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Tuesday, May 13, 2014

Winnebago Service Center

First off, our site meter has clicked over 500,000 page views!  I have to say thank you to all our readers and followers who visit our blog and find it interesting enough to return again and again.  It’s lots of fun to write the blog and it blows our minds that so many folks follow our journey in our Journey as we journey around the country.  :c)

Thanks again for following along!  We appreciate it.

I was at the Winnebago Service Center door at 6:45 am, along with several other folks waiting for it to open at 7.  I was sitting on a bench and along came obnoxious lady who sat down beside me, complete with her mangy little dog who kept jumping on me.  Now I like dogs, but that one was quite annoying and the lady didn’t even try to control it.  I got up and moved.  Some people.

The door opened promptly at 7 and we filed inside.  Above the service counter hangs these signs, which I was glad to see.

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The service center has a desk to check in,

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as well as a large area with all kinds of parts on hand, many of them the little, hard to find, Winnebago specific items.

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In a matter of minutes, my name was called and I went to the service counter and met my tech, Mike, who was going to work on the Journey.  He went over the list and then we went over to my parking space and he took the Journey into the shop.

I had to add an item I found when we pulled in the day before.  We had been getting a smell in the back of the Journey which we attributed to the inverter problem we were having.  But on the drive up, the CO detector on the ceiling in the back bedroom went off.  Hmm.

I took a careful look at the Journey’s exhaust system with a flashlight and found a large crack in the exhaust pipe just before the muffler.  I asked Mike if they could replace the pipe and he added it to the list.  I told them that I’d pay for any overnight shipping charges to get the replacement pipe to the shop quickly.  It was ordered right away and hopefully will be in today.

We sat in the nice lounge for a while, then went in to town for lunch.  On the way back we stopped into the Winnebago Visitor Center to have a look around.  Marti found a nice motorhome that she’d love to have.

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She tried giving me her best “Please” look, but I think we’ll pass.

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It was fun to tour this 1967 Winnebago Brave, it reminded us of the first motorhome we bought back in 1993, it was a 1973 Travel Mate Class A, all of 21 feet long.  We had a lot of fun with it and our kids have great memories of times we spent in it.

Promptly at 3 pm, Mike brought our Journey around front to us.  He found the pesky slide leak, a seam on top of the slide had opened up, so he resealed it and put in a new slide seal.  The problem we had with the inverter turned out to be not the inverter at all, but the house batteries.  One of the three 12 volt batteries had some bad cells and was shot, the other two were not in much better condition so all three were replaced.  They were over six years old, so they had lived a useful life.  The inverter was fine, it couldn’t operate properly with the bad batteries.

Today the broken windshield should be replaced and if the exhaust pipe comes in early enough, that will be taken care of, too.  With all the great service we’re getting, even though it’s costly, is worth it because the work is being done right the first time.

We did get a chance to see a new prototype RV that Winnebago is thinking of putting into production.  It solves a lot of typical RV problems.  You won’t have to worry about body damage with it, it can go great places to boondock and it even comes complete with an option to make obnoxious people move out of your site. 

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Production and price are yet to be determined.  :c)

Thanks for visiting and feel free to leave a comment.

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21 comments:

  1. So how many of those little hard to find parts did you pick out?

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  2. I suppose the adage "you pay for what you get" is completely true. While I don't like costly repairs, it's comforting to know it's done right the first time and I don't have to spend time worrying later. Now you can get out and really enjoy the summer! :-)

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  3. You ought to think about buying that new style RV. It might help better when you run across RVers like your first encounter with the obnoxious lady. I know we'd certainly run from you. We replaced our batteries this year too. They really needed it and we noticed a huge difference. You'll feel good once all of this gets behind you!

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  4. You have got it right...It is ALL ABOUT THE JOURNEY!!!

    Seems like what we have learned is... it is ALL about the batteries;o)) Yep, we check batteries first for everything, even slide leaks;o))

    Glad they are taking care of you and we hope to meet up with June when you get to the beach!!

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  5. I think you came out pretty good with new batteries instead of a new inverter. Glad they found your leak. Those things can be hard to find sometimes.

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  6. So glad you got things repaired!!! We'll be out there with you soon!!! Safe journeys.

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  7. Sounds like a good place to get fixed. I would have sent Ms. Obnoxious and her little dog Toto to the moon :-)

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  8. They seem to be very efficient there. We were just talking about our batteries and wondering how long ours will last. They were put in new when we bought the coach almost 3 years ago, so if you can make 6 years, hopefully we can too!

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  9. Sounds like they are taking good care of you. We were quite pleased with the service we received and they are dynomite on the phone those tech people. Call em' any time and they'll help you out. Are you on the list for the new prototype??

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  10. You would never make it in the new prototype - unless you resign as founder and chief of the PDD club!!

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  11. So glad to hear your service appointment is going well. Have you seen that Winnie is bringing back the trusty Brave in 2015? It's very retro, much like that '67 Marti had her eye on. You could be the first kids on your block to have one. ;-)

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  12. I am sure that new RV model would works wonders with the annoying lady next yo you:)

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  13. glad your trip to the service center went well..hopefully you will be outta there quickly tomorrow!
    as for the 'old gal'?..she would get my vote! there is one at Fraserway Rv that I always take a look at each and every time we go there!

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  14. My first motorhome was a 1972 Winnebago Chieftain... that thing WAS built like a tank! LOL LOL LOL

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    Karen and Steve
    (Blog) RVing: The USA Is Our Big Backyard
    http://kareninthewoods-kareninthewoods.blogspot.com
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  15. Always best to go to the guys who know your rig best ... if you can that is.

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  16. Glad your getting such good service. You'll be back on the road again in no time.

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  17. Glad you are getting your list of things taken care of. This may be the only other blog post of another motorhome service center that I have read about. I find it very interesting and always wonder how it compares to our experience at Tiffin. We visited the factory there and were able to take a tour of it and the museum in the Visitors Center. Great place.

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  18. Nice to get the work done properly the first time and not have to wait weeks.

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  19. They are wonderfully organized. Reminds me of Mayo Clinic for RVs.

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