Difficult Day

Today was Rebecca's 36th birthday. Ken tried to call a few times and left a couple of messages. We're hoping she was out having a good time and celebrating.

The plan for today was to pack up to leave and then pull around to the dump station, where we would dump and also check the accuracy of our SeeLevel tank monitors. Then the height would be checked again, while we were hitched up. After lunch we'd head out towards Colby.

The first thing that happened was that we discovered the IR repeater wasn't working at all. Ken traced the problem: a broken wire. In the process of troubleshooting, Chris and Chance had moved the IR repeater unit to the right side of the entertainment center. That meant the sensor wires had to pass around behind the fireplace and TV to reach the components in the left side of the entertainment center. One of those wires had evidently gotten caught in either a sliding shelf or the drawer.

We decided to have the repeater unit moved back into the component end so that the wires would not have to run across drawer and shelf slides. Out came the fireplace for the nth time. We hope that now the remotes will work as expected.

After lunch we hitched up and went to the dump station, around behind the end of the factory near the service building. We dumped the gray and black tanks completely, so the monitor was reporting zero percent full. Next we filled up the fresh water tank, which has a 100 gallon capacity. The idea was to move the water from the fresh to the gray and black tanks. We started on the gray water first. When only a few gallons had been sent down the drain, the SeeLevel monitor was reporting that the gray water tank was 25% full. The black water tank reading was also too high.

A couple who were in for service stopped by to talk and warned us not to leave the factory since they could see that we didn't have enough clearance between the fifth wheel overhang and the bed rails of the truck. We were immediately very concerned and decided to stay until we could get that issue resolved. Jeffrey and Ken Omer, the service manager, came over and tried to help out. They put extra air in the Hensley TrailerSavr hitch, which put it higher than the manufacturer recommends, but got us an extra half inch of clearance.

We decided that the best move would be to replace the pickup bed with a custom hauler body. Ken contacted some companies. The bottom line was that we would have to order the new body and wait two weeks for it to be fabricated, and then take the truck to Elkhart, IN, for installation, which takes three days. And that's the quicker possibility. Another outfit said it would take seven or eight weeks to construct. The cost would be over $16,000.

Meanwhile we contacted Phil Brokenicky, New Horizons owner. He and Karen are in California with the show model, which they tow with a comparably outfitted F450. Phil called to tell us that he was sure we would be fine, since he also has a small clearance and has had no problem.

We decided to drive very cautiously and take a wait and see approach. We have friends and family to see and plans and commitments. Taking three weeks out now would severely compromise our plans.

We love our Majestic, but at one point today I was wishing we could take our money back and move into something less problematic. It's definitely discouraging to keep running into problems.