What a week!

We made our mad dash to Oregon without problems, had to fight overheating several times, but with some downshifting and keeping the revs up I was able to hold it to about 222df.  So we got here to Guaranty RV Park, a new campground the dealership put in for their own customers and folks like us passing through.  It is very nice, all paved with concrete sites, lots of room, decent price and so very convenient for us, The Corian and cabinet shop, Amazing Creations is 1.5 miles away, and the shop to repair our slide, the reason we are here in Oregon, Elite is 5 miles away!

So first thing Monday morning we meet Scott with Amazing to take a look at our cracked Corian, and so he can measure for a drawer we want built.  I should say Scott does Amazing work:)  He built us our custom cabinet in the living area with attached bookshelves, a swinging door mount for our TV in the bedroom and a few other odds and ends.  Everything looks absolutely perfect, and as if it had always been here.  Anyway, he measures and tells us he can fix us up later in the week, so step 2, we go up the road to our very important slide appointment at Elite.  

You can see the crack caused by heat, the stove top is right there

And hard to see, it continues about 6 inches across the counter

Thankfully after inspecting our slide, both Marty and Erik feel with some adjustment to take the majority of the weight of the slide off the rollers, the way it should have been, will take care of it.  They agree that the welded repair we got in Texas was excellent and the rollers look good.  Oh wow, thank God we don't have to pull the slide out!! 

Ready to go at Elite!

It turns out it is really a twofold blame game with this slide.  One Monaco didn't secure it adequately to the wall when it was built, and two, it slid down some causing the rollers to support most of the weight instead of about 25% as designed.  The slide mechanism is called an X-arm, and it is just that, a huge steel X that scissors in and out to move the slide, and support it from the wall.

Part of the X arm in the front of the slide

Detached for adjustment

Access is a problem, and this is the easy end!

But they successfully adjusted it and we are confident the problem is solved.  

I had previously talked to Freightliner on the phone so I ran over to talk directly to them and set up an appointment for them to replace our hydraulic pump, they said it would have to be Friday at 7am to get in the queue.  

We took Tuesday off:-)  Then on Wednesday, we did errands, Jan got her hair cut, I got a medical test done, and we got manly tires put on the new truck, gotta take advantage of no sales tax, right?

Our manly tires, yes they bought the almost new ones that they took off

Now on Thursday we had very important plans to see friends we hadn't seen in some time that have moved to Portland.  With the turmoil and busy schedule we had, we opted to meet halfway in Salem for a long wonderful lunch.  In the meantime we dropped off the coach at Amazing for the Corian and drawer work.  Well, we had a wonderful visit with Larry and Mary Ellen, and were able to catch up on years gone by since we'd seen each other, the absolute highlight of our week!  After we rushed back to pick up the coach, and Scott said he'd like a bit more time to work on the repair.  So we said after what we thought would be a short time at Freightliner, we would return Friday afternoon.

So as it turns out, an absolute saga at Freightliner.  We show up at 6:45 and wait until 7am when they open, I check in and tell them I want to talk to the tech, give him the new pump, and explain a few things.  All that happens promptly and by 7:45 the coach is up on the lift.  I find I cannot sit and wait very well anymore, plus they are one of these shops that won't let you in the bays unless escorted so Jan and I go for a leisurely breakfast, then to visit a cool RV store here and as I pull into their parking lot, my phone rings and FL says the new pump doesn't fit!!!!  The new pump I spent $1500 for????  So I call the place I bought it, they are dumbfounded, I say I will know more when I get back there and see it firsthand.  Then as I am backing out of the parking lot, FL calls back and says, oops, the pump does fit.....  But the lines won't go on, come and see it.  So we rush back.

Well, by the time we get back they think if they turn the pump 180 degrees it will work, so we wait and wait and we can see the coach is still up in the air, and they say they are having a lot of issues getting the lines on, so I say then make up new ones.  So I can't wait any longer, it is now 11:30, so off we go for lunch, and when we get back, the coach is sitting outside ready to go?  We still have to wait another 20 minutes for the bill.  It's almost acceptable at this point, and as I am paying the bill I ask if he topped off the ATF, automatic transmission fluid, which is what is used for the hydraulic fluid and I am assured he did.  So I walk out to check for myself, it's just what pilots do, and I don't see any on the dipstick!  Not to drag this out any farther, there is ATF in there, just not full, so my visions of them running the brand new pump without fluid isn't true thankfully, but it took 2 1/2 gallons of ATF to get it to the full mark on the dipstick!  So would I recommend Freightliner in Coburg, OR, probably not.  But the pump is on, seems to operate okay, no leaks, but until we pull a few big hills we won't know for sure.

The new pump(blue) connected to the PTO(red)

So now we rush over to Amazing and Scott and his wife go to work on the Corian.  Scott puts the finishing touches on the repair and his wife, Jeanette did an Amazing job polishing our countertop, it gleams!  And they not only did a fantastic job they sacrificed and stayed until 6pm to get us done since they knew we had run out of time!  Scott and his wife do Amazing work, if you need cabinet, counter, renovation, etc, work done, we highly recommend them!

All repaired

The patient polisher:-)

And Jan and I have a pleasant spot to wait

So when we rolled back in to our site at 6:30pm Friday after leaving that morning at 6am, we were whipped, not like we had done anything except stress out over this pump fiasco, but it's all done now!

Cheers to a great week!

So Sunday we start heading east again to get back on our itinerary.  We'll stop in Bend to get our new refrigerator.  Yes we decided to preemptively replace our 13 year old frig.  Lowes was having a sale, $700 off combined with no sales tax, combined with the fact it will go in and out our entry door, and they will take the old one, and help with getting the old one out and the new one in, we did it.  Story to follow, sure hope it's not like Freightliner:-)