Prayers for Malcolm & Valerie

[MCTalley]

Re: Prayers for Malcolm & Vallerie

Val, has the insurance company given you a final settlement?

Not yet, so we will soon own two RVs for a while, at least. The old one is paid so far in advance, though, that the next payment is due next April. I've already cut off the auto payments on it.

 

[Bones]

Re: Prayers for Malcolm & Vallerie

Not yet, so we will soon own two RVs for a while, at least. The old one is paid so far in advance, though, that the next payment is due next April. I've already cut off the auto payments on it.

Good luck on your new rig PDI

 

[MCTalley]

Re: Prayers for Malcolm & Vallerie

Today's update:
1. I drove the truck back over to Evansville and had the hitch installed. They were done about 1:30 PM.
2. Arranged for insurance for the new rig. Got everyone all connected together (insurance sending proof of coverage to credit union, etc.).
3. I drove over to the campground to hitched up the old trailer.
4. While hitching up in step 3, the dealer for our new rig called and said they have our check from the credit union and that we can come over at 9:00 am tomorrow (Friday) to do our PDI, then sign all the paperwork afterwards.
5. Pulled our old rig over to the dealer that installed the hitch (and sent the adjusters out to look at the damage) and paid for a month's storage and left the trailer with them for insurance to eventually pick up (still no word from them, but they indicated it would be "the end of the week" before I might hear anything).
6. Drove back to Clarksville to the hotel and had dinner with my lovely wife.

Barring anything getting in the way, tomorrow will be:
1. Doing the PDI at 9:00 AM. (Should be quick, given our recent practice at this).
2. Signing paperwork afterwards, declining all the various extended warranties they might offer us.
3. Loading all our stuff into the trailer from our U-Haul truck (and from the dually, as well, as we filled the U-Haul).
4. Taking the U-Haul to drop it off.
5. Hitching up and driving south 3 hours to Nashville for the rally.

Wish us luck!

 

[Bones]

Re: Prayers for Malcolm & Vallerie

Today's update:
1. I drove the truck back over to Evansville and had the hitch installed. They were done about 1:30 PM.
2. Arranged for insurance for the new rig. Got everyone all connected together (insurance sending proof of coverage to credit union, etc.).
3. I drove over to the campground to hitched up the old trailer.
4. While hitching up in step 3, the dealer for our new rig called and said they have our check from the credit union and that we can come over at 9:00 am tomorrow (Friday) to do our PDI, then sign all the paperwork afterwards.
5. Pulled our old rig over to the dealer that installed the hitch (and sent the adjusters out to look at the damage) and paid for a month's storage and left the trailer with them for insurance to eventually pick up (still no word from them, but they indicated it would be "the end of the week" before I might hear anything).
6. Drove back to Clarksville to the hotel and had dinner with my lovely wife.

Barring anything getting in the way, tomorrow will be:
1. Doing the PDI at 9:00 AM. (Should be quick, given our recent practice at this).
2. Signing paperwork afterwards, declining all the various extended warranties they might offer us.
3. Loading all our stuff into the trailer from our U-Haul truck (and from the dually, as well, as we filled the U-Haul).
4. Taking the U-Haul to drop it off.
5. Hitching up and driving south 3 hours to Nashville for the rally.

Wish us luck!

good luck. Boy I am tired just reading the schedule.

 

[Herbiesrig]

Re: Prayers for Malcolm & Vallerie

Malcom and Valeri, good thoughts with you for tomorrow that everything goes smoothly for you. How exciting a new coach and being able to spend a weekend with friends... We are happy for you both that things worked out..

 

[MCTalley]

Re: Prayers for Malcolm & Vallerie

We did our PDI this morning, loaded the rig up with a U-Haul truck worth of boxes and stuff, checked out of our hotel and hit the road south to the Tennessee HOC Rally, arriving around 4:00 PM this afternoon.

No word yet from insurance, but we don't expect anything until next week. We are just happy that we are in our new rig and back on the road again. Now the fun task of unloading all our stuff and putting it all away. Given that we've downsized rigs this time around, it might be a bit more of a challenge.

