Community Forums

DryCreek · 07-26-2017, 02:01 PM

While the train may seem like a good option, you have to check out pricing first. You may be shocked at what a bedroom will cost for such a long haul - and, you might be able to drive it faster. I am pretty sure that you wouldn't want to go coach, and the roomettes are pretty "compact", to say the least. The one benefit is that booking in a sleeper includes all meals. The logistics would be impressive. Empire Builder to Chicago, a layover there, and then eastward by either the Cardinal or the Capitol Limited to DC. From DC you can have a choice of Silver Service runs, but one of them (either the Meteor or Star) no longer has a real diner in the consist. The logistics nightmare would be trying to find the trains that run daily, and coordinating layovers or arrivals with connections.

Or, like you said, take a leisurely drive to Lorton and hop the Auto Train to Sanford for a relaxing overnighter....

hoosierrun · 07-27-2017, 01:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MTSam

Another thought as I listen to the radio this am, we've lost 400,000 + acres in one fire. Fences continue to be cut to free horses and cattle. There's also a couple fires near you, Hoosier, in Lolo national forest. Many of our folks are volunteer fire fighters, could also be they're in the mountains fighting......................

Smoke is bad toward Lolo peak. We are on the 4th floor of the Holiday Inn Express. The night before last I was awoken at 1:30 AM to the smell of smoke. I walked out into the hallway to be sure the motel wasn't on fire. All was good. The breeze shifted to bring smoke from the mountains into the valley, so all was good here at the motel. Locals say that this is wildfire season in MT.... just like we have a hurricane season in FL. Some years are worst than others.

MTSam · 07-27-2017, 10:49 PM

Yup yup. You get hurricanes, we get wildfires. Both do a doozie on insurance whether you were directly affected or not.
We are often awoken by smoke as well.
Some days it's only 'hazy' but when I crawl into bed at night my hair will smell as if I'd been hanging next to a campfire with wet smokey wood for hours.
We've had a lot of heavy haze/smoke filled skies for a few weeks now. Couple more months to go...
I've done both (wildfires and hurricanes). I prefer hurricanes of the two. Of course neither is fun.

You must be getting restless, how long have you been in Missoula at this point?

thedjjack · 07-28-2017, 12:25 AM

I hope the shop remembers the basics and checks them.

Had a diesel shop spend days trying to chase a newish diesel in vessel that was hard starting... after some convincing they did a compression test and 3 of 4 cylinders where a few hundred psi under spec...

Sometimes being a mechanic is more then diagnosing computers...

Safe travels.......

thedjjack · 07-28-2017, 12:39 AM

they need to take a tow truck, shop truck, and diagnostic equipment on the road. It is way easier to find the issue when it has the issue...

Even just doing endless laps around the block (I would block the rad to increase the under hood temps as well)...

hoosierrun · 07-28-2017, 10:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MTSam

Yup yup. You get hurricanes, we get wildfires. Both do a doozie on insurance whether you were directly affected or not.
We are often awoken by smoke as well.
Some days it's only 'hazy' but when I crawl into bed at night my hair will smell as if I'd been hanging next to a campfire with wet smokey wood for hours.
We've had a lot of heavy haze/smoke filled skies for a few weeks now. Couple more months to go...
I've done both (wildfires and hurricanes). I prefer hurricanes of the two. Of course neither is fun.

You must be getting restless, how long have you been in Missoula at this point?

June 27 was our first night in Missoula. We had 1 night in the Hungary Horse area (primitive campground) and the 1 night in Helena. Those 2 nights were after the first repair. Every day except those 2 we have been in Missoula.

Mdh1950 · 07-28-2017, 01:45 PM

Certainly glad I stumbled across this forum! Just called my insurance agent and got a towing/mechanical breakdown rider put on my policy for $9 a year!

hoosierrun · 07-28-2017, 03:37 PM

Minor off-topic correction to earlier post. We just stopped by a Verizon store in Missoula. My wife's smartphone was only working on 2 G or 3G.... i.e. no mobile data.

Verizon says we should have 4G here. It ends up that they had to replace the sim card to make it work. We are now getting all the screen top apps again.

