Thanks for the tip utmtman...I've downloaded spybot and am running "search and destroy" as I type this. I've been without a computer connection for a couple days now and as soon as I had WIFI again Norton popped up with yet another trojan that it can't quarantine. Your suggestion was timely!!
You are correct about the "missing part" on the king pin Gary, It IS something that we should have had with our hitch,(however even if we had the "capture plate" we know now that this dealer wouldn't have had a clue what to do with it...they had never even seen a Pull-Rite hitch prior to seeing ours). Clearly they didn't even consider it prudent to do a little research on the Pull-Rite before hooking our rig up to it. The only salesman that works there, (the mysteriously disappearing salesman), actively promotes the Pull-Rite to people, like us, who have never towed a 5th wheel before. So, naturally we thought that the dealership was familiar with these hitches, they told us they install 6,000 hitches a year!! So, it was based on this salesman's recommendation that we sought the Pull-Rite hitching system above all others. The owner of the truck that we bought told us about the "capture plate", he told us that it was a critical piece of the hitch, and he asked us to check our 5er to see if this plate was already installed on the king pin, as quite often they are. So, over the course of two weeks, while they were "prepping" our rig, we asked three or four different employees at Holiday RV if our rig was outfitted with this part, we told them we could get the part if they needed it...their answers were exactly the same, word for word, "no, you don't need that part, you don't need anything extra on the king pin, everything you need is already here". We even asked a couple of them to walk out to the rig and inspect the king pin with us so that we could better understand. The day we sealed the deal on the truck the owner asked one more time..."you certain that you don't need me to take the "capture plate" off my rig"? We told him what the employees at Holiday RV had told us..."no, we don't need it". We asked the tech guys just one more time...only minutes before they began to hook the rv up to the Pull-Rite... and yet again the answer was "no, you don't need any other parts".
The dealer that is now performing an all points check up on our 5er notified us today that we had NO BRAKES on the rig as we descended the mountain canyon where the malfunctions occurred... they were completely shot. These service techs have taken detailed photo's and retained all of the malfunctioning parts. Holiday RV DIDN'T EVEN CHECK THE BRAKES on the rig before sending us down a steep canyon highway!!! The window that they removed and ostensibly "repaired" was reinstalled incorrectly and melting snow was leaking into the wall, where there had never been leaking before. And this is only day ONE of the inspection we are having done on this rig!!
Thanks Gary for the insurance insight - we are getting a "crash course" in stalling tactics of the insurance industry, (and a great education on Pull-Rite hitches I might add). As unconventional as it is, putting a stop payment on our check to the dealership seems to be having the beneficial effect of expediting payment for our damages, we THINK. Let me just say that it is true that "possession is 9/10 of the law". Although this was a legally risky move and we don't recommend it for everyone!
The owner of Holiday RV, (who would not talk to us prior to learning of the stop payment), finally contacted us today...first, to threaten that he was going to drive several hours from another town to personally tow our 5th wheel right off the lot of the dealer who is doing our inspection, (he cannot remove the rv with out an injunction from the court). Nevertheless, next he called the dealership that has our rig to tell them that he was coming to take "his" property off their lot", the owner of the "good" dealership replied, "you are not to step foot on my property and if you do I will call law enforcement and have you removed, (this is the wild wild west after all)!!! After he conceded on that issue he thought about it for a couple of hours and at last left a message on our phone saying that he wants to assure us that he is a "good guy" and "he will take care of his customers", and he "wants to negotiate with us directly". We are more than happy to negotiate with him...this seems to be in everyone's best interest. We are not the litigious types but we did speak with an attorney for guidance. Terms like "fraud" and "negligent endangerment" could be applied to the experiences that we have had with Holiday RV. We obviously want this resolved quickly so we can get on down the road. We figure that he must know, by now, that he has much more to lose by behaving in a confrontive, irresponsible manner. We will comprise our list of damages and contact him tomorrow to see where he's coming from. We will update you, our well-wishers, when we know the outcome.
Sorry about the lengthy prose....I got a bit carried away. But we do hope that in telling this experience, as we experience it, others can avoid the numerous mistakes we have made.
All the BEST...
David, Katy and the Big Pooooo
