Roadrunner in the Shop

It was nothing serious but since we were going to be here in Croswell, MI for a little while, we decided to find out how to get some things fixed on the Roadrunner.

We called Tiffin directly, then called the folks at the Good Sam's. We signed up for the Extended Service Plan which has a $250 deductible. As it turned out, most items were not covered and our bill was about that amount, so we did not file a claim.

Our list of items that needed to be fixed or checked out included:

1. Air conditioners. Both of our a/c unites seemed to be on the fritz. We worked them hard in Fort Worth and Oklahoma City in 100 degree weather before we got to Pontiac, IL. The front one wasb't working at all and the rear would cycle on a few minutes and shut off. When we set it to 72 degrees, it would not stay on long enough get below 80.
2. Toilet flusher. Our third day in the Roadrunner the toilet flusher quit working. Our ace Chief Technical Officer (CTO) (aka Pam) found the manual flush button inside the toilet tank as a work around.
3. HWH jacks. We have been leary of the jacks since they got hung up after our stay in Tennessee. We say a prayer every time we put them down and again when we hit the raise button. Also, we were not sure they were leveling correctly.
   
4. Windshield dings. The windshield had a couple of chips I wanted to take a look at. One had been repaired but I wasn't sure about the other one and didn'w want it to start creeping.
5. Wiper blades. The blades looked like they hadn't been replaced in a while, so we had them replaced.
6. Tires. I wanted a sanity check on the tires to make sure they looked OK. I had nothing in particular but since I am still a rookie at this, I wanted another opinion on how they look.

I called Tiffin and they indicated none of those items were probably under warranty, but they gave me a couple of numbers of where I could take it in for service. I was fine with that and selected American RV Service Center in Burton, MI. It is about 75 minutes from Adam's place here in Croswell, MI.

We towed the Honda to the service center, then found a Panera Breadwhere we could hang out for a few hours. It was a good morning of reading and catching up on some emails. The guys at American RV ran some diagnostics on our items with some good news/bad news.

1. The air conditioners checked out fine. They were pumping out cold air with no problem. they replace a fuse and that was all. Good news.
   
2. The toilet flusher needed a new part. They called Dometic and it was covered under warranty. Bad news was that they had to make the part (?what? this was a surprise) and it would have to be shipped and would not be there for two days. (Bad news but not unexpected)
   
3. HWH jacks checked out fine. Even though the automatic leveling says it is completely level, we may need to manually tweak with the leveling buttons. Good news.
4. The windshield dings (cracks) we re repaired which took a couple of hours. Good news.
5. Wiper blades were pretty expensive and they had to order some to replace them. Mostly good news but again, not unexpected.
6. Tires were fine and nothing to fix there. Good news.

We came back two days (Thursday) later, picked up the Roadrunner and paid the bill ($258.47). We thought they were fair and reasonable and folks you could trust. Most of the bill was for diagnostics and labor. We paid for the windshield repair and wiper blades.

We asked about near by dumpstations and they recommended Bud's Trailer Center about 3 miles away.

While at Bud's we:

• Dumped the tanks
  
• Bought Woodall's North American Campground Directory
• Bought a clear elbow for sewer hose and
• Got the LP gas tank filled

Total spent at Bud's: $80.63

Total Roadrunner service bills: $339.10
We put $200/month in our budget for RV maintenance. This is the first service/maintenance bill we have had so we are on track.

Hope you all are having a wonderful Sunday and we look forward to hearing from you. Drop us a comment when you can--those are always a boost and a fun way to find out who is reading the Roadrunner Chronicles. Thanks for checking in.