Thursday, September 13, 2018

Call Me Bwana, the Parts Hunter


Well parts of Southeastern New England really got hammered with rain – nothing like Florence will deliver to the mid-Atlantic region this week – but enough for flash flood warnings.  Because of the rain it was time to go out shopping for the RV parts I need – specifically a water filter and a strap for the galley gray water dump connection.  The filter proved harder to find than I thought.  We originally went to Westport Auto and RV Center, this time armed with the old filter in hand!  The gentleman looked through every catalog he had and couldn’t find it so the search continued.  The filter is a Water Pur and has a phone number embossed on the upper cartridge with the model number – so I called the number.  Got a very pleasant man at ‘customer service’ who told me he did not have a list of vendors who sell the filter (really, you don’t know who you ship your products to?) but he informed me that Camping World and Dealers who sell Forest River RVs carry the product.  Now I was at Camping World and had no luck finding the filter.  But this time I had what I needed in my hand for comparison so maybe I would have better luck, so off to Camping World we head again. Just like yesterdays visit I find nothing on the shelf resembling my filter and no products by Water Pur.  This time instead of asking one of the clerks I head to the parts desk and tell the man what I’m looking for and that the company says they should be stocked here.  The parts manager bangs away on his keyboard looking for my part and finds nothing and leads me back to the shelf of filters.  I think I’m pretty much done with this store!  Before leaving the lot I call the nearest Forest River dealer, Arlington RV in Warwick, RI and end up leaving a message with with parts department.  Not wanting to drive to Rhode Island and come back empty handed we head to the Westport Ace Hardware to find the strap for my galley dump.  I’m getting smarter as I go, when I tried to explain what I needed to Joey (the most helpful guy) at Camping World he, at first, had a hard time envisioning what I was talking about.  So this time I took a picture with my iphone so we could play show-and-tell at Ace – and it worked!  After wandering a few aisles looking for something – and coming up empty - I find a store employee and show him the picture and say, “I’m looking for something to replace this strap with.” He leads me right to the aisle with two different choices!  One of the items seemed too stiff for what I needed so I got a package of perforated strap that will last through several repairs for about $2 – bargain!
After Ace I again called Arlington RV and this time get to talk to a person  The lady in parts tells me she has a bunch of them on the shelf, so we start the trek to Rhode Island.  The trip to Arlington RV led us through several downpours, both there and back, but they had the part and I got two!!  The filter installed as easily as it did when I originally set up the fresh water system from the winter storage condition the dealer had it in so my fresh water is up and running for six more months. Now to find someone to fix my screen!

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