Winnebago Grand National Rally 2016 (GNR)

We arrived at the rally on Sunday and got a spot in the C-50 area. That time it was dry. I did not experience too much rain until Saturday morning, that was a real thunderstorm with hard gusting winds and it rained cats and dogs. So far my weather report Yes it rained in between too but that was not a real problem.

We learned a tremendous amount of things every and each day. There were a lot of seminars we attended. Like the Atwood seminar where I learned that the rotten eggs smell can come from your water-heater instead of your water tank and how to fix a dripping overflow valve. (Atwood did some free services too)
Also the technical seminars from Blue Ox, Michelin and Cumins/Onan were very informative.

The best part was last Monday and Tuesday, the Freight-liner Camp 1 2 day education. Wow what a lot of stuff we covered. I would recommend that to anyone with a Freight-Liner chassis. The instruction is also very much focused on the coach you have as the instructor will hand out a sheet specific to your coach and during his lectures point out the differences between the coaches the students have.

We are still overwhelmed with the information overload but probably be there next year too. As for service we did none as everything is working. But in case we need some, we live 3 hours away from Forest City so a drive down there is doable. 

We never were able to get a WiFi connection for the whole first week. Too many hot-spots that downed the less powerful repeaters from the campground but being off the grid can be refreshing

bobmacc said:

I signed up for service on my slide the day the grounds opened - one week before the rally started. From what I was able to determine, if you required your slides serviced there was a long delay before you got in - in my case 6 days. ...

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I think one of the problems with getting slides repaired on a timely basis is Bryan (shop supervisor) only has a few guys that specialize with slides - I think simple slide issues can handled by most of them but the involved repairs need the specialists.

I'm amazed that the new CEO didn't address the attendees - he's the first outsider CEO they've had AFAIK.  Apparently nobody told him what his GNR responsibilities are.

John Canfield said:

I'm amazed that the new CEO didn't address the attendees - he's the first outsider CEO they've had AFAIK.  Apparently nobody told him what his GNR responsibilities are.

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The new CEO did address the attendees in the opening ceremony and we also talked with him in the Freigtliner class. He said that he contracted business partners in the Twin Cities in Minnesota like lawyers, advisors and assisting businesses to make Winnebago more profitable. He also was looking into "lean manufacturing" to be able to make more profit for expansion and sustainability. It was a real managers talk without specifics. He said he was still very new to this and in the 6 months he was with Winnebago realized he had to learn a lot. I understood that he wants his supporting business in Minnesota but did not say that his management team would be there, he was kind of talking around a bit without a clear answer. I do not see any manufacturing from Winnebago coming to Minnesota any time soon, again he talked around these questions like a manager does

That's good that he's out there interacting with owners.  There is a lot of speculation about the Minnesota vs. Forest City scenario at least as far as where senior management hangs their hat.  I also can't see manufacturing abandoning FC but Winnebago has had a very difficult time hiring production workers and even technicians in the little town.  Buying the old Country Coach assets was a stroke of brilliance IMO, they have a trained labor pool there and more production facilities available.  It will be interesting to see what happens.

I guess I missed the opening ceremony. I can't quite figure out the new schedule. The Rally officially started on Tuesday. I did see that there was a flag raising ceremony on Monday evening. In the past GNRs I've gone to, things started Sunday evening, now the Presidents dinner is on Friday and then the Rally starts the following Tuesday and ends Saturday morning. The reason supposedly is to allow younger working people to travel over two weekends. That is fine, but I didn't see many younger people and it makes the Rally about a 12 day event including travel for Club Presidents that have to travel even from adjacent states.

Since Doug Formanek retired there doesn't seem to be a head of WIT. There seemed to be a lot of confusion with WIT Outdoor Club, emails, registration and etc.

John Hilley said:

There seemed to be a lot of confusion with WIT Outdoor Club, emails, registration and etc.

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Talking about confusion......
We kept our coach on C-50 until last Sunday night. The Freightliner class was scheduled Monday and Tuesday. In our confirmation email from Freightliner it said we were welcome to stay on the campgrounds both days however Winnebago announced the power would be shut off on Monday or Tuesday. Then I found out we would have to re-locate to section A. So we did, the power was never shut off on us and still available for people who had that class on Wednesday and Thursday. I suppose all other sections were indeed shut off but I did not check on that. The instructor said this was a question and confusion every year.....

