Well we went to RV Sales in Moriarty, NM and traded in our 2007 35RSE for our new 2009 30TKE. We are retiring and will be moving back to our house in MT so decided we didn't need such a big rig.
We got to RV Sales on 9/2/08 and started working on transferring our stuff over to our new rig. We left RV sales (Kathy, Ralph, Clayton, Eric and Bob who were all great to work with) and headed to a close campground. Kathy wanted us to stay at their hookups but the local power company was having problems with high voltage. I measured 134.2 volts at the pedestal so decided we didn't want to hook up to that. It is a shame too as RV Sales just put in power connections for 5 30 amp sites in July.
We got to our site and the left front landing gear would not come down. Called Kathy and said we where on our way back to the dealership. We got back there at about 330 PM and Bob and Clayton started working on it right then. Then Ralph and Eric started in on it also. They continued to work on right past quitting time. Ralph was talking to Curtis at the factory and they decided that a selector was bad. They went out and took one off from a new rig and put it on ours. This was after 630 PM. It worked, off to the campground again. We spent the night and when we used the shower the next morning it leaked around the surround. We had a few other issues that the dealership was not able to deal with. When I contacted Bryan to let him know I was upset with out new unit and that it had some issues. Bryan came through as he has in the past.
We decided to come to the factory. This was on Thursday morning at 1030 AM MDT. We headed out for SC. We arrived at about 1130 PM CDT that night. Straight through because I wanted them to be able to get it into work on Friday morning.
The next morning we took it over to the factory (not the service center) and they started working on it. They took care of all the issues and I had them install the electric rear jacks. Now we have it set up with the hydraulic levelers plus the rear electric. We now have 6 points of contact with the ground when we set up. They also stayed after hours at the plant to finish up on everything. They did not realize that I had a capture plate on my pin for the Super Glide hitch and when they hitched it to the tractor to move the trailer it wrecked the capture plate. Luckily they had a new one over in the Service Center and had it brought over to install the new one on the pin. Bryan was originally gone for the day but he made it back earlier than expected so it was nice to see Bryan and sit down a minute and visit with him again, it would have been nicer if it wasn't for the reason we were there for but still nice to see him.
We didn't get it out of the plant till late Friday nite so we spent the nite at the service center were we had power, TV and Excel's nice lounge area. Got a chance to catch up a little on the laundry.
We got up late and took our time on Saturday morning and I was about 30 miles from SC when I noticed my curbside slide had come out some. I found a spot to pull over and when I got out of the truck I noticed the front jack had came down about 3 inches. I raised the jack and this moved the room back in also.
We took off again thinking that maybe I just hadn't pulled everything in tight enough. Took off again and shortly the slide was out again. Stopped and the front jack was down some again.
I called Bryan to let him know the bad news and had after talking for a few minutes he said he would have Jack (from the Service Center) call me. Within a few minutes Jack called me and then he called Curtis and called me back. We headed back to SC and presently at the Service Center. When we reached the Service Center and was setting up Jack came over and we discussed the problem.
Tomorrow they will be working on the front jack again and most likely replace it.
So as you can probably guess I'm not real happy about all of this but Excel is doing their best (I feel) to take care of this and make happy customers out of us.
I just would like to say again that if anybody is looking for an Excel they really owe it to themselves to check out RV Sales in Moriarty, NM. Kathy and crew went above and beyond what I would expect from a dealership. Most other dealers that I have been around when it is quitting time that what ever your trouble is will have to wait till tomorrow during normal business hours, not them. It was a pleasant experience to work with people that place the customer so high. This is also the case with Excel.
So after leaving Sutherlin Oregon on 8/29/08 we arrived in Moriarty, NM (1451 miles) on 9/1/08. Started transferring our stuff on 9/2/08. Finished up on 9/3/08. Headed to SC on 9/04/08 and arrived on 9/04/08 (630 miles). We are ready for a down day today.
We'll see what happens tomorrow.