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Edouard's avatar
Edouard
Explorer
Apr 16, 2014

TALE OF A TRIP, SHOUDA STAYED IN FLORIDA.

Well, we did stay an extra week.

MONDAY: April 7, 9:30 am. We went to pick up the Tow Dolly at U-haul in Lake Worth, after verifying our on line Jan.4 reservation the day before, Sunday, only to find out they had changed our Guaranteed Reservation from 173$ up to 720$, asked the clerk how that can happen, she said it does happen to Canadians, suggested next time we book at her desk and she'll print us a copy and a copy for her.

We did not have a printer in our RV. We were given an 800 nr for customer service, after 5 different people, hangups/left hanging, offered best price of 540$, accused of booking a TOW BAR, not a TOW DOLLY, then the person quickly said, "OH, WE DON'T OFFER A TOW BAR RENTAL"

We finally asked for a rental fee to Malone, NY, that would be 201$, then "ON SORRY, THAT WILL BE 101$ TO NY" So, we were on our way at ll:30 am, two hours of stress later. So much for U-Haul's BAIT & SWITCH POLICY.

TUESDAY: April 8th., before noon, we decided to replace our 2 Trojan T-105 6 Volt batteries at Boat N RV Megastore in Ridgeland, SC. Brought in the old Trojan's, noticed the Interstate SRM-24's had both terminals on same side of battery, clerk said, should be not problem if your wires reach, installed IN SERIES.

Then over 400 miles north, we stop for the nite, no 12 volt to the house, house is powered all afternoon by chassis running, our inverter is now indicating overload, remove wires, test single battery, 12 volts, YIKES-OMG WHAT GOT FRIED? Hooked up a single 12 volt, no house power, genset starts, then cuts out in a minute, needed chassis running to maintain evening power with gen-set. At this point we were able to check that all systems both 12 volt and 120 volt were operational, so nothing fried! Thank God!

Thursday: April 9th. Flying stone hits the one piece windshield, immediate 20 inch crack just right of my line of sight, what next?

Interstate Store/Syracuse was amazed that the RV store in Ridgeland sold us the wrong batteries, he exchanged the 12volts and installed 2 GC-2 6 volt deep cycle's with a price difference of 20$ + tax, each, very accommodating.

Camping world in Syracuse were very helpful in finding a new Battery disconnect switch at another supplier, I replaced it at a McDonald's over lunch, still no house power.

Finally arrive home Friday morning, then at home Saturday I discovered that the Hi Amp 150 Battery breaker was actually broken, the manual reset button was missing and not indicating it had jumped, I manually reset it with pointy nose pliers, voila, finally, and
all is working well.

Sent a letter to Boat N RV Megastore in Ridgeland, SC, still need to sent a letter to U-Haul, and already claimed the windshield, waiting on install in about a week, and 500$ deductible later...

Thanks for listening. Eugene.
  • I was going to say, just look on Craig's list for a used Tow Dolly and you can get a better price than $720.
  • cKarlGo wrote:
    Isn't $720 about what a tow dolly would cost to purchase?


    That is exactly what I told both the clerk at the pickup desk and all 5 in-compassionate people at customer service, "I don't want to buy the Tow Dolly, I just want to rent it"

    Actually it cost us about 125$ rental to rent a dolly to go down on December 26th. from here in Canada to Lake Worth.Fl.
  • fla-gypsy wrote:
    Yikes! Why not just move to Florida and live stress free


    Hey, that is precisely what we are doing, the house is already for sale here, relocating to West Palm area, selling the big rig, downsizing to a Class B straight sided van.

    We are a dual citizen couple, with 2 children near West Palm and one here in Montreal.
  • msmith1199 wrote:
    U-Haul was going to charge you $720 to "rent" a tow dolly???


    Yes, the clerk at the pickup desk said, well it's high season, and I responded that I booked in Jan.4th.2014 for pickup April 7th., Monday, at $ l73.00 plus 64.$ insurance, and she repeated Its high season.

    And while I went out to the rig to bring back my laptop she informed my wife that this happens to Canadians. When I pulled up the reservation that I had just checked the morning before, well, guess what, my original U-Haul confirmation I had saved from Jan.4th., was now changed to $ 720.00.

    I should have printed it out, the clerk said that she would have honored it at $ 173.00.

    Anyway, it cost us 72$ less to drop it off state side about an hour and a half from home.

    Real shady of U-Haul to do a BAIT AND SWITCH, there we were stressing with having to drive home in separate vehicles over 4 days.

    The big motorhome is for sale, at which point we will be buying a Sprinter Mercedes chassis class B van camper, can't wait, no more hasle finding a dingy that tows on the ground, actually, we'll probably be selling the 2013 Kia Soul too if we find the van is versatile enough to use around home base's.