NL 30

Aug 2000

Scooter breaks the rig and the bank

Hey all!

Lots of you know that I've been looking for a Honda Motor scooter for quite awhile.  I have found lots of them but the prices were always way too high!  My significant harassment never was much interested in computers and stuff, but was always a fanatic about the "budget" and keeps telling me that "we can't afford that much." 

She got a program called "Quicken" a few years back and can now print out all kinds of "reports" that she uses to "assess" negative trends in our travel expenses."  She is obsessed with this one program!  She takes every receipt and spends hours entering them into it with glazed eyes until she jumps up and screams "YES! Balanced to the penny!" and does an illegal "spike" of an imaginary football!  Get a life! 

She actually reads every bank statement!  The woman can't seem to grasp that the banks take care of that for you!  I have tried to explain to her that that's what the code  "NSF" is for!  When they send ya that in the mail and at the ATM, it means, "Now send funds!"  (I don't say a thing anymore ‘cause she has this category called "Money spent on beer YTD" that she prints out whenever I ask for a raise in my allowance!  Then walks away muttering something about a village somewhere being deprived of it's idiot!) 

Anyway, I finally found one that even she couldn't claim was too expensive!  It was free!  Well, almost, I traded a pair of computer speakers for it!  It’s a Honda elite 150, that had been carefully stored under a sheet of plastic for only two years, and had no tears in the seat, and only a few broken lenses and scrapes. 

After I got the wheels to turn (just a little rust in the drums), I loaded it up and brought it to our RV space.  Wimmins just don't appreciate an easy "project" when they see one.  So I immediately set to work finding a Honda dealer to get it running.   One month and $485 dollars later I got it back and it purred like a kitten!  Even my significant harassment was impressed!  Now all I had to do was register it, and figure out how to fit it in the truck when we were on the road. 

Here's where the trouble started.  Although it looked tiny, it was wayyyyy to big to put in the truck when the trailer was hitched!  I started to suggest . . . when my significant harassment said "Oh No . . . No Way It Rides Inside!"  Whoa! Time for a "plan B."

Well, since I was stuck waiting for my HIGHLY PERSONAL medical procedure, I figured it was time to take on getting this problem solved as a way to keep busy.  Boy, have I had to listen to "I tol ya so!" since. 

I checked on shipping it back to Louisiana and they want $800.00 for that!  In addition, it was still unregistered so I couldn't ride it.  (I figured that if we had to ship it back to sit up for another year that it would be silly to register it.)  Time for "plan C!"

Well it turned out that Camping World (Toys R Us for RVrs) had a sale on their scooter rack and it was $150.00 bucks off.  Only now I needed a class three hitch for the back of the rig.  They were only a hundred bucks or so, and I did get the scooter for next to nothing.  Just to be sure, I called the factory to be sure that I didn't overload the rig.  They suggested that I be sure to weld the class III hitch to both sides of the frame, and maybe change the tires and rims from 15" to 16". 

Last year I had replaced the rear axle and it was 1500 pounds more capacity than the front one.  So we all agreed that the weight would be fine with those few mods.  So I went to the local welding shop, they ordered the hitch, and a few days later we had it welded on.  Well another 485 bucks but then the scooter was almost free wasn't it?  I got great deal on five new 16" load range E tires and chrome rims, but then learned that I had to flip the axles for there to be enough clearance in the wheel wells for the bigger tires.

I made an appointment at a local RV repair place that said they were expert at relocating the axles for clearance.  It was another $250.00 but they would give me a trade in of 125 bucks on my almost new set of five 15" wheels and tires.  (I tried to sell them privately, but that was the only offer)  I explained that we were full-timers and would stay with the rig, and they said that would be no problem.  The day arrived, and they got the axles off and suggested I replace the shocks while I was at it and so I went around to a few parts dealers only to find they were special order from the factory.  Another $140.00 and by now I was getting a really strange look from my significant harassment and even Bogart was starting to whine whenever he heard the word scooter!  Sheesh!

So at this point, I was up to almost $2000.00!  At least we'd have two modes of transportation while on the road, and we did save the 800 bucks on shipping no? 

Wimmins only focus on the extra 1200 bucks!  Sheesh!

Everything seemed to go well until they tried to put the new larger tires on.  Then they just lifted it by the front pin box (fifth wheel hitch) with no support under it as the axles were hanging in the air.  There was only a pair of jack-stands at the very back of the frame.  In addition, they dropped it a foot twice!  (Once with Lynn and Bogie inside!!)  It didn't hit the ground, but it was a fully loaded rig!  It was supported this way, and lowered to the ground (he had removed my front landing gear-so it was 3" off the ground!) and lifted for several hours as the guy working on it tried to mount my shocks.

Then they put my shocks back on one side and lowered the weight of the trailer on them to test it and the shock and mount bent!  They have to cut off the top mounts and move them at least 4" higher ‘cause the lower mount was now on top of the springs instead of underneath!  Then he said it was too late to start on the shock mounts, and the manager said that they did not include the price of cutting and re-welding the mounts in his work estimate, as most trailers don't have any shocks.  He said we could travel without shocks or make another appointment and it would cost another $400.00 dollars! (Now it gets serious-He knew the brand, year, and model when he made the estimate, and they never said a thing earlier in the day about the shocks . . . hmmmmm I was in deep trouble!)

