The down side of RVing

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For the first time in a year and a half of RVing, over 20,000 miles traveled, and nearly 6 months total on the road, I’m finally experiencing the “downside” of RVing - waiting for warranty work.

I am in Tampa, Florida at the dealership where I purchased my new RV last month.

Unfortunately there were two somewhat time consuming warranty issues (paint touch up and gouged linoleum floor tiles) that were not resolved before I picked up the unit.

So I set up an appointment for this week knowing I would be in Destin, Florida (still over 400 miles away from Tampa) last week.

The delivery side of this dealership leaves something to be desired. Not only did I hear stories while I was sitting around for 24 hours with NOTHING being done last month, but I got some confirmation from the service department that my “woes” aren’t unique. (sad face - don’t think I can put emotion icons in the blog).

So far I’m sitting around the very nice service waiting area with Chessy updating the blog and waiting to see what my status is for the night. If it doesn’t go into the paint shop tonight, I’ll be able to stay in my RV overnight.

It has to go to the regular service department (where it is currently), the paint shop, cabinet shop, and if time permits the chassis shop to look at my muffler that still needs attention after local Freightliner dealer in NC “fixed” it (but didn’t really fix it) a couple of weeks ago.

I KNOW it will take 3-4 days to get all the work completed, but I politely informed my service advisor I WILL be leaving here on Saturday regardless of what remains to be completed.

I’m cautiously optimistic they will get the majority of things done.

My service advisor seems to really be on the ball. While she was writing up my work order, a call came in on her Nextel walkie-talkie phone. She told the person on the other end the issue he was calling about was NOT going on the back burner and that he needed to HANDLE it. (smiley face).

They have lots of good seminars here so I went to the Cummings engine talk after I finished the paperwork and walked over to get the Jeep from the adjoining RV Park. While I was in the seminar, my advisor called to tell me which bay my RV was in and that work was being performed.

So I seem to be off to a good start.

A little earlier I had a fleeting thought to just go get a motel room so I could really kick back and relax. But I don’t really know what else I could accomplish there that I can’t here, so for now I’m being fluid.

I need to check on a couple of things with several folks here at the dealership. There’s another seminar I may attend this afternoon and others tomorrow that I’ll probably take in.

On a travel note, I managed to avoid all the severe storms that moved through on Tuesday. Hours after I departed Old Town, FL (where I spent Monday night on the Suwannee River) I saw a line of heavy storms moving through that area. We had a little rain here in Tampa yesterday, but nothing severe.

I have a few images from the campground at the Suwannee River I was going to include with this update, but they are on my external hard drive which is in my bag in the Jeep. I don’t plan on pulling it out while sitting in the waiting room. I’ll try and upload them on a later update.

Chessy is enjoying all the attention she is getting here. Folks come by all the time to greet her and pet her. I think she feels like everyone around is here just to give her loving!

Well thanks for checking in with this boring update on RV life in the waiting lane. Hopefully next week, I’ll have some fun things to report on when I arrive in the Perry, GA area early for The Rally and do some sightseeing around there.

Bruce and Chessy

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