When I had my Dutch Star, which was my first RV, I put the paperwork and receipts in a file folder in the desk drawer in the RV. Kind of like I had done for all the automobiles that I had owned over the years, the paperwork had gone into the glove compartment of the automobile. The glove compartment “file” was kept in no particular order, just stuffed in there with the operator’s guide. Of course, there were not very many pieces of paper. An oil change every few months, lube job twice a year, and so forth.
Then disaster struck! WHAT WAS THAT FLASH!?
It didn’t really happen that way. Well, maybe it did, I just did not see it, but lightning struck somewhere. We were at a SMART Rally, and I was asleep during a thunderstorm. We woke up with someone banging on our door. They wanted me to turn our generator off, which we did. Then we had no external power. My memory is a little foggy as to what happened after that. I just know that we had no power from external sources and had no power from the generator. We had to use the generator for power and therefore had to exit the rally. And for that same reason, we could not stay in a campground. When I started up the engine of the motor home, the dash lit up like a Christmas tree, all kind of lights.
We were able to get someone from a mobile RV service to come out and check things out. He couldn’t do much, but he did find out that if it was the transmission, it would not destroy itself. So we were able to move out of the rally. He also said that the transfer switch was not working correctly, but we could use the generator for power. Now our task was to find an area that had both a Newmar and a Spartan service center, and it looked like Denver, CO, fit that bill. So we headed that way, hoping for the best.
I don’t recall which was first, but we got the transfer switch fixed at the Mountain States RV Dealer in Aurora, CO, and Stewart & Stevenson diagnosed the transmission and said it was okay. So we were good to go except for the dash lights, which indicated a problem with the ABS system, and the engine would quit while driving down the interstate. At least we could go to a campground and use the full hook-up. Next, we took the RV to Top Quality Service Center in Commerce City, CO, a Spartan chassis service center. We were in and out of their shop for the next month or so. During this time we visited Mountain States several times and looked at new RVs. They said they would take the Dutch Star as a trade in, as is. Meanwhile back at Top Quality, there was not much progress. They were unable to fix the Dutch Star, even with the aid of Spartan’s engineers. So we got rid of the Dutch Star and moved up to a 2003 Mountain Aire.
What does this have to do with keeping records or a log of maintenance? Well, what if I had to provide a history of work done on the DS? Did I have all the papers for the DS? Could I get them organized? Would they make sense? The answer to these questions would be probably NOT. That’s when I decided to look for a computer application to help me get organized. I found a few, but nothing I liked. So I thought, if you do not like the way something is done, do it yourself.
That was the beginning of RVCare Log Book .
