The complaint compartment.

[murphy1244]

I used to have an old guy that did my taxes for $20, a form.

Harry was a retired irs tax auditor.

You would meet with him for 20 to 30 minutes at his mobile home in a over 55 trailer park.

His wife usually offered you a giant chocolate chip cookie when you left.

In two weeks you stopped by and picked your forms back up to mail in.

He sure made tax time easy

Sounds alot like my dad. He did taxes For 45 years same price with some fresh coffee or scotch and pretzels.

 

[Dftodd]

Sounds alot like my dad.

Did he live near Orlando Fl,???

 

[murphy1244]

Did he live near Orlando Fl,???

Cleveland Ohio

 

[Darth_DMack]

Here is my complaint for the day…



Long post, so bear with me. I have a newer 2021 Alliance Valor toy hauler, 40V13 to be exact. The Toy Hauler is fantastic, and we use it all the time. It came with a 5.5kw Cummins Onan generator (gas) that has never worked properly. Suffice it to say, I’ve had it serviced multiple times, but it is plagued with various fault codes. So, as the Side by Side / Camping season approaches, I’m having my yearly service done and dropped the Toy Hauler at our local Cummins service center. I explained to the Service Manager what was wrong, what the unit was doing, and left it with them this past Thursday (22 August 2024) with instructions that I MUST be able to pick the Toy Hauler up NLT this Thursday (29 AUG 2024) because of the 4 day weekend camping trip we have planned.

I got an email from the Service Manager on Monday (26 AUG 2024) saying that the Generator was fixed and working properly, and that I could come pick up my Toy Hauler. So, I shot over there after work yesterday (27 AUG 2024). I was so excited that they were able to get it fixed so quickly!

So, I get there, (an hour’s drive one way, by the way) and go into the service office. I see the Service Manager there, and he said that my unit was good to go. I asked a few questions that he could not answer, so he called the Service Tech in that fixed my genset. This Tech is supposedly “the best there is on these Generators, he’s been working on them for over 20 years”. Well, the Tech came in and I asked what he found that was wrong? He said “The fuel drain was open, and it was just pumping fuel out of the carb bowl.”

Me, scratching my head… “Wait a minute, you are saying the fuel bowl drain was open? That’s impossible, I’ve never touched that.” He said he closed the fuel drain on the fuel bowl of the carb, and it started right up! I asked if he ran the unit, and he said he did for about 30 minutes, but could not test it under load, because he could not get into the camper (it was parked between two other trailers, and could not let the steps down). I then asked if he had run the genset off the onboard fuel (I have a 30 gal tank dedicated to the genset, and another 30 gal tank that I can fill my side by side, or motorcycles from). He said he ran it on the onboard fuel.

I’ve long said, I think there is a lot of “trash” in the fuel tank (from when they built my rig) and the fuel contaminants were what was causing issues. So, I said that before I left with the unit, I wanted to run it, and put it under load (turn on the A/C’s and microwave).

I hooked up to my dually and pulled the 5th wheel out to the front. I opened the door, lowered the stairs, and hit the prime button inside, to start the genset. The Tech was standing right there with me. The generator fired up immediately and settled into a constant speed. I heard the transfer switch activate, and I went over to the thermostat and turned on one of the A/C’s. The genset IMMEDIATELY shut down. Run time less than two minutes. The code flashing was Fault Code 23 (low oil pressure). The Tech opened the genset compartment and took the front cover off. The red light on the Start / Prime switch was flashing 36 (three flashes, then six flashes) which indicates a general fault code where the generator was shut down without input from the command module.

He checked the oil level, and it was perfect. He tried to start the generator again, and it would not fire. He then checked the fuel pump, and the pump would not work. So, apparently now, I need a new fuel pump.



I was pretty torqued… essentially, I paid the bill and they did nothing to the unit. So, now I am deep diving into Cummins Onan gensets and learning how to fix the darn thing myself. This is one of the bazillion reasons I don’t trust service centers.



Rant off.

 

[WinterDeere]

This Tech is supposedly “the best there is on these Generators, he’s been working on them for over 20 years”. Well, the Tech came in and I asked what he found that was wrong? He said “The fuel drain was open, and it was just pumping fuel out of the carb bowl.”

Sorry to hear about that. Hopefully you get it figured out, and as a bonus learn enough about the rig to make the next repair a lot easier.

My take-away, and my related gripe, is bosses who don't know enough about what their employees do, to actually know the good from the bad. It's nice when you run into a boss man who has actually been there, done that, and knows enough to put the right guy on the right job... and then check that it's been done right.

 

[Darth_DMack]

Sorry to hear about that. Hopefully you get it figured out, and as a bonus learn enough about the rig to make the next repair a lot easier.

My take-away, and my related gripe, is bosses who don't know enough about what their employees do, to actually know the good from the bad. It's nice when you run into a boss man who has actually been there, done that, and knows enough to put the right guy on the right job... and then check that it's been done right.

Unfortunately, I don't think there was any oversight on this. The Tech "seemed" to know what he was doing, but I felt like he just lied about running the generator for thirty minutes or so. Either way, I will get it fixed. The rest of the RV has been good to go. We bought it new, so we have already fixed all the small niggles that comes with RV ownership.

The Genset is a solid unit, once I figure out how to chase off the gremlins. I had this exact type of generator on my boat, and never had a single issue with it.

