Week 265 - Louisville, Living, Loving, Leaving - 09-11-2011

Praise be to God and accolades to Cummins Crosspoint, Louisville and Cummins Corporate

Having read previous travelogues, you know much of this, but we wanted this complete story in one place. We explain the tragedy of our dusted engine and how God worked it out for good. Our motorhome was purchased on April 5, 2006 and performed flawlessly until March 8, 2011. With 68,856 miles we noticed a huge loss of oil. We added oil.

1) The Mothership on Day One. 2) Our location in Southern California where we stopped to add three gallons of oil.

In May we had the engine checked for oil leaks in Paso Robles, CA. None were found. Later in May at Cummins in Redding we asked to have the engine checked again and they found nothing wrong. But we had to keep adding oil. Finally, in Sacramento, we had a thorough analysis performed and it was found that the engine was "dusted". Due to an assembly error by Monaco Coach Corporation (MCC), dust entered between the air filter and the turbocharger. After 68 thousand miles, this dust destroyed the pistons, rings, cylinder sleeves, turbocharger, engine head and valves and other parts. The estimated repair was $10,000 for parts and $10,000 to $15,000 for labor and it would be billed hourly, not a fixed quotation. We were devastated.

This hose was improperly clamped allowing the dust to enter the turbocharger.

Over the last five years we have had no trouble with the motorhome engine or chassis, just routine maintenance. And we did every recommended maintenance. This includes items like the over $300 front wheel bearing packing at both 30 and 60 thousand miles. Now, we were faced with an enormous repair. This was the fault of MCC, not us and not Cummins. However, MCC after 40 years was out of business. They went bankrupt during the economic downturn. Monaco motorhomes are still built, but now by Monaco RV LLC (MRV). MRV bought the assets of MCC, but not the company and therefore they have no liability. Prior to bankruptcy we received excellent service for MCC. The original warranty from MCC is only one year. At year 1 and 1/2 we went to Harrisburg, Oregon for service. They worked 12 hours on our coach and nicely repaired all our items. We expected a bill of $1,200 but were not billed a penny! They told us that each of the items was the fault of initial assembly and therefore we should not have to pay for the repairs. Nice! But, now with the engine failure, MCC no longer exists.

Monaco Coach Corporation in 1) Coburg, Orgeon and 2) Elkhart, Indiana.

We contacted MRV and explained what happened to our engine. While sympathetic they explained that MCC was gone and MRV was not liable. We knew that, but asked if there was not some way that they could help. For example, could they allow us to purchase the parts at their cost, saving us thousands? No, as the new MRV buys very few Cummins engines and they have little "pull" with Cummins. Could they find us a used engine from a salvage yard? No, they knew of none. Their only recommendation was to have the engine rebuilt versus installing a used engine, so you would know you got a good engine. We agreed, but could not afford the rebuild cost.

The damaged Mothership performed well, did not smoke or drip oil and got good mileage. So our plan was to just add oil routinely and someday afford to repair it. This left us disappointed as we knew someday we might end up stranded in the middle of nowhere needing a new engine. As we added oil, the oil consumption increased from one quart per 250 miles to one per 60 miles. We felt we needed to act now. Ellen googled "the world" and found only one used Cummins ISL400 engine. It was in London, Kentucky. It cost $4,500 and the labor to install would be $6,000. This total of $10,500 was doable. So we headed 1,500 miles to London.

On the way we kept googling, calling and stopping at diesel shops looking for alternatives. One call we made was to Preston, the Cummin's Corp. Consumer Advocate. Preston patiently listened to our story but explained that Cummins had "no skin in this game". They had no liability, it was MCC who was at fault. He suggested we stop to meet Brian at Cummin's Crosspoint in Louisville and that Brian might be able to help us. We did stop in Louisville and met with Brian, Gary and his staff who examined the Mothership and would prepare a quotation. Then, we headed to London. The engine in London was an ISL400 out of a burnt out motorhome. It looked like overdone bacon and had a different CPL (Common Parts List) Number. This meant that while it would work, it would require modifications to fit our motorhome. We decided no.

1) The used engine looked like it would belong in this building. 2) At this point, we believe the "locusts" were ready to eat the weakened Monaco.

We received an email quotation from Gary at Cummins Crosspoint. They would rebuild our engine for a fixed price of $16,000. This was a very fair quote but again, we could not afford it. At this point, we contacted Preston once again. Trucking companies wear out their engines, but make a profit while doing so. And Cummins rightfully makes money rebuilding their engines. But we do not make money with our motorhome and diesel engines in motorhomes usually last a lifetime. Would it be possible for Cummin's Corp. to discount the parts to Crosspoint to help us out? We understood that Cummins had no liability here, but we pleaded. Preston told us this request was incredibly unusual, but he would check into it. We hoped that if we could save a couple thousand dollars, then we might find a way to get the engine repaired now and be able to continue our travels with confidence.

Preston did indeed pursue this and while Cummins need not have done anything, they worked with Crosspoint to reduce our final quotation down to $12,000! Praise be to God. This was beyond anything we would have asked. We know that this was an unusual situation and no one can or should expect results like this. But in our case grace and mercy did truly abound.

Of course we accepted the offer. With Cummins rebuilding our engine, we know that all the parts are genuine Cummins parts; that the work is done by an experienced Cummin's tech, Jeremy, and they gave us a 6 month warranty from any authorized Cummins dealer or distributor across the nation.

The Mothership looking a little peaked prior to surgery.

Crosspoint started the day they told us, charged us only the contract amount and finished a couple days early. We have always been a Cummin's customer and received great service and will continue to be loyal customers. Note that we purchase a $500 extended warranty for a total of two years protection.

The Mothership is now as happy as the day she was born!

To Preston, Brian, Evan, Gary, Jeremy and Jimmie: Thank you!!! Each of you played a part in blessing us. May the Lord bless each of you in your lives and continue to make Cummins a great and profitable company.

We invited Preston to lunch to thank him. He said welcome by buying our lunch and giving us Cummin's hats, which we will wear with thanksgiving.

We made more than normal progress this week on the way to the Senior Games (Pickleball) in St. George, Utah.

Love, Pete & Ellen

Photos from Sep 2011