Quote:
Originally Posted by softwarejoe
I'm scared to ask but how did you bend a stab jack? I want to make sure I don't make the same mistake.
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So you want the whole sordid story, eh?
Well we were hurrying home from Florida on our second to last leg of the trip. The plan was for a "moderately" long day from NC to DC and a short hop home the next.
A winter storm advisory was posted for snow and ice on the leg home, so we decided to try and do the entire shot in one day. We talked about it and decided to leave right at the end of quiet hours in the morning so I planned on doing everything I could "noise-wise" that night and just hook up and leave at 0700. We then decided to go out to eat and I when I returned I dropped the tail gate and backed under the pin so I would be all lined up without a lot of idling and backing at that ungodly hour.
Well the height of the hitch was "just so close" to being perfect, that if I "bumped" up the front gear about an inch or so, I could actually latch without any other messing around.
Forgetting the stabs were still down (for the life of me it never entered my mind), the "or so" got me. A loud crash and the shaking of the camper like a wet dog reminded me though. Many bad words and many better spent dollars resulted from that moment's forgetfulness.
All damage was NOT covered by any insurance even though I had the extended warranty on my 8 month old camper. Even the car insurance did not pay since we were not actually connected when the damage occurred.
Th $1,000 dollar repair bill could have been worse since the structural inspection they said it needed did not require the mounting strips covering the screws to be removed. So, what DID they inspect for 4 hours?
(My FIRST bad experience with my dealer's back shop)
Additionally Lippert would have sold me a complete brand new in the box powered stab with all mounting hardware for 400 bucks plus shipping. I would have had to remove 4 mounting bolts and route 2 wires and have been done, but I wanted to be sure nothing "bad" had been done to the camper (since it was under warranty). They did give me the old unit when I asked, but none of the new electrical hardware was included even though they did not use any.
Now I am not even sure I HAVE a warranty since just about anything that goes wrong now "might be from that documented my fault" mishap.