 

[Eagle1]

Here is my complaint for the day…



Long post, so bear with me. I have a newer 2021 Alliance Valor toy hauler, 40V13 to be exact. The Toy Hauler is fantastic, and we use it all the time. It came with a 5.5kw Cummins Onan generator (gas) that has never worked properly. Suffice it to say, I’ve had it serviced multiple times, but it is plagued with various fault codes. So, as the Side by Side / Camping season approaches, I’m having my yearly service done and dropped the Toy Hauler at our local Cummins service center. I explained to the Service Manager what was wrong, what the unit was doing, and left it with them this past Thursday (22 August 2024) with instructions that I MUST be able to pick the Toy Hauler up NLT this Thursday (29 AUG 2024) because of the 4 day weekend camping trip we have planned.

I got an email from the Service Manager on Monday (26 AUG 2024) saying that the Generator was fixed and working properly, and that I could come pick up my Toy Hauler. So, I shot over there after work yesterday (27 AUG 2024). I was so excited that they were able to get it fixed so quickly!

So, I get there, (an hour’s drive one way, by the way) and go into the service office. I see the Service Manager there, and he said that my unit was good to go. I asked a few questions that he could not answer, so he called the Service Tech in that fixed my genset. This Tech is supposedly “the best there is on these Generators, he’s been working on them for over 20 years”. Well, the Tech came in and I asked what he found that was wrong? He said “The fuel drain was open, and it was just pumping fuel out of the carb bowl.”

Me, scratching my head… “Wait a minute, you are saying the fuel bowl drain was open? That’s impossible, I’ve never touched that.” He said he closed the fuel drain on the fuel bowl of the carb, and it started right up! I asked if he ran the unit, and he said he did for about 30 minutes, but could not test it under load, because he could not get into the camper (it was parked between two other trailers, and could not let the steps down). I then asked if he had run the genset off the onboard fuel (I have a 30 gal tank dedicated to the genset, and another 30 gal tank that I can fill my side by side, or motorcycles from). He said he ran it on the onboard fuel.

I’ve long said, I think there is a lot of “trash” in the fuel tank (from when they built my rig) and the fuel contaminants were what was causing issues. So, I said that before I left with the unit, I wanted to run it, and put it under load (turn on the A/C’s and microwave).

I hooked up to my dually and pulled the 5th wheel out to the front. I opened the door, lowered the stairs, and hit the prime button inside, to start the genset. The Tech was standing right there with me. The generator fired up immediately and settled into a constant speed. I heard the transfer switch activate, and I went over to the thermostat and turned on one of the A/C’s. The genset IMMEDIATELY shut down. Run time less than two minutes. The code flashing was Fault Code 23 (low oil pressure). The Tech opened the genset compartment and took the front cover off. The red light on the Start / Prime switch was flashing 36 (three flashes, then six flashes) which indicates a general fault code where the generator was shut down without input from the command module.

He checked the oil level, and it was perfect. He tried to start the generator again, and it would not fire. He then checked the fuel pump, and the pump would not work. So, apparently now, I need a new fuel pump.



I was pretty torqued… essentially, I paid the bill and they did nothing to the unit. So, now I am deep diving into Cummins Onan gensets and learning how to fix the darn thing myself. This is one of the bazillion reasons I don’t trust service centers.



Rant off.

I gave up on other people fixing my stuff many years ago. There are good ones out there, but VASTLY outnumbered by long term parts changers . I worked with many of them over the years. Nice guys but never understand anything well enough to actually identify the problem. I work my way up through the ranks and provided support to at times to the engineers that designed the bloody things. I moved into software after the late night (18 hours in) when I needed someone to bounce ideas off for a bizarre problem (turned out to be slightly loose ground on a transformer), called our dispatch to rouse one or 2 people I could trust but instead MY pager went off. Called dispatch and they wanted me to call myself to help.....

 

[WinterDeere]

...called our dispatch to rouse one or 2 people I could trust but instead MY pager went off. Called dispatch and they wanted me to call myself to help.....

That's the problem with working your way to the top.

I spent the last 15 years of my corporate career as the head of R&D. That means I was fortunate enough to almost never be the guy in front of the customer, when things misbehaved. Customer service was the front line, then Product Engineers would offer a second line of support when they got stumped. But product engineers are only generalists, trained on the product, but not responsible for its actual development or deeper inner-workings. So when the problems were bad or elusive enough, it'd go up the chain of command and come back down on me or my department.

Usually by then, tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars in time and parts have already been thrown at the problem, and everyone in executive management is somewhere between upset and all-out panic. Never fun, always a high-pressure situation, with never the time available to properly debug the issue. Usually, the service guys have known about the problem for a year, the product engineers for six months, and the R&D guys for six minutes... when we're told, "fix it already!"

 

[Eagle1]

That's the problem with working your way to the top.

I spent the last 15 years of my corporate career as the head of R&D. That means I was fortunate enough to almost never be the guy in front of the customer, when things misbehaved. Customer service was the front line, then Product Engineers would offer a second line of support when they got stumped. But product engineers are only generalists, trained on the product, but not responsible for its actual development or deeper inner-workings. So when the problems were bad or elusive enough, it'd go up the chain of command and come back down on me or my department.

Usually by then, tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars in time and parts have already been thrown at the problem, and everyone in executive management is somewhere between upset and all-out panic. Never fun, always a high-pressure situation, with never the time available to properly debug the issue. Usually, the service guys have known abut the problem for a year, the product engineers for six months, and the R&D guys for six minutes... when we're told, "fix it already!"

True..... but not all engineers are created equally.....

 

[Quaffer]

True..... but not all engineers are created equally.....

Some even speak English.