What did I do wrong???

[calliopeguy]

So this was just a little 3 day weekend....no big deal. The night before we turned the fridge on gas (after we bled the lines with the stove) to get it cold for our food. Next day is was about room temp (about 90 degrees). The check light was not on....we had plenty of gas...so ????? Well I hooked up the 110 electric and still didn't get any indication of it working. This was at 7:30 A.M. and we were meeting some friends at 8:00 for a 225 mile drive to our site. At about 7:55 with much screwing around the gas decided to kick in....yippee but the fridge was still 90 so we loaded all the food into a big cooler and threw in what ice we could find.

So after an uneventful drive to our site, we start setting up. The fridge looked like it was coming to life. After a while we decided it was not getting cold enough. My wife began doing some research and found this plastic thingy that clips onto a "cooling fin" . Next to the plastic thingy was a plastic tube hanging in mid-air attached to a long narrow tube. My wife then decided the plastic tube probably fits inside the plastic thingy. She then found this sticker on the wall of the fridge that said cooler with an up arrow. So she slid the pastic thing up as far as it would go and we were in business.



The next thing I have to do is extend the streetside slide so I can crawl under it and hand-crank the curbside slide which is stuck in the frame (see "Slide problem - you might want to know this").



On to the Television set-up. We have had really good results with the mount provided by crossroads so usually all we have to do is auto search for the available channels and commence watching TV. Well by golly we could only find ONE channel (a preacher....telling me life is good). This is Duluth, Mn, been there many times before, and they have many good channels! We tried everything we could and finally my wife switches the antenna selector switch on the wall to "OFF" and we got about 2/3 of the channels we normally get but at least local news. The next day we had to re-program and we came up with some different channels. There were times we would only get one channel. Ya, I know we're not supposed to be watching TV but there were severe weather warnings all over the place and this is one time I do NOT like surprises.



The rest of the weekend was just fine. This morning we hooked up and drove over to the dump station. In the past I've had a problem with the black tank valve not closing all the way so I've been very careful to shove it in as far as I can. So I got the sewer hose ready...uncapped the sewer line....and took a bath in raw sewage! Apparently the black tank valve needs a little adjustment in the linkage because when its pushed all the way in it is NOT closed!. My shoes and socks were covered.....my pants and t-shirt were splashed full...and I was not necessarily a happy camper. Luckily, my wife uses a lot of chemical so I may have looked like a pile of poop but I smelled like a rose. We this was our last day camping so when I took a shower this AM I put on my last set of clean clothes...no plan B. The only other option was going back into the camper and getting some clothes out of the clothes hamper. However yesteday we were at an air show in Duluth, temp well above freezing and somewhat below boiling, and I am NOT putting those clothes back on. So wife and I enjoyed the sweet smell of roses all the way home and I was very careful not to lick my fingers.



After we got home we had to unload the fridge which required us to open the slide. We also decided to investigate this Television hook-up problem ( I apparently have not had sufficient agony for one day). So I once again crawled under the camper to go through my hand-operated slide crankout routine described above. This time however things were not going well....the shaft just would not turn. After close examination, I noticed the the shaft which extends out from the frame is not a solid shaft. It is a hollow light-weight tube with a pin stuck through it for the crank to align with. Well the pin decided to pull back just enough so it extended thru a hole in one side only. Also lucky for me the pin extend out the top side so there was only about 1" between the pin and the floor so I could not hammer it back into place. Also since it was only in one side of the tube, when I tried to use the crank on it I ripped the pin out and elongated the hole so I can't use it again. However I'm not a quitter so into my shop and return with vice grip, BFH, large pliers, etc. My wife looks at me at makes a very clear statement something to the effect "You are NOT going to spend anymore time fixing this !@#$!!#$! camper!!!! We are taking it back to the dealer".



Well the food is still in the fridge and with the slide closed there is no access....well no reasonable access. So my wife (both knees replace/achilles surgery x 3/we are still both working on excessive food problem) leaps....ok, jumps.....ok, crawled on her tummy over the counter to get to the fridge and hands me the food from the fridge. Mission accomplished!



Its sunday afternoon and we deserve a break so here I am.



At this point I'm still in love with my Kingston. All of the problems so far are repairable and once everything is fixed up I should once again be a happy camper.Edited by: calliopeguy

[Stan]

Sounds like a weekend to remember! Sorry about all your "issues" Hopefully things will get better and the next trip will have happier memories.

[spinella]

next time you touch your black tank valve...you should put on rain gear. problem solved.

[papa2]

Man, that's rough.

Your story about the black tank valve reminded me of something that happened when I was about 10 years old. My dad rented a pop up with a toilet. Mom, Dad, twin sisters and I are on a trip out west. Can't remember what Dad was going to dump into, but with the valve open nothing comes out. Dad looks into the sewage line and can see it's plugged. Voila, a wire coat hanger will do to help unstop it. For leverage and to get a better view of the blockage he is laying on his back jabbing the toilet paper dam. Unfortunately he succeeded. Out comes the stinky right into his open mouth. I made the mistake of laughing. Round and round the campground we ran with my father covered in crud chasing me. He finally gave up and cleaned up the mess at the camp site. I took a long time to return to give him an opportunity to cool down and get cleaned up.

As unpleasant as your experience was, it could have been worse

Hoping you get your issues resolved.

[martinto]

Well folks, after listening and belly laughingat the stories about theexperienceswith dumping the black water tanks and subsequenctbathing in it, I am confident that any such experience I have withmy Slingshot will not deter me form continuing on this path!



What a hoot!

[Shirley]

We have also experienced the slightly messy valve situation in our Kingston. Only one of the few problems we have had. Not so much still in love with ours.

[RSCREES]

Originally Posted by Shirley

We have also experienced the slightly messy valve situation in our Kingston. Only one of the few problems we have had. Not so much still in love with ours.

What problems have you had with your kingston? We had only small things which Randy fixed for us.

[Shirley]

It has som many problems, some of which have been fixed and some we are just having to learn to live with. After one week we found the gray water tank leaked, and the back window blind was broker, the saniflush did not work, and still doesn't, the cabinets were crooked, the outside recepticle didn't work, and the recliners are different. One of them actually sits on the floor if you try to recline. Also a leak under the kitchen sink, the foot flusher came flying off the toilet, and we had no furnace for most of the winter. If we were in a better financial position we would have gotten rid of this thing, but we just bought it new in Oct.

[RSCREES]

Wow sorry to hear that you are having so many issues. Have you tried to contact Randy Mishler at crossroads? He has done wonders for us and many other crossroad owners. If you are not too far from the factory it is the best place to get things fixed!! It may be worth the road trip for you.

[calliopeguy]

Shirley - It seems like all the things you listed would be well within the capability of a warranty repair center except for the chair issue. If your warranty center doesn't have the expertise, or if the warranty center requires a long drive, you may want to make an appointment with the factoryas suggested and get it all fixed up to your expectations.

[Shirley]

Thank you for the tip. We may take your suggestion and try the factory. Our attempts at getting help from our service center has be terribly frustrating.

[SWAILES]

I hope that everything works out for you. My dealer was very helpful in fixing the few troubles that we had with our new trailer. The product is great but the support of the dealer means the world.



Good luck and keep smiling.

[Shirley]

Always smiling, life is good!