GMC Motor Home, Travel with Teri and Dan

Today's RV Industry

Teri and I are making some progress in getting ready to geocache across Texas next week. I have been checking the coach over to make sure it is ready. Batteries and the header I put the gasket on need a little attention. I have put 700 miles on the coach since installing the header gasket and today I tightened it again. I hope that is about the last time as it is three times and every time I had some that were a little loose. I will check it when we stop for our first night as I check the transmission fluid. Our transmission is the only original part in here I guess. Records show it was last worked on in 92. I keep a real close eye on the temps and the fluid level. I have a drip from below so I do add some fluid occassionally.
We have marked a few stashes along our first day travels. I told Teri we are not leaving the interstate looking for these things so I have been picking the ones to look for. Ride along on Wednesday to see if we find them. When you see the tracker stop you will know that we are getting fuel or we are geocaching.
Re the title of today's blog. I see that Country Coach and Monterey are filing for bankrupcy now. So many motorhome makers are bailing out. What about parts? How long can folks get parts for their "orphaned" coaches? I bet not long. What does that have to do with us? Let me tell you:
The GMC coach has not been built since 1978. Are we "orphaned"? No sir ree. Let me tell you why. We have at least two guys, Jim K. and Jim B. that do no other motorhome work but GMCs. If a part becomes unavailable, one or both make sure that it becomes available again, or maybe a better part will replace it. Basically, there are no parts that we can not get. Also, there are many among our ranks that produce needed parts and these two guys market them. There are more GMC shops but they do not support us like these 2 guys do.
Now, what does the suffering RV market have to do with us? I am always getting questions about our coach everywhere we stop. When the questions come I always talk about the parts being available to us even though GM stopped producing these things in 78. As the other makers close and folks can no longer get parts, many of them may become GMC owners, if we make sure to let folks know about our parts being available.( yea, too long of a sentence) We need to be good ambassadors for our group. In doing so, we might just raise the value of our coaches.
So, when out and about in your GMC, make sure folks know that we have no problem getting any part that we need to keep us going. Take the coach to car shows. If you don't want to enter it, park it near the cars and field the questions, always talking about the available parts. I always compare this coach to my 65 Mustang. " Give me a body and I can build one from available parts". True statement about both vehicles. I also let folks look inside to see that we have more options installed than many new coaches come with.
Well, back to work. Must make sure we are ready to roll Wednesday. Thanks for stopping in and ride with us Wednesday if you have time. The tracker will be going.
Dan

posted by Dan & Teri Gregg @ 12:58 PM