ZEN AND THE ART OF MOTORCYCLE MAINTENANCE

I think it’s a universal experience. Something is wrong with my car, my refrigerator, my furnace, or [insert your own thing]. The problem happens every once in a while, but it’s not consistent, predictable, or something I can cause or reproduce on command. I don’t have the knowledge or skill to diagnose the cause of the problem, so I have to call a professional. The technician shows up, or I take the problem to the tech’s shop, and I ask the technician to diagnose the problem. Of course, everything runs fine while the technician is looking. So the technician is left to guess about a possible fix. Frustrating.

Okay, we’ve had a problem with our water heater since we’ve owned our LV. The unit will stop working, the indicator light on the inside blinks and tells us what we know - the unit stopped working and we don’t get hot water. We go outside and see the error message light blinking on the water heater. I can reset the unit and boom, we have hot water again. We’ve been talking to the manufacturer off and on for some time about the unit and the error messages. We’ve also been talking with the LV people since the problem first occurred. Everybody has been very nice and helpful, but the problem persisted. I know that there’s always going to be problems with this or that - nothing is perfect, but we want the dang thing fixed.

We finally made our way back to Valencia, where the coach technicians are located. We got a hotel and took our trailer to the coach techs. They worked it over - test this - test that - and as mentioned before, the unit performed magnificently when the techs were looking at it and trying to diagnose the issue. The water heater manufacturer was convinced that it was not the unit itself. Not surprising. They said it must be the water pressure coming from the shore water supply. Wow!?? We got the trailer back and used our fresh water on board trying to reproduce the problem. Finally, the unit went on the fritz and then we could inform everyone that the problem was not related to the outside water source. Is this too much detail?

Our folks at LV finally pushed the trailer manufacturer enough that it agreed to replace the unit. Another trip to a hotel and delivery of the trailer to the coach techs. They were quick. We got our trailer back the next day. We had a little hiccup with the new unit when a light started blinking. Uh oh. We gulped and called tech support at the manufacturer. The helpful support person thought it was perhaps an air bubble in the system. I reset the unit and so far, that seems to be the case. We have hot water all the time - so far.

We’ve been in Valencia for the better part of a month trying to get this worked out. All things considered, Southern California is not a bad place to stay while we have worked on getting the problem solved. One day, we made a little side trip back to Santa Monica. We walked on the pier, walked around downtown, saw the beaches that go on forever, and enjoyed the day away from trailer trouble.

Have you ever read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance? I read it a long time ago and it felt appropriate to recall it with our experience. It’s an interesting read. Our problem with the trailer is in the nature of what the author called a setback. Setback encountered and hopefully overcome.

We feel cautiously optimistic and we hope the sense of relief remains. Is that the state of zen? I’m trying to tap into my sense of equanimity.

On with the adventure!

Your most wanted friend,

Buster