Thursday morning Pat headed to work and I headed to Lazydays. I booked the earliest time I could and hoped to have the repair completed in one day.....RIGHT!
They took it in at 8:20a.m. and within a couple of hours I had the verdict. Sure enough the coolant was depleted, oils leaked out, compressor and all the hardware failed. It seems the seals leaked and everything except the rubber hoses needed to be replaced. No problem, $1,549.00 of repairs, what the heck, we're covered! But, I've got to be the overnight guest of Lazydays. It's going to take eight hours to complete all the repairs. All that was needed was the Good Sam ESP authorization! ........DENIED! It seems the agent who told me a couple of weeks earlier we are covered forgot to mention that our Journey is two years beyond the coverage that includes seals and gaskets! The coverage is good for a motor home up to seven years or 70,000 miles. Our Journey is nine years old with 54,400 miles. After the age or mileage limits are reached you must add "Extended Seals and Gasket" coverage in order to be covered. It sure is nice to know that NOW!
After a whole lot of angst and phone calls I had to make a decision. We're already into Lazydays for the cost to inspect the system ($200.00). We either wasted the $200.00 and come back (in the future), repay the diagnostics plus the total costs to repair the system. We decided to go for it.
... and so I hunkered down in the bay, headed to Cracker Barrel for supper, bought a quart of beer at the Flying J, some Cracker Jacks and made a night of it!
Hey, looking at the bright side, I didn't have the same problem my neighbor did....
Naturally I walked around a lot the next day. Ate their breakfast and lunch and made lots of phone calls to Good Sam Extended Service Plan.
I managed to talk to a Good Sam Claims Supervisor. He suggested I try "pleading my case" to the Good Sam ESP Review Board. Now, you all know that I like to write.... soooooo, just this morning I faxed the Review Board forms, copy of my service receipt and my two page letter. We shall see what transpires.
I checked out a few Class C's. I even took a few photos to show Pat. However, thinking about another rig right now is a moot question!
Working around cars and mechanical things all my life I just couldn't resist "checking out" the Technicians work.
He had a "bear" of a time getting the compressor off. I wouldn't want any part of working on a diesel pusher. Check this out......
The above photo is taken lying on my back looking up at the left side of the engine. The bright round mount is the oil filter seat. He had to remove the oil filter just to get his hands on the bolts of the compressor. The bolts were frozen solid on the compressor. Thankfully, he did a great job of getting the bolts off without damaging the block mounts. But, look at what he had to do to get the compressor off...
He had to destroy the bolt-through castings of the body of the compressor. There are also the two hose connections at the top of the compressor that snapped off trying to free them. Ain't the Northeast snow and salt great for metals?
Compare the new compressor....
I must admit, Joel did a very good job in spite of one extremely aggravating task.
I headed out at just before 5:00p.m. on Friday and got to enjoy cool air coming from my dash and the pouring rain of Tropical Storm "Debby!"
Pat's doing very well at ESPN Wide World of Sports. She's also "slammed" with shifts, the summer is truly their busiest season. At least we've got most of August free to take a break.
In other news, here's a few photos (taken today) for those of you who reside at Encore Lake Magic. Larry and Judy emailed me today and wondered how their rig is doing in storage. Well, the few summer residents are enjoying "water front" campsites.
Darlene and Buzz' site.
Duane and Kathy's and beyond.
"Just Jack's" site looking toward our site in the 800 loop.
Jack, all is well. The three bungee cords you have going under and across the mid section of your tarp popped off. One of the material clamps broke causing the others to strain and pop off. I got them secured and all is well.
Actually, the campsite and the "Four Corners" area fared well as "Debby" slowly tracked over us. We were spared the high winds and tornado's. They seemed to go around us, thankfully!
And for those of you who store your rigs in the Campground's storage area here you are.....
(Click on the photos to enlarge them.)
John (Manager) tells me that a family of hawks have set up house-keeping near Larry and Judy's fifth wheel.
(I think Larry and Judy's rig is the fourth from the right.)
Don't worry Larry and Judy, except for a lot of squawking, the hawks don't seem to be bothering your rig!
John has watched the hawks grow and get louder. I think he's ready for them to move out.
He's also been enjoying the family of gray foxes that have found a home in Lake Magic.
So, be sure you check your rigs really good when all of you return.
Speaking of checking your rig, I had a learning experience when dropping off our motor home for the A/C service. We were doing the "walk-around" with the Service Writer and I noticed what appeared to look like (pardon the phrase) someone threw a six inch long "poop" on the metal wrap of our awning. At a closer look it was a huge mud-dauber's nest. I got up on my ladder and proceeded to get that thing off my rig!
I hit it with a brush and it popped off, hit the ground and broke open. I couldn't resist checking this thing out. I could see spiders in the tubes of the nest. What the......? I thought mud-daubers are wasps?????
It turns out, they are. Fortunately, they are not very aggressive and you can easily get rid of them. But what about the spiders????? Here's what I learned, the mother mud-dauber places the egg in the nest and hunts down spiders and seals one into each tube with an egg. Hence, when the egg hatches the new born has something to eat!
...... and now you know the rest of the story, good day!
