Hi All,
Maybe its just me, but venting. Thought I'd get all the repairs and PM work done this fall after getting back from 2 week trip and everything was fresh in mind.
Took U280 to truck repair shop I've used before and was highly recommended to take care of some items. Picked it up after done and engine battery dead. 3 yr old battery, drove 3 summers and 12k miles without a hint of problem.... Used the house battery boost and popped right off.
Then took it about 1/4 mile down the road to Cat dealer to fix a leaking injector bonnet(will deal with battery issue later). Went to pick it up tonite and RPM tach doesn't work (worked when I drove it onto their lot...) Ended up leaving it for them to get working (mechanical drive). Frustrating because I lost another day to winterize (when I had time) and a 20 mile round trip for nothing.
It seems more things are wrong after getting the RV back then when I took it in! Another reason I'm trying to do as much of my own work as I can learn how....
Thanks for the vent.
From various things I read the riskiest time to fly an airplane is right after a required inspection. When things are touched it's not unusual to introduce problems.
Dan,
I totally agree with your distrust of any "repair shop". It doesn't matter what kind of shop it is, or how many "certifications of excellence" they display...it all comes down to the quality and attitude of the mechanics. There are still a few good "Old School" mechanics out there, who try their best to do the job right. More often than not these days, what you find is under-qualified and over-worked "parts changers", who just keep replacing things until they (hopefully) solve the problem. And, like you say, they will probably screw up 2 more things in the process (and won't tell you about it). I used to HATE buying a new vehicle with a factory warrantee, because it meant I felt obligated to take it to the dealership for service. As soon as the warrantee ran out, I would breathe a "sigh of relief", because it meant I didn't have to ever visit the dealer shop again.
NOBODY cares more about your vehicle than you do, so if you can do your own service work that is obviously the way to go. You are on the right track, and the wealth of knowledge on this Forum is always available to aid in your "education". No matter what your project or maintenance task, some other Forum member has probably already done it, and will be glad to help you out!
(rant)
And, let me add, competence. A few years back I started talking about how the culture of the USA (at least... maybe other places, too) has moved from a "competence-driven society" to a "credentials-driven society". My first engineering job was with the Washington State Highway Department (it has another name, now, of course) and my Project Engineer was a guy who had studied civil engineering via one of those home-correspondence schools you used to see ads for in Popular Mechanics magazines. He was a terrific project engineer and I learned a lot from him. Also a good manager. We designed and built everything from pedestrian overpasses to freeway interchanges (the original I-405 to I-520 interchange that was part of the approaches to the soon-to-be-built second floating bridge across Lake Washington). He had no engineering degree but was still a good engineer.
Today he'd probably have a hard time getting a job as a field technician. No certifications.
I think that this has been driven by universities, frankly and with certifications becoming a profit-center at so many companies (Cisco, Microsoft, just to name two) it can be hard to discern what drives what (does the income from certifications drive the changes MS makes to their operating system interfaces?). But the proliferation of credentials for almost everything is annoying; at least to me. And the substitution of credentials for competence is downright stupid. But HR loves them because they are one box that can be checked off immediately.
You know credentials are a fraud when people start going to "bootcamps" to learn how to pass the certification tests.
/rant
Craig