I’ve had two situations this summer that sort of restored my faith in the integrity of RV equipment manufacturers.

The first involved the replacement of my trailer hitch. I have been using the ball and hitch that the previous owner used and I knew that the trailer was riding a bit nose high but there was no way to adjust things.  So I did some searching and purchased an adjustable hitch (Eaz-lift Bolt-Together Ball Mount Kit 48110) from a vendor (Makarios) to replace a fixed hitch.  The product I received looked fine and went together ok.

I was planning to use the weight bars (1000 pound) from my original unit were about 15 years old but in good shape.  As soon as I tried to hitch up the bars — even though the shaft opening looked the same size, the depth apparently wass not and the clips would not settle into the grooves of the bar. The bars just fell to the ground.

After some study, I figured that the depth of that opening had been shortened just a bit (probably a quarter-inch or less) with the new unit — so it looked like I was facing an additional $150 or so for a pair of bars.

I wrote to the folks at Makarios, who were great, and they had me email the manufacturer, Camco.  Within a couple of days, I got a call from Mike at Camco saying that he would ship a couple of new bars that would work.  Sure enough, within a week or two, the bars arrived and I put the chains on them, tried them out, and everything worked fine. I know Camco is an immense operation but this attention to detail really made me a fan of their products and their customer service.

My second experience involved the tongue jack whose difficult installation I chronicled last year. It worked fine, when it worked, but almost from the start, it would quit for a bit, and then decide to operate again. We took it across country to California last winter but it was always a little tense to see whether we’d have issues. Most of the time it was great but more than once, I had the truck and trailer jacked way up to install the bars and it died. A little rap on the head seemed to get it back running.

I had talked to Steve at Vintage Trailer Supply who sold me the unit — he talked to the company and told me that there was a two year warrantee. Well, I kept putting it off until a few months ago when it seemed to act up even more.  I called Ultra-Fab, explained the situation, and they said that they would send out a new one with return postage for the old one. Again, the new unit came shortly thereafter and the replacement was a snap (since I had done all the grunt work with rusty bolts last year.)

The new jack is great and has operated without incident.  It’s great not to have to hassle folks in situations like this — and I highly recommend the product (Ulta 3502 Electric Tongue Jack) and the company.