September 19, 2011

Getting A Charge

Today I said “good-bye” to Jane, and I did so reluctantly.  It was wonderful to spend a week with her, and I will be forever grateful for her joining me on the second leg of the trip.

After I dropped her off at the Albany, New York, airport, I had to attend to the RV.  The coach batteries had not been charging properly the last few days, which meant that we could only stay at campgrounds with electric hookups.

I ended up at Albany RV, and was taken care of immediately.  I felt so fortunate since I’d read such horror stories of people on the road waiting for days, or even weeks, for service.  The initial diagnosis was that the two coach batteries were bad, which didn’t make much sense since Van City RV had just checked them out one week earlier.  The technicians were sure, however, and promised to honor the warranty.  I was ok with two new batteries and told them to go ahead.

Albany RV
Unfortunately, when they returned from the Interstate battery dealer, they told me that the batteries were good, just discharged.  They checked the converter, which seemed to be ok, and determined that there must be an unknown draw on the batteries.  They also informed me that I would need to take the RV to a Leisure Travel Vans dealer for service.  Great!  The closest one was in Pennsylvania.  That’s the only downside to owning a Class B.  There are few dealers that carry and service Class Bs, particularly Sprinters.  The guys apologized for not being able to fix the problem, suggested that I stay in their lot for at least an hour to charge the batteries and try to leave the RV plugged in for at least 24 hours.  Staying in one place for a full day wouldn’t be possible for at least a week, so I limped away after getting a partial charge.  I’ll just keep looking for campgrounds with hookups and hope for the best.

Getting a Charge
The good news is that my friend Kevin from Portland arrived tonight.  He’s covering the last leg of the trip from Albany, New York, to Portland, Maine.  Kevin had flown to Boston on Saturday and spent the weekend there.  Can you believe that he won an iPad in a bar?  Some people have all the luck.

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