Dealer replaced the brainbox (ECU) on the Mercedes. No change and no diagnostic codes.... basically no change. It stumbles and stalls when warmed up and driven around their parking lot. Mercedes specialist did not fly in due to some schedule conflict. Totally worthless..... we should have left 2 weeks ago.

MrsChilerick · 07-28-2017, 06:50 PM

Wow, this is crazy. You are coming up on 30 days with no resolution, isn't there some window of time in the lemon law? Like 30 or maybe 60 days without a resolution and you can file? I know it's different in every state, but I seem to remember that from when we "lemon lawed" our Lincoln Mark VIII in the 90's.

hoosierrun · 07-28-2017, 07:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MrsChilerick

Wow, this is crazy. You are coming up on 30 days with no resolution, isn't there some window of time in the lemon law? Like 30 or maybe 60 days without a resolution and you can file? I know it's different in every state, but I seem to remember that from when we "lemon lawed" our Lincoln Mark VIII in the 90's.

Yes, for passenger vehicles it is 30 days and for motorhomes it is 60 days in Florida. The sad thing is that in Florida, they use a depreciation for use based on 60,000 miles for a motorhome instead of a car which is 120,000 miles. I guess that means we have used up 1/5 of it's value, as we have a bit over 12,000 miles on our unit.

1/5th of $150,000 purchase price means we lose $30K for depreciation. What we receive in lemon law buyback will not even cover the loan outstanding balance.

Obviously the motorhome manufacturers have a strong lobby in Florida.

We are pushing to get this fixed, but Mercedes is dragging their feet and certainly gives us the feeling that they are totally incompetent when it comes to repairing their vehicles.

MrsChilerick · 07-28-2017, 08:15 PM

I wish you luck. Fixing it would be better. With our car, because they couldn't figure it out, Lincoln just sat on it until we got a lawyer to write a letter. That's all it took, we had a check in a week.

Forkyfork · 07-28-2017, 09:36 PM

That reminds me of when I was a kid. My mom bought a '76 Sunbird and the transmission was a POS. My mom would take us and the neighbors kids to raise hell in the waiting area until they gave up and bought it back. lol

hoosierrun · 07-30-2017, 11:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hoosierrun

Yes, for passenger vehicles it is 30 days and for motorhomes it is 60 days in Florida. The sad thing is that in Florida, they use a depreciation for use based on 60,000 miles for a motorhome instead of a car which is 120,000 miles. I guess that means we have used up 1/5 of it's value, as we have a bit over 12,000 miles on our unit.

1/5th of $150,000 purchase price means we lose $30K for depreciation. What we receive in lemon law buyback will not even cover the loan outstanding balance.

Obviously the motorhome manufacturers have a strong lobby in Florida.

We are pushing to get this fixed, but Mercedes is dragging their feet and certainly gives us the feeling that they are totally incompetent when it comes to repairing their vehicles.

Further research of the Florida lemon law leads me to a gray area. Van conversions are based on 120,000 miles life, not 60,000. If my Sprinter Serenity is categorized as a van conversion, my offset for use will be about 1/10th instead of 1/5th. $15,000 loss is better than $30,000 loss.

I have a lot of new ground to plow here. Does anyone know if a class B unit is considered a van conversion? I wonder if this has even come up in a lemon law buyback?

ArmandV · 07-30-2017, 03:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hoosierrun

Further research of the Florida lemon law leads me to a gray area. Van conversions are based on 120,000 miles life, not 60,000. If my Sprinter Serenity is categorized as a van conversion, my offset for use will be about 1/10th instead of 1/5th. $15,000 loss is better than $30,000 loss.

I have a lot of new ground to plow here. Does anyone know if a class B unit is considered a van conversion? I wonder if this has even come up in a lemon law buyback?

This has me wondering...

Suppose (heaven forbid) that you have to go the lemon law route and they buy back the lemon motorhome. You have added a lot of accessories to the unit, would you remove those items or leave them with the vehicle (would they buy those too)? Would you buy a RV that those accessories can be transferred to? Would you get the same model RV?

I don't envy your situation.