Monday the 28th of March, I opened my eyes and looked at the top of the refrigerator from where I lay in bed. It looked wrong. The light pattern indicating operating mode showed that it was operating on propane. In my sleep dazed mind, I processed this information and wondered why. The obvious answer surfaced, we did not have 120 volt AC current available. The rain and the storms could have had that result. A quick look out the window told me that this was not throughout the campground, the power lights showed on most pedestals in my viewing area. There was nothing to do but check out our own pedestal and power source. Problem! There was adequate power to the outlet on the pedestal. I could get 120 volt AC from the generator, but not from the shore power cord. I checked the various fuse boxes and circuit breakers to assure myself that we had not simply tripped a breaker, no such luck.
Time to call Fleetwood, they don’t even open their Customer Relations line until 6 AM Pacific Time, it was 7:30 AM EST. At 8 I called Brandon Shepard at Meyers and discussed trouble shooting alternatives, but he had nothing new to offer. By 9:15 the Customer Relations folks had not responded to my voicemail so I called them again. Theresa answered ON THE MOTORHOME LINE and walked me through the trouble shooting guide to the same result. She agreed to help locate a Fleetwood Service Center and eventually directed us to Tall Paul’s Campers in Macon. First Boo! Tall Paul’s Campers only handles trailers, trailers that do not have 110 volt circuits. They only work on 12 Volt. Theresa had told these people that I was pulling a trailer with a 12 volt problem, she did this with me on hold waiting to be conferenced in for directions.
A cheer! Johnny B and his buddy completed the diagnosis, located the Transfer Switch and pointed out the burned smell emanating from the area. They had no parts and no training to complete the repair. While Johnny was reviewing options and waiting for a call from Fleetwood that never came, the other guy went up on the roof with me and put sealer on two small rips in the caulking that had let some water into the coach the day before. They suggested that I contact Newcastle RV in Bryan, GA as they ought to have the ability to make the fairly simple swap of transfer switch for a new one. A call to Newcastle resulted in the second BOO.
Their response was that they were booked until May and with prodding they agreed that they would work on the coach for their Emergency Rate of $97.50 and hour as opposed to the warranty rate of $79.50 that they would get from Fleetwood. I told them that I was less than pleased by their lack of willingness to service RVers in trouble on the road. This will be posted on RV.net and sent as a letter to the RV magazines. No dealer that refuses to make room in its service schedule for away from home RVers should have any business from any RV buyers. Aavoid Newcastle RV in Bryan, GA and send them a message.
Johnny B was not done. He had worked at Dick Gore RV in Savannah and knew the overall service manager, Ron Bolen. I called Ron, explained my problem and he said “bring it in, we will either fix it or set you up so you can draw power overnight and complete the repair in the morning.” A great big cheer for Dick Gore RV and Ron Bolen. We pulled in 3 and a half hours later (it is 180 miles) and after I explained to Kresta, the Warranty manager, what Ron had said, she had John Smith reschedule his work load and get right to our problem. Within minutes he had found the burned wire which resulted from a badly execute crimp at the factory and which had taken out the transfer switch. The switch it turns out is manufactured by World Friends Company (WFCO) a Chinese firm. They are first being used on the ‘04s. The part is being shipped overnight from California for installation today. No parts depot has this part in stock, it is coming from Fleetwood and it was too late to ship from Pennsylvania, but still time to ship from California, go figure!
The people at Dick Gore RV have been very helpful and pleasant. The experience is of course trying for us and we have been working very hard at maintaining our sense of humor. After all we did get back to Savannah, GA in a most unexpected way. We ended up at Whispering Pines Campground which we stayed at here on our very first extended trip in the summer of 2001. Going through the journal as we drove here I remembered that we had gone to dinner at The Bistro Savannah back then and had liked it so much we went there twice in our three nights in town. That is where we had dinner last night and it exceeded our expectations. I am so glad that we “let the smoke out” of that switch so we could have this experience.
We pulled into Dick gores at 10:45 AM as planned and they immediately pulled us into the service area and John came on board with the new part. By 11:45 we were on the road with everything working just fine. Big thanks to Kresta, John, Alan and all the people at Dick Gores RV for taking good care of total strangers in need of emergency service far from home. They are good folks, and I will shop in there stores in Savannah and Florida when I am near and have a need (or a want).
I am posting this from the comfort of Malena and Dan’s living room. I have some fun stories to tell about our trip here in my next posting.