Escaping The Hotel California

For many of the folks here at the Winnebago Service Center, they joke that it’s like the Eagle’s song about the Hotel California where “You can check in but you can’t check out”.  It seems like they are here for a long time waiting for their repairs to be completed.

The truth is quality repair work does take time, and occasionally parts have to be sourced from other places, like our exhaust pipe, it was a Freightliner part and had to be shipped in.

Today, by noon, all the repairs on our Journey were completed, which was amazing because we developed a water leak this morning on a sink drain.  The tech said he’d add it to the work order and repaired it, too. 

The broken exhaust pipe was replaced, complete with new clamps on each end.

And the two loose body to frame bolts were tightened,the tech even tack welded the spacers in place to prevent them from ever falling out again.  He also even painted the spacers and bolts, a small quality touch.

The total cost, including parts, labor, shipping and tax was $2334.00.  The labor rate here is a very fair $110/hour.  We’ve seen labor rates at other dealers in excess of $150+/hour.  The windshield was an additional $1300, paid for by our insurance company.

The nice thing about getting repairs at the Winnebago Service Center is the techs are trained right here in the latest techniques and they are very familiar with the products as well as holding RV and chassis certifications.

  Many of the techs started out working on the assembly line and have seen Winnebagos from the inside out.  Another plus is you can get parts right here, too.  They have a warehouse full of parts the size of eight football fields.  I picked up a few odds and ends to fix a couple of minor things and a couple of spare items, too. 

Bottom line, we are very pleased with the work, it was done right the first time and the service department is very organized, friendly and keeps you well informed of your motorhome’s repairs progress.

It was worth the trip for us and we won’t hesitate to return in the future for repairs if needed.

Tomorrow we’re heading out to…somewhere.  We haven’t quite figured that out, but we know we won’t have to rush, we’ll even enjoy a little sleeping in.  :c)

Thanks for visiting and feel free to leave a comment.