RV Repair, RV Dealers, Minot and the lack of parts
I have just in the last few days started to take apart my entire slide on one side of my trailer to put in a new floor and repair some old rot caused by a leak from long ago. I have removed the majority of the Metal skin, the old floor, cut out the rotted structural parts and will re-install the new floor today.
So in this project I have, as expected, needed some generic parts and supplies from the RV dealer here in Minot.
So I went to Capital RV, THE LARGEST dealer in the state of ND. They have more than a hundred RV,s on their lot and a conversation with the Sales manager revealed my guess at their inventory at about 15 MILLION Dollars was very close. This is to say nothing of their new building which makes the average Wal Mart look small.
But do they carry simple parts and supplies?
I walked in the other day and asked for a roll of Eterna-Bond tape.
The guy in parts didnt know what I was talking about. I found it myself on a shelf. They didnt have the rubber slide/swipe "gasket" the generic kind that is used on probably 80% of the RV's out there. it is nothing more than a 4 inch wide strip of generic black rubber about 1/16th inch thick.
On another day I went to get some Butyl Tape for sealing the joints and window...The PARTS MANAGER didnt know what I was talking about. I again found it by looking on their shelves.
This is in addition to some of the simple things they just didnt carry but would have to order for me...Oh that will be two weeks...Ah IF our distributor has it in stock.
I told them they should reduce their unsold inventory of RV's and put that money into carrying some real parts not just generators, toilet paper and kitchen gee-gaws.
On each of four visits for parts of some kind there was not one other customer in the entire place and as we left no less than 4 or 5 sales people sitting on the couches in the "atrium" area at the front of the store would wave at us and say "good bye"
Now this is MINOT. So before you all say well you should have gone to Home Depot...dont. I had already been to Home Depot, Menards A( giant version of HD here), every local hardware store and seemingly every other shop in this town. Just finding the right kinds of screws has been a challenge.
Since there is no Plastics store in Minot I have had to improvise on the Nylon Slide material that is used in this trailer. (I was missing one of the four)I bought a Plastic cutting board at KMart and made one myself.
But the biggest irritation is that no one in these places has any real knowledge of the parts and supplies they are selling. They are just cashiers and inventory clerks.
My sense is that I knew more about RV repair than the entire parts department of the largest RV dealer in the state. That is a real indictment of the state of things in the RV retail world.
Needless to say I will be glad when this project is finished so I can stop torturing the Hardware, RV and Kmart employees of MINOT.
So in this project I have, as expected, needed some generic parts and supplies from the RV dealer here in Minot.
So I went to Capital RV, THE LARGEST dealer in the state of ND. They have more than a hundred RV,s on their lot and a conversation with the Sales manager revealed my guess at their inventory at about 15 MILLION Dollars was very close. This is to say nothing of their new building which makes the average Wal Mart look small.
But do they carry simple parts and supplies?
I walked in the other day and asked for a roll of Eterna-Bond tape.
The guy in parts didnt know what I was talking about. I found it myself on a shelf. They didnt have the rubber slide/swipe "gasket" the generic kind that is used on probably 80% of the RV's out there. it is nothing more than a 4 inch wide strip of generic black rubber about 1/16th inch thick.
On another day I went to get some Butyl Tape for sealing the joints and window...The PARTS MANAGER didnt know what I was talking about. I again found it by looking on their shelves.
This is in addition to some of the simple things they just didnt carry but would have to order for me...Oh that will be two weeks...Ah IF our distributor has it in stock.
I told them they should reduce their unsold inventory of RV's and put that money into carrying some real parts not just generators, toilet paper and kitchen gee-gaws.
On each of four visits for parts of some kind there was not one other customer in the entire place and as we left no less than 4 or 5 sales people sitting on the couches in the "atrium" area at the front of the store would wave at us and say "good bye"
Now this is MINOT. So before you all say well you should have gone to Home Depot...dont. I had already been to Home Depot, Menards A( giant version of HD here), every local hardware store and seemingly every other shop in this town. Just finding the right kinds of screws has been a challenge.
Since there is no Plastics store in Minot I have had to improvise on the Nylon Slide material that is used in this trailer. (I was missing one of the four)I bought a Plastic cutting board at KMart and made one myself.
But the biggest irritation is that no one in these places has any real knowledge of the parts and supplies they are selling. They are just cashiers and inventory clerks.
My sense is that I knew more about RV repair than the entire parts department of the largest RV dealer in the state. That is a real indictment of the state of things in the RV retail world.
Needless to say I will be glad when this project is finished so I can stop torturing the Hardware, RV and Kmart employees of MINOT.
