Coach-Net Service and New Engine Battery (Long)

September 28, 2009, 07:33:28 pm

There have been past threads on this message board (and others) about which ERS offers the "best" service; opinions abound, but here's a report of my experience today:
I have Coach-Net, but have had no occasion to use it until this morning when, packed and ready to hit the road for the northwest, I turned the ignition key to back the rig out, and ....nothing. No click, no "rrr rrr", nada! Obviously a dead (really dead) battery, and both neighbors with the "big wire" jumper cables which might be *long enough* to reach the LD's engine from the driveway were at work. I called Coach-Net and spoke with "Amy"; she was efficient, knowledgeable, and very pleasant. She asked the routine questions, then said that she would call me as soon as she had the "service", i.e., the guy with the long jumpers, arranged. She called back within a few minutes and said that the truck would arrive within an hour and a half. (NB -- If I had *not* been in "a safe place", in this case, next to my house, Amy said that she would have done her best to get the service truck to where I was a.s.a.p.). She asked me to call back if there were any problems.
The truck arrived within the time given, and a little fireplug of a fellow got out and assessed the situation -- "Ya got a dead battery, lady, and I gotta move this thing out so my jumpers'll reach; they're long, but not *that* long! hop in there, take off the brake, shove it in neutral, and hit the brakes when I tell ya so ya don't run the backend into my truck! (You can be assured that I had no intention of allowing the "backend" of my rig to hit his truck!) He took a huge breath and PUSHED the rig out into the driveway enough to connect the long jumpers; I certainly hope that he doesn't suffer any long-term damage from shoving close to 13000 pounds at least 20 feet! He jumped the battery twice, then tested it; defunct. He looked very pleased -- "Yeah, it's gone."
I arranged to have the tow company's "battery truck" install a new battery; the Ford shops' prices were almost the same, so I opted for the convenience and safety of having the new battery installed in the driveway. (Who knew when and where the battery would die again, and I sure wasn't about to hit the road with a gimpy battery!) It's good to go now, I hope!
RE: the battery, and a caveat to others: The dead battery tested "OK" at the last service the first week of September; I asked the service manager if its condition was at all "marginal" and if the battery should be replaced. He said, "No". However, I have to take responsibility for not requesting that they replace the battery because *I know very well* that the original battery in a 6-year-old rig very likely doesn't have a lot of "kick" left! I am very thankful, of course, that the battery died in my driveway and not when I was in some remote "nowhere" with no cell signal.
Re: Coach-Net: My call to them was answered within three "rings", a real and obviously competent and knowledgeable person answered the phone, I was not put on hold or transferred to who knows where or promised a call-back that didn't materialize, and the requested (and appropriate for the job) service was delivered within the promised time. Coach-Net gets my vote!

I'll try again tomorrow to head for the northwest! ;-)

Joan

Re: Coach-Net Service and New Engine Battery

Reply #1 – September 28, 2009, 07:53:54 pm

Yahoo Message Number: 106174

Your experience Joan was much more pleasant than mine although I have to take total responsibility for the situation. My battery was over 8 years old and did fine until I drove 50 very rough road miles and shorted one of the cells out with something off one of the cells. No way to prove it of course but I'm reasonably sure the rough road in combination with an ancient battery made the difference.

We temporarily transferred a house battery to get us back to civilization.

Safe travels,

Dave N 2000 RB Albuquerque

Quote

...snip...

replace the battery because *I know very well* that the original battery in a 6-year-old rig...snip...

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Re: Coach-Net Service and New Engine Battery

Reply #2 – September 28, 2009, 08:11:44 pm

Yahoo Message Number: 106176

"We temporarily transferred a house battery to get us back to civilization."
That's one of the nice things about having a plenitude of 12V AGM house batteries, as a few of us do. :-) Wouldn't work with the factory-standard T-105 Trojans, though, because they're only 6V.
Andy Baird http://www.andybaird.com/travels/

Re: Coach-Net Service and New Engine Battery (Long)

Reply #3 – October 08, 2009, 05:06:48 pm

Yahoo Message Number: 106441

Thank you, Joan, for your words of wisdom. Our rig is older than yours (2002) and still had the original battery. Like yours, it tested OK, and starts every time. I planned on replacing it next spring before we head to Alaska, but based on your experience I went down to see my friend Les (Schwab) this morning and had it replaced. Who knows whether or not it would have lasted until spring? Murphy's Law says it would have failed at some remote campground on our way to Arizona this winter. Now we're good for another 84 months.

--Al

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