Trials and Tribulations

First off, apologies to those who have been asking where my next post was. Mike and I haven’t been on the road for a while. Instead, we’ve been tangled up in the mess of buying, licensing, and insuring our new motorhome. If you’re only here for travel tales, check back mid-September.

Back in February we ordered a Tiffin Phaeton 37BH from a Canadian dealer. By May it was built to our specs—then cancelled outright due to Canada’s import tariffs. We looked around Canada for a pre-tariff unit but nothing fit. In the U.S., though, we found a Phaeton 40IH for sale. This was the model I’d actually wanted back in February. On Friday June 13 (who is superstitious) we bought the Phaeton in Michigan, arranged storage in Niagara Falls, NY, and registered and licensed it in Montana. We drove to Sarnia, checked with the border officials and were told that there “shouldn’t” be any problems bringing the new coach into Canada temporarily. Our plan was to visit family and friends and then finally do some travelling before storing it in New York.

That’s when the headaches started. We arrived at the dealer June 12. We then moved everything from our old RV into the new one, while worked our way through a long checklist for new motorhome inspections. We turned in a snag list, most of it minor, and left for a few weeks so they could fix things. When we returned, we began what turned into two months camping in their parking lot. The dealership’s standard reply to almost every issue was either “can’t duplicate the problem” or “working as designed.” It was infuriating.

I should give the dealership a little credit here. They did take our RV into their bays each morning after a problem was identified and returned it to their parking lot for us at night. We did have 50 amp power and they helped us out with water and dumping when we needed it.

Here are just a few examples of our frustrations:

• The main issue that kept us there for so long was the fact that our rear AC unit constantly faulted and stopped working. Mike took photos from our control centre of the error messages, yet the dealership still insisted that it was working as it was supposed to. It took two months and pressure from the manufacturer before they replaced a faulty circuit board,  and finally it was resolved.
• Our entry door was missing a small, inexpensive plexiglass panel. Three staff, including a service manager, were with us the day we saw this gaping hole for the first time. Weeks later we were told the “appropriate tech” hadn’t yet seen it, so no order had been placed. After four weeks the plexiglass arrived and was installed incorrectly. Mike reinstalled it.
• The dishwasher wouldn’t power up until Mike swapped outlets with our induction cooktop. We later learned the RV prioritizes and sheds certain things when power demand is high. At that point we were running two ACs on a 30 amp circuit. A simple explanation would have saved a lot of grief instead of insisting they couldn’t duplicate the problem.
• The Wi-Fi extender wasn’t working inside the coach. Service told us that it was working fine until I dragged a tech out to the RV and he finally admitted he couldn’t get it working either. He then spent over an hour on the phone with the manufacturer fixing the, supposedly nonexistent, problem.
• We upgraded our solar from 600 watts to 1200 watts. The dealership installed the panels and what later turned out to be a very cheap controller that was powerful enough for the additional watts and didn’t talk to our coach’s control system. Later we discovered the extra panels weren’t even feeding power because a breaker had tripped at some point after the installation. Without the controller talking to our main control system, we didn’t find this problem until we were back in Canada. We’ll now have to pay to have it redone properly at home.

Finally, we left the dealer and tried to cross the border at Sarnia, only to be told by different agents this time, that there was no way Canadians could drive a U.S. licensed vehicle into Canada without importing it and paying the full taxes. We were escorted back under flashing lights and flagged for secondary checks on future crossings. Lovely….not.

At this point in time. we had absolutely no idea what we were going to do so we simply parked at a Cracker Barrel near the border for the night. This was our first night without shore power, and wouldn’t you know it, the fridge quit working at 4 AM due to the batteries dying. Our new motorhome had large, upgraded batteries. We stayed a second night, and Mike got up every hour in the middle of the night to photograph the control panel showing the battery level as it was being depleted from fully charged to a critically low voltage in only four hours.

We took our motorhome back to the dealership and, guess what, we were told “working as designed.” Eventually, after days of logs and arguments and calls to the RV manufacturer, the dealership replaced the batteries. We seized the chance to upgrade to lithium iron phosphate (LiFePO4) batteries. Even then, the dealer did not program them correctly, and failed to enclose or insulate the locker where they new LiFePO4 batteries were located as was required. We had to get the manufacturer’s help. At least now we have the batteries we wanted from the start.

For some time, we thought we’d have no choice but to keep the coach in the U.S. and plan trips from there. Then, tucked away in government documents, we discovered that Canada had quietly removed the retaliatory motorhome tariffs. Although there were still about $75,000 in taxes to pay, that was far better than the original tariffs, which would have nearly tripled the cost. With assistance from a broker in Winnipeg, we transferred the vehicle’s ownership from our Montana company to ourselves and finally imported the coach.

Before registering the vehicle in Ontario, we had to clear two inspections: one at Canadian Tire and another with a licensed truck mechanic. Even paying the taxes turned into an adventure—Service Ontario would only accept a credit card, not a certified cheque, for such a large sum. At one point, they suggested we collect nearly $50,000 in cash (with the largest Canadian bill being $100) from the bank and carry it across the parking lot. Needless to say, that was not an option. After a few days of back and forth, we sorted everything out and the motorhome now proudly wears Ontario plates.

So, after two months lost at the dealership, endless paperwork, and a summer slipped by, our motorhome is finally in Canada. Our next step is to start traveling for real. We’ll begin by visiting family and friends for a week, and then see if we can reach Cape Breton for the Celtic Colours Festival in October. Since September is already upon us, making it in time this year might be a challenge.

Thanks for sticking with us through the drama. We’re more than ready to get out and hit the road.