 

[TravelTiger]

Re: Prayers for Malcolm & Vallerie

We did our PDI this morning, loaded the rig up with a U-Haul truck worth of boxes and stuff, checked out of our hotel and hit the road south to the Tennessee HOC Rally, arriving around 4:00 PM this afternoon.

No word yet from insurance, but we don't expect anything until next week. We are just happy that we are in our new rig and back on the road again. Now the fun task of unloading all our stuff and putting it all away. Given that we've downsized rigs this time around, it might be a bit more of a challenge.

Congrats on having a smooth PDI and move in. How's Callie taking all this excitement?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Nabo]

Re: Prayers for Malcolm & Vallerie

It was so great to have the Talleys arrived safe and sound. The truck and Big Country look great. A busy day for them Saturday unpacking all the boxes and trying to figure out where to put everything.

 

[VKTalley]

Re: Prayers for Malcolm & Vallerie

Congrats on having a smooth PDI and move in. How's Callie taking all this excitement?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Erika, she is doing fine and settling into the new rig nicely. Though she is not sure about all those boxes in the living room area.

 

[VKTalley]

Re: Prayers for Malcolm & Vallerie

It was so great to have the Talleys arrived safe and sound. The truck and Big Country look great. A busy day for them Saturday unpacking all the boxes and trying to figure out where to put everything.

Thanks, Byrd! It's good to be here with our Heartland family.

 

[Bones]

Re: Prayers for Malcolm & Vallerie

congrats on you new rig.

 

[MagnoliaTom]

Re: Prayers for Malcolm & Vallerie

Congrats on getting the new rig.


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[Chippendale]

Re: Prayers for Malcolm & Vallerie

Congratulations on making it through your ordeal, look forward to seeing the new rig and truck in New Iberia.

 

[MCTalley]

Re: Prayers for Malcolm & Vallerie

At Friday night's rally get-together here in Nashville, I gave a fairly emotional "Thank You" to the group present at the rally. I'll extend that on to this thread.

We genuinely appreciate everybody in the group and their heartfelt prayers and thoughts as well as those that contacted us individually to offer assistance, parts, transportation and other help in many ways that show how big of a family we belong to here in the HOC. At one point in our RV search, our daughter asked if we would consider looking at other brands of RVs, just out of curiosity. Besides loving our Heartland RVs, we would seriously feel lost without our HOC family, so the thought never really entered our minds.

So, again, thank you fellow Heartlanders. Your support is greatly appreciated.

I'll even take this chance to offer some other businesses a hearty thank you for their part in helping us through this event:

Basden's American RV Center in Evansville, Indiana. Even though they aren't a Heartland dealer, they were great in sending a couple guys over to perform the inspection on our rig for the insurance company. They also installed our B&W hitch in the truck and are currently storing our wrecked trailer for us while we await word from insurance.

The Vanderburgh County 4-H Center campground for putting up with us and our wrecked rig for 2 1/2 weeks. The staff there are top notch. The campground is pretty nice, as well. Just be careful at the nearby intersection with US 41.

Diamond Lake Resort in Owensboro, Kentucky where we were heading on the day of the wreck. The Smiths, co-owners of the resort, are friends of ours and when their daughter saw our wreck pictures on Facebook and that I mentioned that we were on the way there, called us directly and asked if they could drive up to pick us up and take us back to their resort and put us up in one of their motel rooms.

Evansville Truck and Auto Accessories for installing our rolling cover on the truck in an hour while I waited in the lobby. They're great folks to deal with.

And Tom Stinnett Derby City RV in Clarksville, Indiana. From putting up with us calling every day to say we hadn't heard anything from anyone yet to providing us with a smooth PDI experience to the very low pressure sales team there to our salesman, Jack Thompson, buying our newest RV was a piece of cake. They seem to be trying to do everything right.

 

[MCTalley]

Re: Prayers for Malcolm & Vallerie

Thought I'd give an update, especially since some folks had asked me about things like how the trailer insurance is handling things, etc.

