I dropped the 5er at a local repair shop around 9 AM. Discussed the repairs with the tech, made sure to tell him about the cat closed up in the bedroom. Went to the YMCA for a quick hot tub and steam sauna session, then headed for the nearest Chinese buffet since I skipped breakfast. Halfway there I get a call from the repair shop. They say there’s a few problems. First is the wind. It really started gusting so there’s no way they can work on awnings until it dies down.  Second, all the parts are wrong. ??????? I was so upset over that I told him I’d have to call him back after I got parked. After talking in the parking lot for a few minutes, we got most of the parts issues resolved. The 2 awnings were good to go, along with the slide glide. The slide topper didn’t have all the necessary hardware (chalk that one up to the previous RV shop that didn’t get the order right) but I could live without that for awhile.

Later that afternoon, they got the patio awning up and rewired. Looks and works great now. I even got 2 bonus items that afternoon. Found out that the thermostat fuse I’d been pulling also controlled all the 12v in the kitchen slide. Great FYI for the future. And I was able to find a troubleshooting document online for the leveling system which has been giving me fits since October.

I stayed in the RV in their parking lot that night, plugged into a 15 or 20 amp circuit. It was just enough to keep the frig running and a small space heater in the bedroom. I was up early the next morning, before the shop opened, so I tried my newfound knowledge from the previous afternoon. Hallelujah! The leveling system finally quit beeping at me and the error code cleared. It took a few extra minutes to manually level the rig and recalibrate the system but after that life was good.

The techs arrived about then and we discussed the plan for the main awning. They wanted to detach the brackets from the RV, assemble the awning inside, then reattach. I asked about just cutting off the old awning material and sliding the new material on. After looking at it a few more minutes, they chose that route and about an hour later I was out of there.  Big kudos to Eric’s RV of Sequim WA

I made it back to the RV park in short order. Ever drive through a traffic circle with a 40 ft 5th wheel? I had to navigate 2 of them. Fortunately, they were well designed and I didn’t run over any curbs. Setup was pretty quick since I’d left my hoses in position and the auto-level was working again. I even extended an awning, just to show off.

Hopefully, I’ll be able to get the slide topper parts in TN and do that repair myself. The previous RV shop also ordered the wrong slide glide. It was thinner than the original and crumpled on first use. I’ve seen DIY plans in the Open Range forum for a stainless steel glide that works much better. That’s also on my list for TN.