Trippin! Yeeha

[Bnova]

Okay, so we just completed the first leg of our very first trip in our very first motorhome. Some of you may remember back in November I bought this motorhome and I mentioned that we were going to take it on a 4000 mile trip in May to go and get our daughter from college after graduation. We just covered the first 500 miles and so far the Winnie is handling it with ease. Running good. Driving nice and now we're bedded down at a truck stop for the night. Iove it.

[Oz]

Awesome start!  Keep us posted.   

[Bnova]

Okay!  So the first 1650 miles have been good, the MH is working very well.  Get here though and I notice now a coolant leak and at first I thought it was the overflow nipple at the filler neck.  Appears that it was previously broke and JB welded back into place.  Who ever did it, did a nice job of it, did not break loose until after about 1500 miles.

So I figure I can go buy a torch, solder and flux and fix it, that's relief.  But that's before I realize that the filler neck is actually loosened from the radiator about 1/2 way around and that's really where the majority of my coolant leak stemmed from. 

Went a radiator repair shop and he thought he could maybe do an in place repair, but not that day and our schedule is so tight that I couldn't do.  Call Meineke and they said they could replace the radiator and give us a loaner car the attend all the graduation functions,so we opted for that.  I was a little uneasy about the whole thing thinking that something would wind up going wrong, but thankfully they had it done in the time specified and all seems to be well.

Now I'm a little gun shy about her but she has working exceptionally well so far, the engine temp never got any warmer than before the leak always running the nice temp.  It seemed that I was only loosing some coolant when ever it needed to expand into the over flow tank so I suppose I really hadn't lost much.  Good to have it fixed though.

And so I think I'll be starting for home tomorrow.  Wife flew home early this morning so we actually camped at the airport last night.  Kinda weird, but no biggie, cheap, 10 bucks.

Wifes flight home was planned from the beginning, she has to be at work tomorrow morning.

Daughter we thought was coming home with me after graduation, but last minute change and she's staying out here so I'll be flying solo, wish me luck

[Oz]

JB Weld can be a good, temp fix, but for things under pressure, it's just a matter of time.  It's good that you were able to find a place to get it taken care of and done quickly!

[gpw9552]

Boy friend more important than Dad?   W%  Been there.

[Bnova]

Yeah, I'm not used to that kind of treatment, they close at 3pm on sat and I couldn't get back there before 7 pm to pick up the Winnie and return the loaner car.  They said no prob just put the key through the slot in the door.  And I had second set of keys with so they could lock the winne.

Gonna have to send em and corp a serious letter of commendation!

[Bnova]

Boy friend more important than Dad?   W%  Been there.

No boy friend that I'm aware of at this point, she loves the New England area and really wants to find a job and stay out here.  Can't blamer here it is beautiful. 

[Oz]

I had a transmission about to drop and stopped at a shop.  It was only 30 minutes until closing time.  It needed a new transmission, which they had.  A very young mechanic volunteered to stay to replace it!  He needed a size of wrench he didn't have though, but luckily, there was a Sanp On Tools truck in the parking lot of the mini-mall behind us, so I bought him a whole set.

His wife arrived to pick him up at 5:00, not knowing he volunteered to stay.  She was HUGELY pregnant, but didn't mind at all.  She stayed and talked with my wife and kids until we were finished, a few hours later.  I gave him a cash tip and wrote the business corporate office a good letter of appreciation. 

It really makes me smile to see there are still some good people with old-fashioned principals who are willing to go the extra mile and extra hours to help those in a bad situation!

   

[Bnova]

Awesome, what state were you in?

[Lefty]

Talking about writing a letter to their Corporate office, reminds me of something that happened in my career at NAPA.

