Feb 16, 2020
Saturday was a long day
It started with us taking the RV to have the repaired generator installed. Of course lots of putting things away and unhooking us was part of the pre prep before we even backed out of our site. Saw these street performers.
They were very good.
We were very pleased to find that when we arrived at the ‘shop’ that there was an open space for the RV and Erik had already set up the ramps. We were up on them and parked by 9:58AM which we took as a good omen for how the day was going to proceed.
Figuring out how they were going to move the 500 pound generator.
Brute strength.
Lots of grimaces.
Finally they got it close to the RV.
Putting it onto boards to slide it closer yet.
A very involved method to raise it into position.
By driving up onto the small ramps it gave Erik just enough space to sit on the ground under the RV.
There are three guys sitting under the RV. You can see how small the ramp is but it is the best we could get here.
While we waited I did a few things that I could do while being stuck inside with no wifi. I had fun watching this wee guy working alongside his father and brothers doing whatever he could to help.
As well as watching this creature who was most interested in what we were all doing. He was high up on top of a wall.
He is a big boy and ever so pretty.
By exactly 12:00 noon the generator was installed and bolted in. Yeah, we were anticipating leaving within thirty minutes and having time to do what needed to be done once we got back to Tres Amigos.
However it would not start 😯 Seriously it would not start. What the heck. Long story short Erik tried everything that he could and it would not work. Finally he admitted that he had not tested it after repairing it 😥 We think that Erik being the only RV tech around has over extended himself and is worn out. We could see that he was very tired. So finally he gave up and had to take the generator out again. He thinks that the problem has something to so with the generator starter motor.
Meanwhile while all of this drama was going on, the old school bus beside us was being painted. It was a concern to Colin that the paint would overspray onto our RV. But what could we do? They said that it would not but as he got closer to us Colin went out to keep an eye on things.
So there she sits, our generator, once again sitting on the sideline.
It took two hours to put the generator in and four and one half hours to try and get it running and to finally pull it out again. Then we had to wait until the bus that was parked behind us was able to move. Whatever they were doing, the air brakes / tanks were not functioning and needed to be reconnected to move that bus so that we could get out of the shop 🙁
We left here at 8:45AM and got back to our site at 5:30PM. What a waste of the day. However it was a good thing that Colin insisted on getting the generator reinstalled sooner than later as now we can have it repaired yet again and hopefully have a functioning generator before we leave. Remember that a new one costs around $10,000.00 USD, so it is certainly worth the efforts that we are going through.
However the generator was just a part of our day. By the time we got connected to power, the slides pushed out and a few essentials put back together we were running late. Very very late. We were to have left the Isla again by 4:45PM. We finally left about 6:20PM. More on what that was all about in the next post.
I am trying to keep as current as possible so I am sending this out to you without proofing. This is a crazy busy week what with activities everyday plus my seemingly constant exercises. Why do all the good things have to happen at the same time?
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Dear Contessa and Collin,
Please forgive my hurtful and bland reply. Cut your losses and run!
Start shopping for a new generator in the USA and forget the attempts from the repair shop however nice the guys are. You will save yourselves a lot of future aggregations, further attempts to repair, more costs and will end up buying a new gen set anyway. I mean well and hope you will take this into consideration.
Hope that otherwise you are having a wonderful stay.
No offence taken. However we are committed to get this one repaired. This is the last chance and if it doesn’t work then we will cancel our trip this October so that we can purchase a new unit. The thing is,the cost is 10.000.00USD PLUS labor. Please hope with us that this effort will work.
Nothing is ever easy is it? Busy with good things is a wonderful position to be in….you can blog when you are done partying 🙂
Definitely busy. I think that February is our busiest ever month here.
That is so sad that they didn’t test the generator before they installed it 🙁 And I would have been very worried to have that unit painted right beside you!
I sure hope they get the generator issue sorted out before you leave.
Extremely sad! I will keep you posted as we go re the repair job.