albertaangler
Active member
Well, the day started off at 6:00 am, an ungodly and unhamanly hour to rise. Throw down a quick bite and head off the dealership. That?s not just a trip around the corner it is 1 ? hours away. We drive 8 km and need to stop to allow the dog her constitutional, another 7 km to Timmies. Now for those not aware of some of our Canadian culture-centric activities, Timmies refers to a Tim Horton donut and coffee shop ? well that and more, but donuts and coffee. Mmmmmmmmmmm.
Then it?s an hour and a half. After a stop to pick up the equalizer hitch and visit with a cousin while that is being set up, we arrive ready to take delivery. We have a plan for the inspection, well sort of, but we left the plan at home.
The trailer is sitting there waiting to be hooked and taken a way, just waiting. Well so are we, the delivery people are a bit behind schedule. The salesman has spent a bout 5 minutes with us, ensuring that all the mechanical items function properly, then goes to get a tech to apply a bit of silicone to an exterior fixture protrusion that had a small gap in the sealant. So we begin to do a thorough inspection, checking for anything lose, crooked, tight, misaligned. No issues. Salesman returns and we operate the awning. Techs are now ready to hook us up so I back the truck up and we set up the hitch assemblies, hook on and drive to the front of the dealership where the brake set up will be completed.
We wait about 10 minutes, I read the brake controller instructions. It?s all simple enough, sounds like any dummy can do it, so why not me? After deciding to go a head I accomplish step on, proceed to step two and all the light on the controller unit go off. That?s not supposed to happen according to the instructions, so I turn it off, shut of the vehicle wait a bit and restart the process and nothing happens, no indication of activity, no light no nothin?. Try again. Decide that trying a fourth time would be expecting a different result from the same set of inputs.
Tech arrives and after about an hour of work by as many as 3 people there is a decision that no one on duty had the knowledge to solve the issue. The very nicely offer to deliver the trailer to me on Monday along with their brake expert.
That sounding reasonable, I go out and unhook the trailer, hop in the driver seat, start ?er up and shift into gear. Whaaaaaaaaaat, the shift lever won?t move. No matter what I do, the damn thing just won?t budge. I do everything I can think of in every possible combination, all to no avail. Mean while the service manager is sitting beside on the tractor to drag my forlorn trailer back to storage until we can get the brake issue resolved. I explain the trouble and he goes to get the techs again and they try a few times. We decide we need to get a tow to the ford dealership just up the road. That will be between two and three hours, sir.
Have you ever tried to rent a car in a smaller town on a Saturday afternoon? Calling the two with local addresses yielded transfers to call centres somewhere far far away whose employee I encountered knew nothing beyond the fact that that particular location was closed on Saturday afternoon, and the closest outlets were either 45 km or 290 km away and would I like to be connected to book a car, sir.
Now I?m getting just a tad agitated, and trying to figure out next moves.
A brain wave hits! Enterprise car rental will pick you up. So I called and was assured that someone would be on their way to pick us up from about 35 km away.
Meanwhile the dealership people are getting antsy as they think that they have done something and assure us that they will take care of any repairs. Again, damn reasonable on their behalf, heck I hadn?t even started to complain yet.
It?s 2:00 pm, we?ve been up, on the road, and without much to eat since 6:00 am. We?re hungry, beyond really wanting to eat, tired, a bit short tempered, and well, you know. We ask the first fellow with a logoed shirt we saw directions to the closest place within walking distance for lunch. A drive down and back was quickly offered and accepted. Turns out it was the sales manager.
While we are enjoying the fine Smitty?s fare we get a call from the nice fellow at Enterprise. He?s awfully sorry but another more urgent situation is being dealt with and they will be unable to get to us. The airport location, which is actually closer has a car for us but we need to get there. That means an expensive cab ride.
Called cousin just to let her know what was up. She said not to worry they have an extra vehicle. Whew, what a load off. We arrange to meet up after the tow truck has come and gone.
Just as we finish lunch the tow truck operator calls. He is waiting at truck, so we call for a drive back and within about three minutes the rv sales manager is back.
Unlock the truck and tell the tow guy what is wrong. He doesn?t even get into the drivers set, just leans in and voila!! The truck is now out of park. So, with pure, uncensored awe in my voice I ask him wtf did he do that we hadn?t? It just happens that he has seen this before. We determine that the truck is ok to drive home so that we can get it to our local ford dealer.
Once this is determined we depart the rv dealer, just as it is beginning to rain. With a strong, cold, north wind this soon turns to snow. The farther we go in a homeward direction the harder it snows and it?s flying horizontally across the windshield. As we get closer to home it tapers off and we find that roads bare and damp. We are thankfull that we weren?t pulling the trailer through this as our first towing experience.
We are home safe and sound at 6:00 pm. That?s an 11 hour excursion! And we still don?t have the trailer.
Monday we have to go to the city for an appointment and drop the truck at dealer, asking for details re: wiring etc so that the rv dealer can have another go at the brake controller.
The return call from Ford is that yes they had found a wire with some missing insulation that was causing the shifting issue ? it was the brake on/off sensor switch. So this locked the gear shift and most likely caused the issue with brake controller. I had asked for a full front end inspection while in the shop, and came back with a $1200 estimate for all 4 shocks (2 weak and 1 leaking) and replacing the pitman arm repair.
