Problems on the Road

[GeneF]

On a long trip, you do worry about what will go wrong and how the problem will be solved.  After this trip, I am not going to worry as much.

On our trip, we ran into a couple of problems with the Kiwi.

In Wisconsin, the water pump would cycle on and off every 8 minutes and the smoke alarm started going off at wierd times.

I called Jayco and asked for a local dealer. They gave me the name of one in Minnesota.

At 10 am on a Friday I called them and asked for an appointment for Monday. They said they were booked but they asked me where I was. We were in Wisconsin at the time but the service person said we were about an hour from them. He said that I could bring it in at 1 that afternoon.

We arrived there about 12:50 and I went in to talk to the service manager to again explain my problems. He took the info down and by 1, the Kiwi was in the shop and a technician was working on the Kiwi. By 2:30, I was on the road again with a new water pump, smoke alarm, a gas leak check and grease put in the bearings. All at no charge to me.

These guys were fantastic in their service and customer relations.

A week later, I broke one of the black knobs on the Carefree Awning and stopped by an RV dealer that we happened to be passing. They did not have the Carefree knob but again, I got great service.

One of the tech's said wait a minute. He got one of the knobs that he had in stock, went out to a camper on the lot, opened the awning and compared the two knobs. He decided that it would fit. He went over to my camper, opened the awning and installed the knob for me. Cost of the two knobs I bought, $8.50 with no labor charge.

However, it cost me about $100 when DW decided that they had a chair there that she really liked. Oh well, I was happy and she was also.

Next problem revolves around the black water tank. I use a Flush King and learned a bit on this one. When backflushing, I was timing how long the water was going in. I started at 1 minute, then 2 minutes, then 3 minutes, then four minutes. At four minutes I heard a pop and thought DW had dropped something inside the Kiwi. Not the case. All I heard was a scream from DW that there was water all over the floor in the bathroom. Luckily I had flushed a few times and the water was pretty clean. Took about an hour to clean up that mess.

When I went back out, I happened to notice something hanging under the Kiwi. When I got down to look, I knew what the "ppp" had been. It seems that the black tank had expanded during the back flushing and it broke one of the straps that help support the black tank.

We stopped at another dealer and it cost me $20 for the new strap and labor. Figured I did that one and no need to bother Jayco.

I have a couple of other problems to take up with my dealer this week.

As I was pulling out of a gas station that had a large dip, I heard the back of the Kiwi scrape on the two scrape bars underneath. When I had a chance to check, both were hanging by one bolt. The other bolt had broken on both of them. At least the black tank didn't get damaged.

Other problem involves the paneling by the fridge. We pulled into a campground that had a weird setup on their sites. You had to park one behind the other.

As we were pulling into the site, we had to drive over a hump that may have twisted the trailer a little. In the process of setting up, Dw opened the slideout and heard a pop. When i went in, the panelling alongside the fridge had buckled in. I think it can be fixed but I hope the dealer will take care of it under warrantee.

Here are a couple of other things to remember:

One is to make sure you crank up the tongue jack before you drive off. I forgot one time and that jack makes a great wood splitter. Tore up the piece of wood I had it resting on.

Also, remember to hook up the electrical cord before you drive off. Love the Prodigy. Two times I forgot to do this and realized it when I didn't see the "C" on the display.

Interesting thing is that I did this both times when I didn't unhitch for the night. I guess I wasn't following my usual routine and didn't think of it.

One other bit of advice, be sure that you have two sewer hoses, one ten feet and one 20 feet. I had to use both on this trip.

Also, bring along an extra electric cord. Some sites have the electricity in weird places.

Oh yeah, an extra 10 feet of water hose will come in handy.

My latest saga happened this week after we got back.  I was taking the Kiwi to the dealer to be winterized.  I suddenly realized I didn't have the trailer keys in my pocket.  I figured that I might had left them at home but was luckily enough to have a spare set in the truck.

When I got home.  I could not find the keys.  Finally figured that I had left the keys on the hitch and drove off.

This morning, (three days later) DD and I took a walk.  We found the keys on the side of the road about 1/2 mile from the house.  Boy, did I feel lucky.

[tlhdoc]

It doesn't sound like too bad of a trip.  You sure were lucky to find the keys.

[Kelly]

Hey Gene ~

Did I ever tell you about the time we lost a wheel while on a road trip?      

Sounds like a great trip!!  I'm glad you got good service here in Minnesota ...
and I'm glad you and Terry made it home safely.[/FONT]

[PopupSgt]

Hey Gene ~

Did I ever tell you about the time we lost a wheel while on a road trip?      

Sounds like a great trip!!  I'm glad you got good service here in Minnesota ...
and I'm glad you and Terry made it home safely.[/FONT]

Kelly,
I don't think that I have ever heard the lost wheel story [/color]:p

Gene,
It seems for the distance that you covered that you relatively had a good experience with the camper, I hope that with our new hybrid we won't encompass the problems experienced each time we ventured out with our past popup.