Monday morning, Norris (service manager) came by and we
reviewed our list of repair items. He
said it would be a week and a half before they could get to us. We resigned to sit still until we could get
the items fixed. (Note: Norris typically
gives you the worst-case time estimates.) Meanwhile, we called Bay Diesel and
made an appointment for chassis service the next day. We also contacted Nick Brewer who installs
custom electronics after Tiffin’s normal service hours about a new satellite
antenna. Our 2007 Bus came with the
Trac-King in-motion satellite antenna that has become obsolete. It only picks up one of three satellites on a
good day and never local channels.
We made an appointment with Nick to install the Winegard Trav’ler antenna on Thursday. For technical reasons I wanted to switch service to Direct TV, but after becoming totally frustrated trying to get them to understand that I wanted service ONLY in my RV, I decided to just stick with DISH. When you buy a $200 antenna for home use, it is not as big a commitment as when buying the $2000 Trav’ler. Hopefully, DISH Network will serve us well.
We enjoyed meeting other Tiffin motorhome owners and hearing
about their experiences, problems, and modifications. On this trip, I met a lady named Sue who
showed me what she and her husband had done to modify their coach. Some of the cabinet modifications peaked my
interest and Sue immediately put me in touch with Chris Berry who did the
woodwork. I contacted Chris who came by
and we talked about some custom cabinetwork he could do over the next week and
a half.
Bay Diesel took care of the routine chassis maintenance by
changing the engine oil, transmission fluid, drive belt, and all air/fuel/oil
filters. They also serviced the air tank
reservoir. I am not exactly sure what this is, but when we were driving The Bus
would be constantly hissing air on and off.
Since compressed air is used to operate the brakes and air bag
suspension, it is something that must be in top condition. I think they drained some water accumulator
or something and it works fine now. This
is another system I will need to study up on how it works.
On Tuesday afternoon, the Tiffin scheduler called and told
us to report to bay 3 at 7am on Wednesday (three days and they got us in a
bay!). When we arrived and met the
technicians, I handed them a box of parts I had removed from the windshield
wiper motor assembly and a new motor. I
thought the guy was going to make me sign a statement that I would never touch
the windshield wiper system again.
Apparently, I had removed several things that do not need to be removed
when changing the motor. He was a good
sport and got it all back together correctly.
He also swapped in a new Aqua-Hot control thermostat. I have been in constant contact with the
Aqua-Hot engineers trying to determine why our system acts so erratically. They narrowed it down to this sensor and paid
for the installation. It worked and I
cannot say enough good things about how Aqua-Hot has stood behind their product
and warranty. 
Next, the technicians worked on a leak we had in our grey
water tank. These tanks catch and hold
the sink and shower water. We noticed
that when it is half full or more and we move The Bus, we would see water
leaking out each side. They quickly
found that the pipe going into the top of the tank had cracked and could be
replaced without removing or having to replace the whole tank.
After that, we asked them where our thermostat sensors were
for Zone 1 and Zone 2 heating and cooling.
We noticed other coaches of the same year model have visible sensors and
we could not find any. They searched,
found them and replaced them with more modern sensors. Overall heating and cooling is much more
consistent now. They fixed a few other
odds and ends and we were done before 3pm.
On Thursday, we relocated to a self-service campground near
Nick’s place and waited for him to arrive.
We met him at 4:30pm and he quickly removed our old King Dome Trac-King
antenna and installed the new Trav’ler.
By 7pm we were outside watching the new antenna locate and lock on the
all three Dish Network satellites. We
called Dish and they activated local channels for us. It was great to finally get all the channels
we pay for each month.
On Friday, we called Chris Berry and told him we had
finished up early and were ready to meet him and complete some work or just do
it on our next visit. He said come on
over and we parked outside his woodshop in the country. He connected us to power and began building
custom drawers, slide outs, and improved my bedroom TV mounting system. It took him most of the day and he allowed us
to stay there overnight. The small
improvements Chris made give us extra room and make it easier to access things
in the back of the cabinets.
On Saturday, we headed to Auburn, AL to have my doctor look
at something that had me concerned. We
figured that we may be there several weeks if it required surgery, so we made
reservations at the Auburn RV Park. We
always enjoy this park and the friendly owners.
My doctor sent me to a specialist in Columbus, GA that is near Ft
Benning. Since my sons were out of
school, I offered to take them by Ft Benning for a little shooting practice
before my appointment. My youngest son,
Chris took me up on the offer and as we passed through the gate realized that
his military dependent ID card had expired.
Something we would need to address on this visit. When we got to the shooting
range, it had just closed due to a safety incident. Bummer.
We headed over to my appointment with the specialist and I was relieved
when he said I have nothing to be worried about and no procedures are
necessary. Yeah!
Once back in Auburn, I discovered that my oldest son’s ID
card was about to expire and since he is turning 23, he is no longer able to receive
one. This is a big deal since the military ID card is our health insurance ID
card as well. I discovered that he is no
longer covered by our family health care even though he is my dependent and a
full-time college student. We arranged to
purchase individual health care at the cost of what I would normally consider
to be a car payment each month.
Ouch! I made an appointment at Ft
Benning for the following day for Chris to get his new ID card. We went back over there, got his ID card and
were able to shoot on the range for a couple hours. I also had time to clean up The Bus a bit and found that using an old Scrub Daddy and some Simple Green does a nice job on the wheels.
Thanks for keepingupwiththejonesrv!
Tip: Follow this link
to Red Bay After Hours technicians: http://www.rvtechlibrary.com/redbay/afterhours.pdf
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