Our trip north from the Quad Cities took us to Forest City, Iowa where we had an appointment at Winnebago Industries to have a few small warranty issues addressed on the motorhome. Our list of issues were things that were more irritating than major: the shower leaked, the radio would not hold its settings when the engine was turned off, one of the wires from the satellite hookup to the tv was broken – stuff like that. Little did we know – we had a couple of major issues.
The appointment was for 2 days and we had to be up and ready to check in at 7 AM on the first day so we arrived the day before (Winnebago provides free camping for rigs that are in for service.) That night we had a very bad but typical “out on the prairie” rain storm. The bad part was the wind – I have no idea how hard the wind blew but it was hard. Hard enough that when we got up in the morning we discovered that there was a leak from the big slide-out in to the living room area and one of the cabinets had water in it and it was just generally a mess. So – add that to our list of fixes as a major problem to be addressed on day one.
First thing on day one we were assigned our very own personal technician, Don, who would work on our RV and keep us informed of progress. We were hoping that our 2 day appointment would actually be only one day but pretty much the only issue that was fixed on day one was the slide-out leak – that was a major time consumer. The other time consumer was trying to figure out the shower leak – that turned out to be a pretty major issue also. Day One came to a close and we knew that we would be here for day two.
Day Two dawned and once again – 7 AM check in time. We had the day to kill so we did some exciting stuff like taking a tour of the Winnebago factory. The tour was pretty good other than the fact that we were not allowed to take pictures. However, Monte used his phone and snuck a couple of pics (he is such a criminal).
After the tour we still had time to kill so we drove around the area and much to our delight found the Norwegian Immigrant Memorial – how very exciting!
Finally – 3 PM and time to go see Don – our tech. Don is late – doesn't bring the RV out until almost 3:30 so we figure they were trying to get everything done and get us out of here. Wrong! They did get everything on the list completed but when they were wrapping up for the day and turned off the air conditioner the condensate ran from the roof down the passenger side window like it always does – except this time it also ran inside the window – one of the window seals is broken. Don informs us that they have to order a new window and it will be delivered the next day. Once again – we feel lucky – this is a major issue and we feel that other manufacturers/repair facilities would have just ignored it or caulked it and never mentioned it.
Here we sit on Day Three – but all is good – we even got to sleep in as we did not have to report until 8 AM. We are very glad that we made this appointment and that the repair folks at Winnebago have been so good about taking care of our problems. The waiting room has good coffee and most importantly Wifi and we are sure we will be out of here this afternoon.
We have also been lucky while here that it has been cloudy and cool because the dogs are spending their days in the car parked under a shade tree. We take them a couple of times a day to the Winnebago Rally Grounds which is a massive but empty campground and let them just be doggies and run free.
To wrap up - nogood luck at the casinos lately but lots of good luck at Winnebago and we'll take that any day.
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