Tuesday morning we were up by 7 a.m., which is way too early for anybody with common sense, but we wanted to get up to RV Renovators in Mesa, Arizona to get our Norcold refrigerator recall work done. No matter how early I have to get up, my body has its own time clock, and I still have to post my blogs after midnight, so I didn’t get to sleep until after 2 a.m. I sure hated to hear that alarm clock ring!
Then, for some silly reason, I had the old Helen Reddy song I Am Woman going through my head all night. Don’t you hate it when some tune gets stuck on automatic replay in your brain and you can’t stop it? Geez, at least it could have been something by some artist I like, maybe Jimmy Buffett or Billy Joel! Then again, maybe I didn’t have Helen Ready singing to me all night long. Maybe it was Miss Terry, sending me some sort of subliminal message not to mess with the Boss Lady!
We left Tra-Tel RV Park in Tucson right at 9 a.m. and had an easy run north to Eloy, where we pulled into the Flying J for fuel. Our motorhome was filthy, and there is a truck/RV wash right across the street, and since the nice folks at RV Renovators had told us our job would be quick and easy, we decided to get the rig washed first. They did a great job, a wash, wax, hand dry, tire treatment, and Rainex on the windshield, all for $93. Hey, you couldn’t get me to do all that work for that little money! Ask Miss Terry, she’s tried!
Of course, since I had just gotten the coach looking all spiffy, every bug in the state of Arizona with a death wish decided to end it that morning, and by the time we got to RV Renovators, the front end of the motorhome was plastered with bug guts. Yuck. Hey woman, stop that damned roaring and bring me a wet rag so I can clean this thing!
Office manager Cinda Nelson gave us a warm welcome, and she’s so darned pretty it was worth the trip from Tucson just to see her. We have heard a lot of good things about RV Renovators, and I’ll tell you what, I was impressed. The entire crew is friendly, and they let us know that they really wanted to make us happy. Here are Cinda, paint and refinish specialist Jesse Hilaire, and service writer Eddie Clayton.
Bill, one of the techs, went right to work on our RV while Cinda gave us the grand tour.
RV Renovators does everything from RV service, to body work, windshield replacement, fiberglass repair, major upgrades, and overhauls. This Class C is getting new skin, and it looks like quite a project.
This motorhome is having a major rebuild. This is what your coach looks like with the slide out. Be sure to fasten your safety straps when you go down the road!
This Class A is getting a new floor installed. We may replace the carpeting in the front of our Winnebago with some type of laminate flooring one of these days.
Hmmm…. I wonder if Miss Terry would let me have this for a tow car? It looks like it would be fun to play with.
Cinda had told us our repair would take about an hour, but you just know nothing is ever that easy for me. Bill ran into a problem getting the refrigerator to come loose, and after a few failed attempts to figure out why it wouldn’t move so he could get behind it and do the upgrade, a phone call back east to a Winnebago expert revealed that not only is our Norcold attached to the side wall like in most RVs, it is also bolted down through the roof! So Bill got a ladder and went up on top, where he peeled away the caulking, removed the screws, and then a plastic cowling. Still no luck. The darned refer would not budge!
Further investigation revealed that the refrigerator is also sealed to the compartment floor with some type of silicone adhesive. When Winnebago builds a motorhome, they don’t cut any corners.
By then it was late in the day, and the folks here needed to get an authorization from Norcold for the extra labor involved, since this is billed as a “quick and easy” job. Of course, Norcold was closed by then, so that wasn’t going to happen anytime soon. Cinda, Bill, and everybody else were apologizing all over the place for the unexpected delay, but what the heck, things happen. If you live the RV lifestyle, you have to be able to roll with the punches sometimes. It’s no big deal, we know we’re in good hands, and we don’t have to be anyplace special anytime soon.
They parked us behind the shop, inside a secure fenced yard, and gave us a key to the gate so we could come and go as we pleased. David and Lynn Cross, whom we met at our Gypsy Gathering rally in Yuma in March, are here getting some work done too, and our motorhome is parked next to their beautiful Executive. We had 50 amp electric, and we were very comfortable. Today’s a new day, and I’m sure they’ll get things taken care of with Norcold.
One final note, I said in yesterday’s blog that Miss Terry and I were betting on how long it would take the Apple Store in Tucson to get my 3G iPad in, and Terry said they’d contact me as soon as we got to Mesa. Darned if she wasn’t right! A few minutes before we arrived at RV Renovators, they notified me that it had arrived. I need to have Terry start buying lottery tickets. She is woman, hear her roar!
Thought For The Day – Old age is when you still have something on the ball, but you are just too darned tired to bounce it.
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Nick Russell
World-Famous, New York Times Best Selling Author, and All-Around Nice Guy!
Sounds like you had your Dr. Scholl’s pads in your shoes this day (are we gellin’ yet?).
Before leaving Yuma this year I had Al’s RV Mobile Service to come to our lot to do the Horcold recall work. The tech discovered that my coils were rusty, took pictures, and sent them to Norcold. Norcold has decided to replace the whole cooling unit but it would take 2 weeks to send the parts. Since we planned to leave Yuma in a few days, Norcold instructed us to schedule the repair once we get back to Ohio. We are back now, so I need to find a mobile service that will come out to the farm. I will gladly pay the extra fee so I don’t have to move the trailer and maybe spend the night at the dealer like Nick. Wish me luck. John
Sure wish we had known about RV Renovators a few years back when we had our carpet removed and linoleum installed — also replaced the original couch bed. The folks we worked with did a poor job with the linoleum (it’s been torn twice by the slide out!) and they didn’t anchor the new two seater couch properly to the floor. We may have to go to Mesa and have it all done over!
Thanks for the info on RV Renovators. We need to get some major mods done to our Class A to accomodate husbands wheelchair and nobody in New Mexico would touch the job. Sounds like they are just who we need!
You know, you hear that Winnebagos are well built. The company was started by engineers, for goodness sake. Unfortunately, Winnebago’s marketing is virtually non-existant. And, I think they let engineers do the interior decorating and create the advertising.
Actually, I’m a fan. I used to sell the darn things and each salesman had to take on the job of marketing them as well as selling them — pointing out things like the basement air, automatic power conversion, one piece fiberglass roof, engineered wiring harness, steel caged front cabin, solid block-foam insulation, etc. etc. etc.
It’s nice to hear the behind-the-scenes quality verified by a third party with actual evidence to boot.
Now, if they could just start using doors, drawers, fabrics and wallpaper that match the caliber of the rest of the construction.