At 8 AM the guys from Universal Towing from Farr, TX arrived to reinstall the drive axle into the Trekker. While they were doing that I went over to the service department. The elderly man that met me a wasn't the friendliest guy to be sure. I explained that the rig was broken and that Coach-net had been told they could start on it on Wednesday - of course that was 12 hours before it actually arrived there. When speaking to the guy at the service desk he explained that it would probably be Thursday and maybe even Friday before they could get to it now. They had 11 rigs in the queue in front of ours now. UGH!
I explained to him that this was going to be paid as Warranty work by Tiffin Motorhomes. He didn't seem impressed. I left because Irene and I had to be at a presentation for Retama Village at 10 AM. (Retama Village will be the NEXT post I write).
After the Retama Village presentation Irene and I headed back to Freightliner so I could speak to someone more "official" at the service department (read that "Farther up the chain of command") I went in this time and there was a man with a work shirt that had the name "DAN" on his chest - now THIS guy had to be important - His shirt was clean. He wasn't a mechanic, he was in management. I explained the situation to him. He didn't seem impressed. "We don't do warranty work;" We aren't a Tiffin Service Center;" "Maybe we can get to it Friday" - These are the responses I was getting. "Pleases, just have a talk with the manager of the chassis department at Tiffin," I said as I was dialing the number. "They are going to overnight you the parts you are certain to have to replace. If there are others they will ship those too." Gary Harris at Tiffin answered his phone. "Hi Gary, this is Jim Gordon and I'm here at Doggett Freightliner with Dan. I'd like you to talk to him about Tiffin is paying for this as warranty work." They had a 3 minute conversation during which Dan went over and checked the computer - "Is this Tiffin Motorhomes in Red Bay, Alabama" he asked Gary. "OK, you are in our computer here. Ship those parts and when we get to look at the RV, we'll get back to you."
Since he hung up the phone after that conversation Tuesday at about 11:30 Dan has been VERY PLEASANT. We have gone back Yesterday (Wednesday) about noon to see how things were going - had they even moved Trekker yet - NOPE. When I went in he said: "We have got the parts from Tiffin. I've got a tech coming back from lunch now. I'm going to have him bring it in to take a look at as soon as he is back."
Yesterday in the late afternoon we went back over. Dan wasn't behind the counter but was on the other side of the counter behind a piece of one way glass and I heard him say "Gary, this is Dan at Doggett. We got those parts and installed them but there is still something wrong. The belt is still very loose. Give me a call back if you can before 5 when we close." I figure he must have been leaving a message on Gary's voicemail at Tiffin. Then he called someone and I heard him say "Well, yes he is right here I see him now." He was speaking to Irene on my phone out in the car. He came around the corner and explained that the fix they sent him wasn't fixing things. Something else must be wrong too.
Last night I shot off an email to Gary explaining the situation with the pictures I included in this post:
with much of the same explanation as that post has.
I got an email from Gary at 8:44 this morning that they had asked Freightliner to to some measurements on the positions of the crankshaft, tensioner arm and fan clutch assembly.
At 12:09 this afternoon I got a follow-up call from Gary that the measurements showed that the Fan Clutch mounting bracket was indeed bent (about 2 inches!) by the pulley sleeve when it came unfastened from the fan clutch. Because of that Tiffin was going to send a new fan clutch mounting bracket AND a brand new fan clutch assembly OVERNIGHT delivery and requested "Early Morning Delivery" of the parts. He explained that Dan was going to have his man remove the old fan clutch assembly and mounting bracket TODAY in hopes that the parts whenever they arrive tomorrow can immediately be installed. Gary said "Dan's assured me he will do everything he can to make sure your rig is repaired and you get it back by tomorrow night."
Later this afternoon Irene and I had to go over and get some additional clothes out of the Trekker - it was pulled into the shop and I went around to look at the rear end - the tech had already started removing the fan clutch and mounting bracket.
Lord willing, we will have our rig back tomorrow evening. All fixed and purring like a kitten.
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