Blue Ox Base Plate Issues Resolved

 

Wesley Chapel, Florida (high 93, low 72)

 

Blue Box Base Plate

When we had the Blue Ox Base Plate re-installed back on our truck, we paid the $400+ bill, not really expecting to get our money refunded from the company that originally  did the installation.

The bracket that was attached to our Nissan truck was coming loose, which could have caused us to lose the truck while towing it behind the motor home.  Thank God that Al found the problem.   In case you missed it, you can read about it here.

After we had the bracket properly installed at Rv Medic here in Tampa, Al called Rentz Trailers to tell them of the  problem.  They told us to bring the truck and receipt and they would take a look.  It’s about a 45 minute trip over there and we had a lot of other things on our plate.  We really didn’t have the time for a wasted trip (like we thought it would be), but we drove over there first thing Monday morning.

We spoke to Joe, who is the owner.  He is the one we had problems with before.  We had some problems with bad work and when we complained, he was rude.  We were not looking forward to dealing with him again.

Rv Medic gave us a receipt detailing the problems they found, along with the bolts that had no sign of having any of the required RED Lock tight on them.

Joe took a few minutes to read the receipt.  We reminded him of the other problems we had  last year, and that there was a trainee working on our truck.  The trainer was supposed to have been checking the trainee’s work.  Obviously, he didn’t.

Joe looked kind of sheepish, apologized and without question, proceeded to write us a check for the entire mount of the repair at Rv Medic.  He kept the bolts so that he could show to the guy who was doing the training last year.  I suggested they go back in their records and see who else had base plates installed, as they should probably be notified.

Score one for the good guys!

We asked Joe if they could do an inspection on the driveshaft disconnect that they also installed. He said sure, but he couldn’t get to it right now.  They were short two mechanics and already had cars on the two lifts they had.

Now, if it had of been my business, I would probably have taken one of those other vehicles off the lift and checked ours out.  He said we could bring it back another day and they would schedule an appointment.  No thanks.

So….would we use them again.  Probably not.   Now that we have used Rv Medic, we trust them and like the way they do business.

 

Washing Machine Repair

Tim  of Stratton Rv Service  called Monday afternoon to say he could come to fix our leaking washing machine in about 20 minutes. We had to rush to get the kitties in their cages, and empty the closet so he would have room to work. 

He ran an empty wash cycle to see where the leak was coming from, and don’t you know it, the machine didn’t leak a drop!  We told him where we thought the leak was coming from and he found a loose hose. He tightened that, thinking that would solve the problem.  Of course even that little job was very difficult given the small working area you have.

After he left, I put some clothes in to wash and guess what?  Yep….it leaked.

Tim came back again Tuesday afternoon.  Again, the kitties had to go in their cages and I had to take everything out of the closet so that he could work.  You Rv people know how much stuff we have in our closets, don’t you?  Yikes!

This time we put some clothes in the machine and that seemed to do the trick and we again had a leak.  He decided to change out the water pump.   You have to be a contortionist to do that job.

He left without payment again, because he’s waiting for the extended warranty company to authorize how much they will pay.

I think it still might have a small leak though.  I saw some water last night.  I’m hoping it is some leftover water that didn’t all drain out, but I suspect we still have a problem.

I will probably be seeing Tim again today….and emptying the closet out again!

When Tim removed the washer, and disconnected the dryer vent. It was full of lint.  I try to stick my hand in the outside vent to clean out the lint, but I could never my hand in far enough.  I guess we will need to do a better job of cleaning the dryer vent because that could sure be a fire hazard.   Either we will purchase a little hose that I can attach to the vacuum that will fit inside the vent, or Al will have to disconnect the vent occasionally to clean it out. 

 

More on our other news later, as this blog is already too wordy.

Blue Ox Baseplate Install Issues

 

Wesley Chapel, Florida 

As I mentioned in a previous post, we had a problem with one of the base plates on the truck coming loose. We tow our Nissan truck behind the motor home.  Base plates are installed onto the front of the tow car to connect with the Blue Ox tow bar, which is attached to the motor home.  It’s critical everything is connected and mounted properly.

When we were getting ready to leave Georgia, Al noticed one of the brackets mounted on the truck appeared to be loose.  Upon checking, he found a problem with two of the three bolts on the drivers side.  One was broken off, and one one was stripped so that it couldn’t be tightened.

We had the original face plates put on last August, at a place nearby in Clearwater, called  Rentz Trailer Hitches.   We had some issues with them, but ended up getting everything resolved and we were happy.  You can read about that here.  There was some sloppy work to be dealt with.

One of the problems was the owner was rude to us when we wanted some problems resolved.  I don’t like spending thousands and getting rude treatment just because I want the job done right.  They had a new tech working there and he was making mistakes.   When Tony, the shop manager got involved things improved.

Anyway, we have been traveling all this time thinking everything was okay.  Al checked the brackets and tow bar occasionally and all appeared to be fine until last week.

When we got back to Florida, we called Rentz to tell them about our problem and make an appointment to bring the Nissan in to have the base plate fixed.  Al was told by the owners son, that they no longer took appointments and it was first come, first serve. That’s nice in theory, but what if the technicians haven’t finished their work from the day before?  You could arrive first thing in the morning and have to wait all day while they finish up.   We chose not to do that, because it’s a long drive over there with no guarantee that anyone would be able to look at your vehicle. They also didn’t seem to be too concerned about our problem.

We decided to go to Rv Medic here in Tampa to have the work done.  They are where we should have had the work done in the first place.  In order to get at these bolts, the entire front bumper cover had to be removed.  Vaughn, the mechanic showed us what the problem was after he got it all torn down.

Apparently,  these bolts were put on without using “RED Lock tight.” They became loose, which was what caused them to eventually break.  Vaughn said in the instructions from Blue Ox, clearly state that RED Lock tight must be used on these bolts.  

Vaughn showed us the bolts and there was NO lock tight used at all.  Apparently, it would still be visible on the bolts.

Vaughn wanted to check the bolts on the other side as well and he found a broken bolt there as well and one that would break when he tried to remove it.   No Lock Tight there either!

$400 later,  we left with the problems resolved. Vaughn was very thorough and we trusted his work.  Sure wish we had used him in the first place!

Vaughn saved the bolts for us and they wrote up exactly what they did and the problems that were  found.  It was his opinion that not using Lock Tight was the cause of the entire problem.

My guess is the new technician at Rentz never read the instructions for the Blue Ox faceplate install and no one ever checked his work.

We are going to contact Rentz on Monday, but from our past dealings with the owner, we aren’t expecting much.  We will try to deal with the shop foreman Tony if we can.  

We feel they should cover the entire cost to repair their error, but we’re not too optimistic.  Now that it’s over, I’m glad we didn’t bring it to them.  I have no confidence in their work at this point.

If we don’t get any satisfaction from them, we will be spreading this story out all over the RV world and internet.  We will also be making a call to Blue Ox, since they were on their website of recommended shops. 

We can cover the $400.  That’s not the most important thing. The main issue, is that our lives (and others) were put at risk because they didn’t read the manual.  (RTFM is one of my favorite sayings).

Our recommendation to everyone that tows a vehicle behind your motor home is to check all the brackets before each trip.   Check tow bar itself and then also check the face plate brackets. 

We’ll see what happens when we call Rentz on Monday, but in the meantime….just in case, any recommendations of where to spread our story?

Stay tuned to part two!