Well, I always knew that it would be too good to be true that the fiver would have no issues whatsoever...but did it have to be the one thing I'm paranoid about...propane gas?
As background, we bought the trailer at the Hershey RV show in September. Let me know if this sounds familiar to anyone, but we really had no intention of buying something right there and then. We were figuring with our budget constaints we were going to get something used to travel in until the house sells. But they gave us a great deal to start, and a fantastic trade-in for our pop-up trailer and we couldn't refuse :-). Now, feel free to give me a lashing with a wet noodle if you must, but we bought it through Camping World RV Sales. I know there's alot of issues people have with Camping World, but we were fairly satisfied with the deal we got. Now, one of the questions I asked, because we live a good 6 hours away from Harrisburg, was where we would be picking up the trailer. I was assured by the salesman that we could have it delivered to any Camping World that we would like to go to, and there is one 3 hours away in New Jersey. I figured that was doable, and I would be sure to schedule the delivery early in the day so we had plenty of time to do our PDI. I was also told not to expect it before Thanksgiving.
Fast forward to the end of October. The phone call came Friday before Halloween, the trailer was ready for pick-up! Cool. But...you knew a but was coming right?...it was delivered to Harrisburg, and we had a choice of the following Thursday, Friday, Saturday or Sunday to take delivery. Excuse me? What about delivering to New Jersey? Oh, well, that wasn't possible as it was bought through the Rochester NY store and they weren't part of the same regional sales department, and besides, all the trailers bought at the show were being delivered to Harrisburg PA where the PDI and paperwork would be done. Oh, and the last tidbit that really puzzled me was that it wasn't at a dealership, it was at the Holiday Inn just outside Harrisburg.
I was not happy. However, we took a deep breath, and figured out how to deal with it. We had an event that we had to be home for on that Sunday, so we took Saturday off from work, and drove down Friday night, to pick it up early Saturday, and drive home again Saturday afternoon. So much for spending a weekend in it testing things out. I had planned on doing a thorough PDI, but, despite assurances that there would be water and electric there, there wasn't. They also had the unit winterized already! So we checked what we could, didn't find anything wrong, signed the papers, paid for it, and headed home. That was 3 weeks ago.
We've had it set up in the yard since then, slowly moving things in and checking stuff out. We left it winterized as it is getting chilly here. The funny thing is, everytime we ran the furnace to warm it up inside, the propane alrm was going off. We couldn't smell anything at first, and were assured that it was probably due to the "new furnace residue" burning off and it would stop. Well, it hasn't, and Thanksgiving Day as I was walking past the furnace vent outside I could smell gas. I called my brother, who's a fire chief here, and asked if he could bring his gas leak probe over and check things out for me. As soon as he walked in with it it started going off, so I know its not a faulty propane detector now. It seems to read the worst levels at the floor vents where the heat is coming out. So we immediately turned off the furnace, opened all the windows, and aired it all out thoroughly!
So, we have an appointment to take it to the NJ Camping World for warranty work tomorrow. So long as we have to take it there, today we spent the whole day going over it inch by inch checking out everything! Al de-winterized it, and we checked all the water systems, and found 2 leaks they can also take care of, one by the shower and one in the main feed line. Other than that it looks fine, so I guess it's not too bad. I'm hoping for a not-so-bad trip through NYC...I HATE going through NYC....and for a quick turnaround so I can continue packing it up :-).
Thanks for staying with this to the end, I know it was long, and I welcome all comments or tips anyone has relating to service work :-). Have a great couple of days :-).
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