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Thursday, September 20, 2018

Finally, Sherman's repairs are complete!

We arrived at the Kal Tire store at the north end of Vernon at around 9:00am. When it was my turn at the front counter, I pointed back at the motorhome and explained that I'm trying to get a front wheel alignment. The guy took a glance over towards Sherman and said "it won't fit on our alignment rack."

I walked out of the office and past the service bays. And as I walked past the bays with the wheel alignment machines I thought to myself "why won't it fit??"

So I returned to the office to ask the question.

This time, I spoke to another guy and he said it was the wheelbase. But Sherman has a short wheebase and I told him it was only 13' 6".

"Oh, well it should fit then".

That's what I thought. Then, I queried him about the technician doing the job. I was told he's a red seal mechanic with 17 years experience. Okay... I'm happy with that. The last place that was going to do a wheel alignment had an apprentice to do the job!

Anyhow, they said they could squeeze us in if we could leave it with them. We said we weren't going anywhere and would be sitting in the motorhome when they're ready.

Around 11:00am, the mechanic Jamie came out to get Sherman. He wanted to take him for a drive first which I was very happy with... how do you know if you've fixed the problem if you never knew what he handled like in the first place.

I could tell right away from talking with this guy that he knew what he was doing. I my 20 years experience working in the collision repair business, I dealt with a lot of wheel alignment guys and not all of them know what they're doing.

We finally ended up in the bay, and surprisingly, Jamie said we could stay in the motorhome if we didn't move around too much.

View out Sherman's side window.

He worked at it for about 3 hours! He was very patient and tried a few different things and ended up shimming the upper control arm on the left side. I was impressed that he took the time to do it right.

He took us out for a drive, and the steering wheel was perfectly straight. And, he no longer pulled to the left! I'll keep an eye on it, but hopefully the bad tire wear we were experiencing on the left front is also gone.

Then, I asked if they could re-balance the one wheel that had lost a wheel weight after the tires were installed in Cranbrook. No problem, but the guy was in the middle of a job and it might be a while. We decided to stick around and just get it done.

We didn't get out of their parking lot until just after 4:00pm!

However... finally, Sherman's repairs are complete!

Total bill was $184 CAD ($144 USD) tax included... much better than I thought it would be. I've used Kal Tire stores here in Canada quite a few times and the bill has never been higher than I thought it would be.

So, despite the not great experience we had at the store in Cranbrook, I am still pleased with Kal Tire, and especially Jamie the wheel alignment mechanic!

From there, we drove the very short distance to my Aunt Barbara's house. 

Haven't seen Aunt Barbara for ten years, and of course everybody is getting older. But she's doing really fantastic for 86... we can all only hope to be doing that well! Still walks everywhere that she can, and keeps herself busy and lives in her own home.

Kevin, Aunt Barbara, and Ruth.

She made us an early supper and we had a nice visit. Too short of course, but we still have places to go and we've only got six days left before our flight!

And, we had been invited by blog readers and fellow RV'ers Lorraine and Dave to come for a visit and park at their place here in Vernon. So we did just that!

Dave, Kevin, Ruth, Lorraine.

No shortage of conversation, and we had a lot to talk about regarding our future travel down the west coast in late October, and our trip to Newfoundland next summer. They did Newfoundland two years ago in their motorhome so they had lots of tips for us!

Time passed too quickly and before we knew it, it was after 10pm.

Today, we have a "long" drive (164 kms, 102 miles!) to the town of Savona where more of our readers have offered us a place to park for the night!

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And in Canada...




24 comments:

  1. I can definitely see the family resemblance with your Aunt, Kevin.
    I use to go to an annual swim meet in Savona in my teen years.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, I agree there is definitely a family resemblance there.

      We wouldn't have thought that Savona was a big enough place that would host an annual swim meet but I guess it must be. It definitely has some nice scenery here. :-)

      Delete
  2. I think one of the first sayings that I ever learned when it came to dealing with vehicles was, "Never trust a front end man." Good to see you found one who knew what he was doing.

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    Replies
    1. Jamie definitely seemed to know what he was doing and Sherman is now driving much better. Kevin is pretty happy with the final result.

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  3. Worth the wait I am sure, just to get those bloody repairs behind you. Now Sherman is all Mexico ready!

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    Replies
    1. Yes, it was worth the wait. It was just so frustrating to find a place that could actually work on him and also getting someone with the experience.

      Fingers crossed that he is now finally ready for our next trip south. :-)

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  4. Happy to hear the Shermanis all put back together! Onward ho!

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  5. Did you not have time to visit Ellen?

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    Replies
    1. No, unfortunately we weren't able to get together with Ellen. We really would have liked to have but see works during the days and we didn't have the time to stick around any longer. :-(

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  6. Haha a "long" 102mi drive! Glad the repair season is finally over lol

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    Replies
    1. It was a long drive for us, especially after all our short little jogs down the road these last few days/weeks. ;-)

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  7. $184 for three hours in the shop is a great price! It is always nice to have everything done.

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    Replies
    1. Yep, Kevin was quite surprised with the bill. For the amount of time and effort that was put into the job, we are happy with the price.

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  8. A job done better than you expected is a wonderful thing, isn't it?

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    1. I'm spending the day replacing the water pump on our RV. It's going easier than I expected. Lemme tell ya, a job that's easier than expected is pretty sweet too!

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    2. Glad to hear the replacement job is going well for you and trust us we know how sweet it is when all goes according to plan! :-)

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  9. We are so happy that more blog readers are offering you a place to stay in your travels. Yes, you definitely resemble Aunt Barbara - looking good!

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    Replies
    1. We are so surprised to have had so many invitations. It is so generous of these lovely folks, just like you and Barry we now have so many more new friends. :-)

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  10. Happy to see your repairs done properly. Your a patient man to have driven all those months and miles with a off center steering wheel and pulling to one side.

    Do Lorraine and Dave have a travel blog specifically of RVing in Newfoundland?

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    Replies
    1. He has been a patient guy, but trust me his was definitely starting to get very frustrated with all the things that weren't going according to plan and then just trying to find a place to do the alignment of Sherman once all the repairs were complete and the new tires installed. We are so happy to have all this behind us now. :-)

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    2. Do you know if Lorraine and Dave have a travel blog specifically of RVing in Newfoundland?

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    3. Sorry I realized later in the day that I hadn't answered that question for you and I never got back on the computer after that.

      No, they don't have a travel blog, they just kept a map of their route and we looked at it with them to get an idea of where we want to travel when we head there next summer. They showed us some of their favourite places along their route as well.

      Delete

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