Nobody in our club got a confirmation email. Renewal on the Internet has been iffy, works sometimes and other times it doesn't, took me three times. I think their IT department needs help. With some planning, their WIfi would work a lot better.

Heard from my good buddy Bryan (shop supervisor) a while ago about his challenges during GNR.  I intended to get by there in person this summer and catch up with what's going on at Winnebago but DW had some health issues so plans were altered  .

The good news is that factory service is fully staffed, they weren't two summers ago so it was great hearing that Bryan is 100% manned. Factory service has five slide specialists but unfortunately one of them was on medical leave so that left them a little short.  But Lippert had their techs there to assist with the GNR workload so that was a huge bonus.  I remember one summer we had our Norcold worked on at factory service, I was told there were Norcold tech representatives there assisting with repairs.

Was factory service busy?  Oh yeah!  Bryan said they worked on over 500 units which was over 50% of the GNR attendees.  Those guys get big kudos from me for dealing with a tidal wave of customers every July.  It's not just the service guys either, it's service administration, parts, the good people working the rally, etc. 

It seems that they don't let vendors do as much install as they used to. Dometic used to install slide toppers and awnings, but now it has to be scheduled through the Service Center. Winegard still makes repairs and doesn't charge for the service.

A friend scheduled his Journey in for a couple of things, his number was 357. They got him in at 5:30 AM Saturday morning. He had an inverter problem, a step cover cable problem and he wanted the fuel filters replaced. All they could do was replace the fuel filters as they would have had to order parts for every thing else. Another friend had his HWH jacks looked at. John from 3 T's and Curt from HWH looked at it. Curt said the solenoids were set wrong at the factory and replaced them all free of charge. Don;t know if it is at all related, but when he got home he had a hydraulic leak he didn't have before.

In the pre-rally materials, they advise you to get any parts ordered ahead of time of course if you don't know what the problem is, you can't have the parts ordered  .  At the 2014 GNR we were having HWH issues so the guys decided the big control box was defective which wasn't stocked (I think HWH will not let Winnebago stock parts).  Had to be ordered so we waited three or four days for the part.

Thinking about this, that's the way it works at dealerships.  You have a service appointment, they decide you have a bad part, part ordered, you come back.

John Hilley said:

It seems that they don't let vendors do as much install as they used to. Dometic used to install slide toppers and awnings, but now it has to be scheduled through the Service Center. Winegard still makes repairs and doesn't charge for the service.

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We had a crew come through the 50 amp section checking a/c. They replaced the fans on my 2 a/c and adjusted something. When they were finished my A/Cs ran quieter and cooled down much faster. I know the fans cost $35 each. There was no charge for this service. I tried to tip them, but they politely declined.

John Canfield said:

In the pre-rally materials, they advise you to get any parts ordered ahead of time of course if you don't know what the problem is, you can't have the parts ordered  .  At the 2014 GNR we were having HWH issues so the guys decided the big control box was defective which wasn't stocked (I think HWH will not let Winnebago stock parts).  Had to be ordered so we waited three or four days for the part.

Thinking about this, that's the way it works at dealerships.  You have a service appointment, they decide you have a bad part, part ordered, you come back.

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I am not sure that HWH lets anyone stock their parts.  Last Spring we were in the Denver area and needed a solenoid for one of the jacks, and none of the several dealers I contacted had a solenoid in stock.

Don't know about stocking parts but I can vouch for HWH in dealing with them direct.  Very responsive and knowledgeable and willing to help with any problem.  Parts ship fast.  Qualilty company located in the Midwest - Iowa as I recall.

John Hilley said:

Nobody in our club got a confirmation email. Renewal on the Internet has been iffy, works sometimes and other times it doesn't, took me three times. I think their IT department needs help. With some planning, their WIfi would work a lot better.

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During the 2014 rally, we heard a lot of complaining on the wi-fi and were told of major improvements planned.  Doesn't sound like it happened.  That is the weak link with most campgrounds nationwide - weak or nonexistent wi-fi.  One CG owner summed it up best:  If you want a lot of trees you don't want much wi-fi and vice versa.  LOL