Expensive Day For The RV!

We had an appointment for the propane leak at 1:30 Wednesday afternoon. We hung around the Oasis RV Park until noon checkout time and drove over to Double Eagle RV Service. We had to park on the street for an hour until our appointment. Norma wanted some coffee so she pushed the start button for the generator and NOTHING! I tried a couple of times and nothing for me either. Last time we used it, it was fine, maybe two weeks ago,

After my moaning and groaning it was time to move into the shop for the propane repair. It was the same line that was repaired 12.1 months ago by Camping World. The flair was bad again, cracked. This time he replaced the entire copper line and it stopped the leak. $90. Not bad.

I asked them if they knew where we could get the generator looked at and they said they did them. Great! Their Onan guy came over and checked things out, having no better luck than us. He opened the generator up and tried the start button on the unit – nothing. A couple more checks and he determined the circuit board was shot. Their local supplier did not have one and the soonest they could have one delivered was Friday, too late for us. He said Cummins might have one but I would have to go and get it myself. If I could come up with one, he would install it first thing in the morning.

We called Cummins and they had the circuit board so we drove out there to get it. The bad news is it cost $370 USA! We found the Road Runner RV Park near the RV repair place for a very reasonable $16 per night with pool and hot tub. This morning we were at Double Eagle RV repair for our 9:30 appointment and they started work. He replaced the board, I pushed the start button and it started! Success – short lived. He tried to turn it off with the switch on the generator and it would not turn off. None of the other switches would turn it off either. He told me to turn on the air conditioner and we discovered the generator, although it was running, was not putting out any power. Things were rapidly going from bad to worse! He told me the circuit board controls the output.

After a bit of head scratching, he determined that the new board was faulty and a call to Cummins told us they did not have another. Darn! “Well”, he said, “I have a similar generator that I rebuilt out back that has a new board in it. I will give you that one and I will send the bad one back to Cummins for replacement when they have one”. He called Cummins to make sure they would let me transfer the warranty from me to him. No problem.

That is what he did and it now started AND stopped and we had power in the RV. It worked! Their bill was $175 so that added to the $370 for the board came to $545. Ouch! Add the $90 Propane repair and it brought the total RV repair to $640, a sobering number.

It was noon when we got out of there and headed up I15 to 93 North. We got as far as Ely, NV and checked into the RV park at the Prospector Casino. It is a reasonable $15 per night and they gave me a coupon for a free Margarita, which by this time I needed! It was almost six hours on the road today.

It is chilly cold here in Ely at almost 6000 feet altitude! There is snow under the trees and on the surrounding hills. It is 59F at eight o’clock. We thought of going to the casino buffet for dinner but then decided to eat here and watch TV. Time to stop spending money for the day!

That is my story for today. I hope tomorrow will be cheaper!