Roadrunner Memories: Camping at the Repair Shop(s)

We were in Richmond VA at the Atlantic Cummins shop earlier this month to check out our 'cold start'.

We scheduled our time here to check out our starter.  At times, it is sluggish even after preheating the engine overnight.  We have new chassis batteries, so we were thinking it may be a starter or a solenoid or a charge issue with the inverter or??

Really not sure but we wanted to check it out instead of just crossing our fingers.

The set up here for staying overnight is fine.  Completely adequate but nothing fancy.  It got us to think about where and when we have parked overnight and stayed in the repair shop parking lot.  We have done that a few times.

For the fun of it (and for curiosity sake) I decide to look back over the years and note when we had actually done that:

October 2009 - Freightliner, Dallas TX 
This was our first experience getting towed outside of Waco, Texas.  Replaced a fuel pump and stayed in the coach overnight at their new facility.  It had 50 amp service and was a brand new facility.

March 2012 - Fleet Maintenance, Fort Walton Beach FL

We stayed at the Ft Benning Army Recreation Center RV Park in Destin when we saw a leak.  We were able to drive it over to Fort Walton Beach.  They had to replace gaskets and other stuff and let us stay in the coach.  We were able to plug into a 50 amp circuit and left later the next evening.

October 2012 - Freightliner Factory Service Center, Gaffney SC
We attended the Camp Freightliner course and were able to stay free at one of the campground sites at the facility.  Had full hookups and internet.

July 2013 - HWH Factory, Moscow Iowa
Broke a foot on the rear jack and had it replaced.  Also replaced the electronic keypad on the driver's console. Parked in one of their free sites (W/E, no sewer).

April 2015 - Freightliner Service Center, Gaffney SC
Had some routine yearly maintenance done.  Stayed overnight in one of the full hookup sites

August 2015 - Bay Diesel, Red Bay AL
Roadrunner was 'chugging' going up hill.  It was a tough one to diagnose.  The mechanics worked on it all day and we stayed overnight parked in front of one of their bays.  They hooked us up with 50 amp.  Finally, after they changed a fuel pump and it was still doing it, Chris Thompson got us an appointment with the Cummins folks at MHC in Tupelo.

September 2015 - MHC Kenworth, Tupelo MS
Changed out two more fuel pumps before they figured out it was the fuel line to the gas tank that was causing the issues. Was able to stay a few nights parked outside the rear bay but hooked up with 50 amp electric.

May 2016 - Custom RV, Vina AL
Stayed out front of Brannon Hutcheson's shop.  Had a sheared bolt on the front DS which he replaced plus a number of things on our list.

August 2016 - Cummins Northwest, Portland OR
Time for yearly service on our fuel filters.  Stayed overnight in one of their eight full hook up sites at their Coach Care facility.

August 2016 - HWH Factory, Moscow IA
Had a broken chain on our PS slideout which we got repair there.  Stayed overnight in one their small but adequate campsites with 50 amp/water.

December 2016, Cummins South, Ocala FL
Made an appointment to have them check out why the Roadrunner seemed to start so slow.  They determined we needed to replace a couple chassis batteries.  Stayed one night with 50 amp/water.

February 2017 Atlantic Cummins, Richmond VA
Wanted to check out if there was an issue with the starter or solenoid.  They troubleshot as best they could but determined there was no issue.  We were OK with that and liked their customer service.  We stayed overnight parked outside one of their rear service bays with 50 amp service.

Surprisingly, that is about 12 times that we have parked overnight (or for a few nights) outside of a repair facility.  Seven times the business had a parking spot/camp site with hook ups, the other five times, they had a 50 amp electrical outlet we were able to plug into.

Though it is not my favorite way to spend the night, it always has turned out OK and been part of the intrigue of this adventure!

Thanks for joining us today on the Roadrunner Chronicles!



-->

In-N-Out Cummins

The Roadrunner has been hesitating going up hills a little ever since I had a brain freeze and put a few gallons of gas into the diesel tank.  That was about six weeks ago.

While in Portland Pam called the local Cummins facility and they said it would be three weeks before they could get us in.  And they recommended Cummins Northwest which is a RV CoachCare repair facility.  It is located right outside of Spokane on I-90.

Not to overstate it, but this might be the best RV-friendly repair facility we have visited.  We were very glad to see the back-in parking spaces with 50 amp and water.

 We got in early afternoon on Sunday and had our choice of two spaces.  (Don't know why that had two school buses over there but a couple of motor homes that arrived later than we did could have parked there.)

We had time to go over the Fairchild AFB which was about five miles away.  We had been there five years ago when we had another Warner Bros Reunion in 2011.  We did some grocery shopping and returned to our parking spot.  It was an uneventful evening and watched the Olympics enjoyed the beautiful 90 degree weather.

We were there with some other folks when the door opened a few minutes before 7:00 AM and talked to Tim the Service Manager.  Pam had spoken to him a few weeks ago and he remembered.  Pam had a hunch it was the fuel filters that needed to be changed so that's what we asked them to do.

Tim said, "We'll try to work you in, but we are real busy and we may not get to you before your Thursday appointment."  That was three days away.  But we were hopeful.  How long can it take to change a couple of filters?

We explained what we thought the problem was and the fact the fuel filters are easy to get to to and....yada yada yada.

To our amazement about 20 minutes later Jesse the mechanic walked out and drove the Roadrunner into the shop!  He was waiting on parts from another job and had some time to work on ours.

Next we went into their small but comfortable Customer Lounge and used their wifi which was fast. I went over to the Parts Department and was able to get a baseball hat.  (Can one have too many hats?) Then I went back to the lounge and logged on.

I didn't get very far before the job was done!  It may have been 20 minutes.  It probably took as long to do the paperwork as it did to replace the filters.  $213 later and we had new ones on and a couple of spares in the passenger seat for next time.

We thanked Tim profusely and hooked up the car and made it to Mizzoula Montana for the night.  We had a few mountains to climb and it drove like a champ.  Needless to say we were pretty excited about how things went at the Cummins facility.  We are going to add this one to the list that is worth waiting for to get the Roadrunner worked on if we need to again out West.

It's a medium size facility with about 10-12 service bays, has electric and water hook ups and has a dump station to boot!  And the Petro truck stop is just down the street.  So we were able to fill up and get going in record time.  It is right off of I-90 and a little noisy but not a problem really.  (Especially when you run the a/c or ceiling fan.  Not much we could do about the trains but that is part of the charm in these parts...

It was a great experience at Northwest Cummins! We highly recommend and will remember this place.  That's all for now on the Roadrunner Chronicles. Thanks for stopping by.