As indicated before, State Farm had our old truck paid off and the difference check sent to us in a little over a week. We were in a new truck two days after the accident. The only negative in the truck situation is that we've had the truck 2 1/2 months now and are still running on temporary tags. We called our dealer right after Thanksgiving as the 60 day tag they gave us when we bought the truck was ready to expire. They overnighted one to us and told us that they checked with the Polk county tag office in Texas (our Escapees address) and said that the tag office was supposedly behind on processing tags but we should have something very soon (we're still waiting two weeks later). Oddly enough, our RV dealer managed to get our tags processed through the same office in about 4 weeks. Hmm.

The trailer is still in storage in Evansville. I have been calling our insurer (Good Sam, underwritten by National General) every week or two and things were progressing terribly slow. It was still in claims being reviewed after almost 8 weeks. I took to voicing my displeasure on the RV.NET forum (run by Good Sam) and was quickly contacted by a couple of their team that watches for such things to get my particulars. Within a couple days, I had the personal cell phone number of the head of the RV insurance division at National General who assured me he would get things moving along.

As of right now, National General has gotten Lippert to agree to attempt to repair the frame on our coach at one of Lippert's repair facilities (not sure if it is in Goshen/Elkhart or not). The insurer is going to reimburse me for the two months of storage fees and the cost of winterization of the unit. Lippert is supposed to send a transporter to pick up the trailer soon (not sure on exact date yet). Once the frame is fixed, I assume it will go somewhere to get the bodywork fixed. Once repairs are complete, we'll be putting it up for sale (probably having it towed to the nearest place that does consignments). This all presumes that once they tear into it to fix it they don't find additional major damage (that might end up having the insurance company total it).

 

[CaptnJohn]

Re: Prayers for Malcolm & Vallerie

Glad to hear you were able to get into your new RV in a timely manner. After all that is disappointing to hear they are going to attempt to repair the frame. Granted it would be a big loss to the insurance company but that is what we pay them for. You sure do not want to keep it after that amount of damage and cannot guess how much it can be sold for after disclosing. It may be fine towed to a site and never again moved but even that may be questionable. Doubtful the fit and finish will ever be like new again as the damage was substantial. I may be getting an opinion from my attorney after 2 in the industry totaled it.

 

[jimtoo]

Re: Prayers for Malcolm & Vallerie

Just a thought here Malcom, if your still out of Texas, they may not process your truck license because the truck has not had the state inspection that is done before any license issue or renewal can be done now.

You may need to call the license office and try to get some kind of extension.. don't know if it can happen, but worth a try.

Jim M

 

[Bones]

Re: Prayers for Malcolm & Vallerie

I know this sucks..... I had the same problem. If lippert has been forced to repair a frame you may be forced to acquire services. One demand is that you receive paperwork certifying that the frame repair has been completed and is as good as new. You also want that certification to carry at least for one year. This is what you will need to cover your bum especially when you sell. We forced this type of certification when our trailer was damaged. I can give a little bit more info for you but I'll leave that to a pm if you would like, just let me know. Sorry you have to deal with this. It sucks and drags the mood down considerably.

 

[VKTalley]

Re: Prayers for Malcolm & Vallerie

Just a thought here Malcom, if your still out of Texas, they may not process your truck license because the truck has not had the state inspection that is done before any license issue or renewal can be done now.

You may need to call the license office and try to get some kind of extension.. don't know if it can happen, but worth a try.

Jim M

Hi Jim, we actually made a recent trip to Texas to have the truck and trailer inspected and to get the plates for the truck, as the trailer plates were waiting for us in our mailbox. The Polk County office seem to indicate that since it is a new truck no inspection was needed but without the paperwork from the Ford dealer, they could not issue our truck plates.

 

[JanAndBill]

Re: Prayers for Malcolm & Vallerie

Malcom, learned a long time ago that some insurance companies have a practice of stalling when it comes to settling claims. What most people don't know is that most states have "good faith " laws that open insurance carriers up to additional claims if it's proven they were not acting in good faith. Might be time to seek legal advice.