What Now?

I’ve received a lot of email and some comments from those following our blog about our current situation. We have been stranded here for the past few weeks at the dealer. First by a punctured oil pan to our car, then by a failed heating system and then by a damaged awning.

We found out earlier this week that the parts for the awning are at least two weeks out. We had made plans to visit with some friends today and we’ve decided to pull up our jacks and head out to our originally booked site tomorrow and then return to the dealer later this month once the parts have arrived.

Obviously we never planned to be here this long. Here is a copy of a reply I made to a comment on yesterday’s post.

We had left the coach at the dealer back in early August to allow them the time to address a number of product recalls and technical bulletins issued by Newmar. We also had several items we wanted done on the coach including the tow bar system for our toad.

We had planned to be here for two days as that was the original estimate for installing the baseplate on our Lincoln. We arrived on September 18th and we thought that we would be on our way by the 20th.

The base plate installation took them much longer than expected and we were told that the car would be ready on the Friday the 21st. Unfortunately, as they brought the car down from the hoist, the area underneath the car was not clear and the oil pan was punctured. They had also done some minor cosmetic damage to the front grill.

It then took another week before the parts for the car arrived and the repairs were completed on the car. We got the car back on September 28th.

A few days before the 28th, we had the dealer follow up on a couple of issues as a result of their service work: the Oasis heating system was not operating properly and the awnings were not extending properly.

They attended to those issues at different times. The Oasis heating system issue was resolved. On the 28th, the day that we were to get our car back, they took the coach in to service the awning and that is when the awning inexplicably extended while they were bringing the coach into the service bay. The awning made contact with the service building causing severe damage to the casing and to the deployment mechanism.

Until then, we had every expectation that we would be out by September 29th. We were in limbo until October 9th as the dealer, Newmar and Girard tried to figure out what caused the unintended deployment and how to deal with the repair.

We were finally updated on the new timeline Tuesday of this week. The parts will not arrive to Newmar until October 20th. And, from there, it will take another 4 days to arrive at the dealer. Their estimate to paint the casing and to install it on the coach is another 2 days.

We might not see the awning arrive until October 26th which means we won’t be away until October 31st. Just in time to cross the border.

Unfortunately, we gain nothing by crossing the border early to save 4 days or so. Newmar is in Indiana, way out of our way. And, being Canadian snowbirds, the earlier we cross, the earlier we have to return.

Canada, in March, is still very much in winter.

Our choice is to pick up the jacks and head out to our originally booked site — roughly 6 hours round trip — and return when the parts have arrived in two weeks. Or stay here until then.

We had made plans with friends to meet up with them today which is why we are still here. We might head out to our originally booked site this weekend and then return for the 26th.

We never planned on spending 6 weeks here.