Awake: 5:52am Temp inside service bay=60 sleep 6+41 overnight @ HWH
The 1st shift workers begin arriving around 6:30am. @ 7:00am, the RV’s
that are parked outside waiting to have their glitches repaired are
invited inside the service bays; only 4 units today & they were all fixed
up & gone before noon; thus Kathy & I were the only customers for a free
lunch along with the engineer Tom & the boss man: owner & founder of HWH,
Paul. We enjoyed talking with both of them, especially Paul. He started
the company sometime in 1972…..the same yr as FDX began. When he
discovered I had retired from FDX, he had a lot of questions & became very
interested in the overall story of the FDX operations.
Upon returning to the factory, Paul invited Kathy & me to see the latest
hydraulic slide out room they are developing: a 30 foot long & 3 feet wide
slide out. That’s nearly twice the size they are manufacturing today. Some
motor homes will have 2 of them. We followed him to another bldg where the
hydraulics is being tested for 4000 lbs equaling the average weight one
might have on a 30 ft room with accessories: i.e. furniture, appliances,
galley etc. Unfortunately for us, after some 320 runs, the contraption
failed & the engineers were studying the cause of the kaput.
Back @ our bus, Tim & Stacy continue to make progress: they have most of
the decorative parts of our room outside on the bay floor & have found the
problem: they called it a: “TTO” item: a teeny tiny “O” ring born with a
minute flaw on its body. Over a period of 5 yrs & many extensions &
retractions, this TTO finally began leaking a teeny weenie bit of
hydraulic fluid on one side of the lower hydraulic cylinder…..which
eventually led to an unbalanced condition; all 4 of the cylinders must
have the same equalized balance. They didn’t just replace that “O” ring;
they completely replaced the entire balance block mechanism. After the
alignment, testing by pressure measuring, then extending & retracting
that slide, they were satisfied the system was functioning normal again.
About 2 hrs later @ 4:00pm, our # 4 slide out room is completely restored
& operational. These guys are good & very meticulous. If fact, they must
be very good because Paul asked both of them to work 4 hrs overtime
tomorrow on the development of that 30 ft room. Otherwise, this section of
the factory would be closed. Knowing this, we ask Stacy if it would be OK
for us to stay the night in the building again; “no problem” he responds.
Now it’s our turn to do some work: before S & T leave for the night, we
pay the bill; and for the time they spent plus the critical labor they
did: it was very, very reasonable. Next Kathy & I go through all the
“stuff” from the computer desk, the cabinet & other hiding places in our #
4 room & this was good. We needed to do this & ended up tossing a lot of
unwanted miscellaneous “stuff.”
8:15 dinner: Leftover meatloaf for Kathy; leftover beef sandwich with
gravy from the Cove restaurant for me.
Lights out: 11:02pm
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