When they lowered my trailer there was a 12"long by 1/2" wide gap on the front passenger side edge, where the sidewall and the front cap meet.  I was furious.  No shocks, rip in the front skin!  I hitched up and headed the ten miles back at 40 MPH.  That wasn't all.

That evening I almost died when I saw that the front walls of the bedroom had been torn apart so much, that the rubber trim piping was now hanging between the two walls!  In addition, all the vinyl covering around light switches, windows, and cabinets were now wrinkled up to 3 inches around, and pulled out in several areas!

Before I stormed back, I called the factory, Young's Welding, in Chanute Kansas, on their toll-free number, and was put through immediately to Mr. Young. 

For those of you that have had factory problems with other brands, I have to say that getting through to the top man in seconds, both at HitchHiker and at Young's, is something I have found their norm instead of the exception.  Mr. Young wrote me a letter to support my contention that the front hitch on a 5th wheel cannot support a fully loaded trailer's weight with only jack-stands at the extreme rear.  He told me that if they had dropped it and recovered it twice, that would only multiply the weight and possibly damage the frame.   The people who broke it said it wasn't their fault.  They said that our trailer was in exceptional shape for it's age, but with the miles on it, they felt it was pre-existing damage.  This was because when he came over to inspect the damage, he found that I had had the front skin re-stapled at the factory.  The fact of the matter is, that on close inspection, the skin is still secure, and has nothing to do with the tear on the front as the wood under the skin was torn away as well-but HitchHiker's work was still intact!  The skin never came loose!

I also wonder how he can relate a few loose staples to the sudden damage to the interior walls and the damage throughout the coach.  They broke my rig!

Naively, I thought it was repairable.  We were going to sue.  The small claims court here has a $5000.00 ceiling, and I thought that might be enough.  I began to gather expert testimony, and affidavits from all of our friends who had seen the rig inside and out, and confirmed that none of that damage was there before the day the dealer broke it.  I then called the nearest HitchHiker dealer and they told me that I had better get in touch with our insurance company, as it sounded like it would be totaled.  What?  All the custom work and money poured into it and I was going to lose it??  We are not in a position to be able to buy a new rig at this time, or even a comparable used one, and thought that we were dead in the water.   Besides, I was sure that the insurance company didn't cover damages from a repair shop.  But, we were at the end of our rope. 

We called USAA and asked if we were covered.  They said we were!  (I did one of my significant harassment's imaginary spikes and a little dance of my own, until I noticed the people at the phones next to me moving as far from me as their cords allowed) I was told that a claims specialist would call me.

Their man came out to inspect the damage.  When he found that the damage extended all the way back into the kitchen area, he advised me that it would require a virtual disassembly of the entire rig to check where the frame was broken or bent. 

He said that it was going to be totaled.  His comment is that it was obvious we now had a broken or severely bent frame.  It was unsafe to tow, and they'd be picking it up for salvage on a flatbed.  At least he asked for a complete list, with receipts, of every upgrade and improvement we had made to the trailer.  He said it might increase the valuation.  Thank God for Lynn's obsessive- compulsive accounting.

So as of today we are waiting for the "valuation" and don't know if it will only be enough to ship our contents back to Louisiana and start over, or if we will be able to afford another used trailer.  The good news is that HitchHikers hold their value, and I might get enough to afford another used rig. The flip side of that is that it probably won't be a HitchHiker, because we won't be able to afford one.  The support we received from the factory, and the repairs they performed flawlessly on our little customized rig, while treating us as if we just bought their most expensive rig, is something we don't know if we can live without.  There aren't a lot of companies that will talk you through a repair on their toll free line, ship you parts, and make you feel part of a "family."  I don't even have my RV Consumers Group "RV Rating Book" to check on the ratings of prospective rigs!  A "person" [read thief] I leant it to overnight, disappeared, and never returned it, or the other three books I lent him!  Accck!  I had leant them out hundreds of times before to folks who were about to upgrade or buy a new rig, just so they'd see that they really needed one to make a good deal on their impending purchase.  I always got them back (until a few months ago.)  Most of them had already called the toll free number and ordered their own current version (Mine was an older 96 edition.)

OK, I know that the tone here is a little on the down side.  We are just coming to grips with the fact that our RV days may be over, at least for awhile.  We are OK, in good health, and will maybe have to get stationary for awhile.  It's the not knowing.  We should hear today or tomorrow.  I'll let y'all know how it comes out as soon as we find out.

However, the year 2000 will always be "the year all hell broke loose" in our family.  Sheesh!  Our actual perspective is that with all the G.A.s and great deals we have had, maybe we'll find that this has worked out for the best later on.  We will survive this and be fine in any event.

On pins and needles here.

RV/dg, Lynn, and Bogart The Wonder Dog