I was just a regular parts counter salesman, but hoped to get the chance to advance someday. Our store had a commercial salesman for dealing with the local shops and garages, as well as a dedicated commercial sales rep. that dealt with the larger accounts. One of which was a U.S. Steel factory located about 3 blocks from our store. Bear in mind, that factory alone purchased about $30,000/mo. in parts, filters, and other supplies... so it's safe to say, they were a very important customer.
One day, on a Friday, at about 4:00pm, the phone rang and I heard the commercial salesman talking to the purchasing officer at U.S. Steel about an engine for one of their overhead cranes. It had blown it's engine and they needed it replaced. He told them he could get an engine for them on Monday. They were not happy with that, and told him they would call him back. He then left for home shortly after that.
The purchasing officer called back about 4:30pm, and I took the call. He told me that every hour that overhead crane was down was costing them almost $8,000.. and was there anything I could do to get them up and running again.
I told him I would handle it, and to not worry. I then called Caterpillar Engines, which was located on the other side of town. I explained to them my situation and told them I needed a 3 man team of mechanics enroute to the factory, and have the engine we needed pulled and waiting at their dock. I told him to bill me directly for the overtime labor for the mechanics. I then sent one of our delivery drivers to pick up the engine, and sent another driver to our warehouse to pick up some of the parts needed for an engine install I didn't have in stock. By the time my driver arrived at the factory with the replacement engine, Caterpillars mechanics almost had the old engine ready to pull. By the time they got the new engine on it's mounts, my other driver arrived with the needed parts, belts, hoses, oil, filters, etc... All told, they finished the entire engine swap by 10:30pm and had the crane rolling again by 11:00pm
The total bill I submitted to U.S. Steel was a little over $32,000... Which was the engine, parts, and the overtime weekend labor to Caterpillar for the 3 mechanics. The purchasing officer didn't even blink when he signed it.
That Monday, I got a call from our District Supervisor, who told me he needed to see me downtown at his office as soon as I could get there. My Store Manager would not say a word about what they possibly wanted, only that I was to leave immediately.  When I arrived, the District Manager, the Regional Commercial Sales Manager, the Commercial Sales Rep. who was responsible for the U.S.Steel account, the purchasing officer for U.S. Steel, and one of U.S. Steel's Vice President's... were all stuffed into the District Managers office... Waiting. Apparently, waiting for me.
Honestly, I was very unsure if I was about to be fired for the amount I charged them for the job... or if I was to be fired for assuming authority I didn't actually have. Or what.
Instead, the District Manager congratulated me on the leadership I showed, and the initiative I took in doing whatever it took to make a very good customer happy. The Regional Sales Manager said that the commercial salesman in our store had been fired that morning, and if I wanted the position it was mine. In fact, he said that the Vice President of U.S. Steel had already said that whether I took the position or not, that all sales for them would only go thru me from then on... The Vice President of U.S. Steel also presented me with a check for $5,000 which he said was a small fraction of the money I had actually saved them, had the crane been down the entire weekend.

So, that's the story of how I became a Commercial Salesman for NAPA, and then later a Commercial Sales Rep. and then later still, a Regional Commercial Sales Training Supervisor...

So yeah, if a guy somewhere goes the extra mile to do whatever it takes to get you rolling again, by all means be sure to let their big bosses know about it... it might just make their entire career.

[Bnova]

Wow, awesome story lefty. Congrats to you many years later of course. Thank you for sharing.

[Bnova]

Oh, another update. I delayed my trip back home. The daughter and I are in Portsmouth NH having a little time together before I head back. Planning to take off from Merrimack NH tomorrow at about 10 am.

[Bnova]

Well, did the first 450 miles back towards home and all is well.  Wind was horrendous, but not until I'd driven through a lot of heavy rain.  Knocked off a little early tonight 7pm and will hit it again at 7 or 8 in the morning.  Trying to take it a little easier on the way home than the way out since I have time.  Later.

[Bnova]

Had a pretty good day today, made 728 miles and got the Winnie bedded down at about 9 o clock tonight.  Pretty good driving today, not as much wind but had to contend with some more rain.  Tomorrow less than 450 miles to home

[Bnova]

Well I finished the trip .  3500 miles.  I couldn't be happier with the MH, aside from the radiator, everything worked flawlessly.

Wound up replacing one headlight on the road, used three quarts of oil and I forget exactly how much gas.  I've got it written down somewhere but it was something like 420 gallons, I kept the cruise at 63 mph all the way there and back.  Averaged out to be about 8.5 MPG, not bad considering the mountainous/hilly driving out east and the horrendous wind in Indiana, Iowa and Minnesota.  The wind was about 30 mph all the way home today 400 and some miles.  Was not fun but the MH handle it no problem.

Oh, one other casualty, I was pulling into a toll plaza and rolled my window down when I heard some say "hey".  I looked over and the gal in the car next to us said, "your sewer hose is dragging behind your MH".  Sure enough, I lost one of the end caps on the bumper and the hose joggled out and the connector on that end of the hose was road rashed pretty bad.  Good thing it was the downstream end, the connector that attaches to the holding tank manifold was still in the bumper and undamaged.  I just clipped the trashed part of the hose it was fine, still at least 10 ft long.  I even got to use it in Merrimack NH, it was free at the municipal water treatment plant.  I found that in the handy guide of the members area here