Stoltzfus RV in Adamstown, PA

 

Stoltzfus may be ok in the sales dept, I had a good experience once I presented them with Couch's pricing.  But, since it has been so long things could be different.

Last year I detailed elsewhere here how I had them add 3rd brake lights just below the light bar.  Even though I told them in an email how I wanted the wires run down the edge channel and connected to the existing left and right turn/brake lights, they wired up both lights to the brakes.  Even if I hadn't told them how I wanted it wired up, why they would even consider doing this is beyond me.  Their techs should know the brakes only get 5-6-7 volts, so just how would the lights work right when they aren't getting 12 volts?  So I left the pod in their lot and ultimately they sent someone to deliver the pod to me so I didn't waste another Saturday running up there.

 

Last summer our fridge stopped working on day 2 of a 3 1/2 week trip.  It would mostly work on AC, and only very rarely on DC or LPG.  I finally made an appointment 6 weeks ago to drop the pod off over Memorial weekend, which gave them up to a month to fix it.  After just a week they said it was ready, and said over the phone they had to replace a fuse and it cooled down just fine on LPG.  Great!

 

I arrived on Saturday, paid the bill and hooked up.  I verified on the work order that they got my instructions right - very intermittent cooling on DC and LPG - and I saw the solution was "replaced main fuse".  So I tracked down the tech to find out where this fuse was.  If it blows while I'm on our next 4 week trip I want to be able to fix it, dealing with a cooler was a big pain last year.

 

He came out and pointed to the fuse I installed as a battery disconnect.  "Yeah, had to replace that fuse, after that the fridge came on just fine."  My jaw hit the floor and I knew immediately my fridge was still broken.  Yes, that fuse was removed, by me, when I dropped off the trailer.  Everyone knows you can't leave the battery connected.  "Oh no, you should never disconnect the battery from the camper for any reason."  Really?!?  So he insisted the draw from LPG detector and fridge wasn't a problem.

 

So then he asked me how I was sure the fridge didn't work.  I told him I used a wireless thermometer, and I could watch the temperature slowly rise to ambient once I switched to LPG mode going down the road.  At one point it hit 85.  I told him I had to throw out a gallon of milk, twice, because it was warm.  "Oh no, you can't use one of those thermometers, you gotta stick a probe in your food or a glass of water to measure the fridge temp".  Really?!?  "Yeah, those camper fridges work differently than... "  I cut him off, yes I know all about ammonia absorption fridges, but that doesn't change how they get the food cold - no different than your fridge at home, it cools the AIR, which cools the food.  A wireless thermometer will tell me just fine if the fridge is cold or not.  He argued it was not.  This is their lead tech talking, and the service manager was standing next to him backing him up.

 

I gave up, I told them I would bring it home and do my own tests.  Guess what?  30 hours on LPG mode and it was nice and toasty inside, including the ice-cold beer I stuck in there just to humor the tech's horrible logic, now a very warm beer (didn't open it, just felt it).  Amazingly after an overnight on DC mode the thermometer is reading 33 degrees but I don't trust that to hold at all.  Now it is on AC mode for a test all day.

 

So now I need to fight with Stoltzfus to get my money back for what they did to "fix" my fridge.  I sure hope the grease job they did on the axle is ok...