV show. This should have been a clue as to how the walk through would progress, but I am a little slow you know.
The techs were working inside, so Joel said we could go get the truck and get it ready to load the camper. We were walking in the direction of one of the big open bay doors; two techs had just entered and had hit the closing device on the door. As Joel walked toward the door, it lowered. I could see what was going to happen, and called out several times for Joel to stop. Joel is 64 and retired remember, his hearing aid must have been turned down so he didn’t stop. The head and door hit 5’ 6” at about the same time, maybe the door first. There was a thud and Joel leached backwards. He took the hit well, but I could tell by his eyes watering that it hurt.
We searched the huge parking lot for about ten minutes and then finally found my truck. I told Joel about the Dave Smith search incident, (see previous posts) and he was impressed with all the gear I got from that deal. I think Joel is a fifth wheel guy, so getting a free Hidden Hitch got him excited.
Finding the truck at the far end of the service area, we drove it to the bay where the TC was being repaired. I mentioned to Joel that we had been talking about a full tank of fuel in the deal and he said that we would have that taken car of and when we parked a kid jumped in and took the truck away. The techs were done, a wire on a switch in the heater had come loose and it mad it so the unit wouldn’t start. We then got to continue the interior walk through, Joel explaining some items, me explaining others. When I think back about it was rather humorous how I know more about the new features then Joel did.
We looked over everything inside and Joel explained what he could. There was one switch that he said “I’ve tried everything to figure this one out but haven’t been successful.” I should have caught the foreshadowing.
The truck arrived and I got it loaded. Joel was impressed with my backing, I was just lucky. I offered Joel a ride back to the service office and he jumped in. As I put my foot on the break to shift, we heard a sound like the mechanical engagement of something. I looked a Joel and mentioned that this model has a feature that if you leave your slide out, it would automatically bring it in before you drive away. This eliminates the rookey mistake of driving down the road with your slide out. Joel was once again impressed. I should have caught the foreshadowing, or at least put two and two together.
We drove to the office and Joel took my picture with the new camper. He said RnR will produce a calendar with my picture on it and send it to me. I drove home where Linda and I started the process of getting to know the new SnowRiver, and the job of packing all our camping items.
We worked till about 10:00 PM marching in and out of the camper loading items into their little homes. At the end of this day we both were exhausted, sleep came fast and hard.
Next morning I said good bye to Linda and jumped into the truck heading for work. I started the engine and hit the break to shift into drive and all hell broke loose. As soon as my food touched the break there was a ratcheting sound so loud that I thought I would wake the neighbors. It came from the slide mechanism door. I opened it up and sure enough the slide was trying to pull in, but it was already in. I jumped into the camper and tried pulling fuses. It didn’t stop. I then went to the battery box and disconnected the battery and that stopped it. Linda and I were in a panic. We leave tomorrow morning on our week long trip and this is not good.
As soon as I got to work I called RnR and got scheduled to go in at 1:00 PM. During the morning wait to go in and get it repaired, I wrote messages to the owner of SnowRiver and to Paul, a person who owns the same model SR, and asked them what the switch was for that Joel could not figure out. The replied and explained that the switch was an override switch for the auto slide feature. I should have guessed. It disables the system so that the slide won’t automatically retract if you step on the break. That knowledge would have helped avoid disconnecting the battery. The owner of SR, Bob, was concerned about the slide problem and said that he had experienced the symptoms I was experiencing before and told me to have RnR call him as soon as I arrived there.
At 1:00 PM I arrive at RnR and at 2:30 PM I left RnR. They had to disable the auto slide feature, Bob is sending a new “box” down and we will get it repaired when I return from our vacation. They said we should have no further problems, with that said we resumed packing and got ready to travel to Utah the next morning.
No comments:
Post a Comment