So in the end it is probably a good thing that we didn?t drag the trailer home.
Oh yeah, and there is snow in the forecast for the rest of the week.
Now we have to re-arrange for trailer collection and the sage will continue.
Then it?s an hour and a half. After a stop to pick up the equalizer hitch and visit with a cousin while that is being set up, we arrive ready to take delivery. We have a plan for the inspection, well sort of, but we left the plan at home.
The trailer is sitting there waiting to be hooked and taken a way, just waiting. Well so are we, the delivery people are a bit behind schedule. The salesman has spent a bout 5 minutes with us, ensuring that all the mechanical items function properly, then goes to get a tech to apply a bit of silicone to an exterior fixture protrusion that had a small gap in the sealant. So we begin to do a thorough inspection, checking for anything lose, crooked, tight, misaligned. No issues. Salesman returns and we operate the awning. Techs are now ready to hook us up so I back the truck up and we set up the hitch assemblies, hook on and drive to the front of the dealership where the brake set up will be completed.
We wait about 10 minutes, I read the brake controller instructions. It?s all simple enough, sounds like any dummy can do it, so why not me? After deciding to go a head I accomplish step on, proceed to step two and all the light on the controller unit go off. That?s not supposed to happen according to the instructions, so I turn it off, shut of the vehicle wait a bit and restart the process and nothing happens, no indication of activity, no light no nothin?. Try again. Decide that trying a fourth time would be expecting a different result from the same set of inputs.
Tech arrives and after about an hour of work by as many as 3 people there is a decision that no one on duty had the knowledge to solve the issue. The very nicely offer to deliver the trailer to me on Monday along with their brake expert.
That sounding reasonable, I go out and unhook the trailer, hop in the driver seat, start ?er up and shift into gear. Whaaaaaaaaaat, the shift lever won?t move. No matter what I do, the damn thing just won?t budge. I do everything I can think of in every possible combination, all to no avail. Mean while the service manager is sitting beside on the tractor to drag my forlorn trailer back to storage until we can get the brake issue resolved. I explain the trouble and he goes to get the techs again and they try a few times. We decide we need to get a tow to the ford dealership just up the road. That will be between two and three hours, sir.
Have you ever tried to rent a car in a smaller town on a Saturday afternoon? Calling the two with local addresses yielded transfers to call centres somewhere far far away whose employee I encountered knew nothing beyond the fact that that particular location was closed on Saturday afternoon, and the closest outlets were either 45 km or 290 km away and would I like to be connected to book a car, sir.
Now I?m getting just a tad agitated, and trying to figure out next moves.
A brain wave hits! Enterprise car rental will pick you up. So I called and was assured that someone would be on their way to pick us up from about 35 km away.
Meanwhile the dealership people are getting antsy as they think that they have done something and assure us that they will take care of any repairs. Again, damn reasonable on their behalf, heck I hadn?t even started to complain yet.
It?s 2:00 pm, we?ve been up, on the road, and without much to eat since 6:00 am. We?re hungry, beyond really wanting to eat, tired, a bit short tempered, and well, you know. We ask the first fellow with a logoed shirt we saw directions to the closest place within walking distance for lunch. A drive down and back was quickly offered and accepted. Turns out it was the sales manager.
While we are enjoying the fine Smitty?s fare we get a call from the nice fellow at Enterprise. He?s awfully sorry but another more urgent situation is being dealt with and they will be unable to get to us. The airport location, which is actually closer has a car for us but we need to get there. That means an expensive cab ride.
Called cousin just to let her know what was up. She said not to worry they have an extra vehicle. Whew, what a load off. We arrange to meet up after the tow truck has come and gone.
Just as we finish lunch the tow truck operator calls. He is waiting at truck, so we call for a drive back and within about three minutes the rv sales manager is back.
Unlock the truck and tell the tow guy what is wrong. He doesn?t even get into the drivers set, just leans in and voila!! The truck is now out of park. So, with pure, uncensored awe in my voice I ask him wtf did he do that we hadn?t? It just happens that he has seen this before. We determine that the truck is ok to drive home so that we can get it to our local ford dealer.
Once this is determined we depart the rv dealer, just as it is beginning to rain. With a strong, cold, north wind this soon turns to snow. The farther we go in a homeward direction the harder it snows and it?s flying horizontally across the windshield. As we get closer to home it tapers off and we find that roads bare and damp. We are thankfull that we weren?t pulling the trailer through this as our first towing experience.
We are home safe and sound at 6:00 pm. That?s an 11 hour excursion! And we still don?t have the trailer.
Monday we have to go to the city for an appointment and drop the truck at dealer, asking for details re: wiring etc so that the rv dealer can have another go at the brake controller.
The return call from Ford is that yes they had found a wire with some missing insulation that was causing the shifting issue ? it was the brake on/off sensor switch. So this locked the gear shift and most likely caused the issue with brake controller. I had asked for a full front end inspection while in the shop, and came back with a $1200 estimate for all 4 shocks (2 weak and 1 leaking) and replacing the pitman arm repair.
So in the end it is probably a good thing that we didn?t drag the trailer home.
Oh yeah, and there is snow in the forecast for the rest of the week.
Now we have to re-arrange for trailer collection and the sage will continue.
Sounds like you know what you are doing, so hope your next attempt to hook her up goes better than the last!
