Dealer, Rodents and Insurance

[c21]

It's encouraging to see that others feel these things work. I do hope that is the case. Had some friends come home one day to find all kinds of debris under their car which was parked in their garage. Lots of wire cover and plastic bits. Turned out their own dog did the damage.

[froggsafield]

RE: Service w/ AS Adventures NW (Seattle)...our 2012 AS Interstate was purchased here (in 2013) with a great sales experience.
However there were several rather important issues on our "punch list" from missing set of keys to missing instructional and or warranty information, to a non working microwave. The service personnel coordinated with MB dealership in Tacoma for needed service/repairs/replacement in a timely manner. Even with the several issues with the Interstate & MB Sprinter the personnel in service at Covington were patient, polite, informative and completed what needed to be done on time.
Having said that, I now have a different opinion relative to the service department. This past spring we had an AS part fail and I called from the road (Montana) to speak to the service department. Difficulty in setting up an appointment for repairs....weeks out (yes it was the busy season). Work was under warranty according to service manager and was diagnosed and part replaced. IMHO the turnover of personnel in the service department is the cause with the resulting after service "disagreement" over warranty coverage. Solved to my satisfaction through Ohio.
We had a mouse/mice make hay in our engine compartment (no damage to wires) then under bottom drawer below sink and finally chewed through the plastic bag where I had stored the nest mess from below the sink. A small dab of chunky peanut butter on wooden snap traps "collected" three of those mice. Currently we have the smelly Bounce sheets in various parts of the coach and engine compartment. With the below freezing weather we are having (2" of snow on ground today) I expect to see signs of invaders when I next take the AS to the store. Will deploy traps. No poison, as advised on forum in earlier posts.
Certainly hope your future contacts w/AS Adventures NW service are few and those you do have are more pleasant than the one you posted.

[InterBlog]

Originally Posted by froggsafield

RE: Service w/ AS Adventures NW (Seattle)...

We had a mouse/mice make hay in our engine compartment (no damage to wires) then under bottom drawer below sink and finally chewed through the plastic bag where I had stored the nest mess from below the sink. A small dab of chunky peanut butter on wooden snap traps "collected" three of those mice. Currently we have the smelly Bounce sheets in various parts of the coach and engine compartment. With the below freezing weather we are having (2" of snow on ground today) I expect to see signs of invaders when I next take the AS to the store. Will deploy traps. No poison, as advised on forum in earlier posts.
...

It's concerning to me to see so many owners reporting this. The next logical question is - are the mice entering through pre-existing orifices, or are they chewing their way in?

Obviously for the engine compartment, they can simply climb up the tires. It's the interior I am wondering about, whether there are specific areas in the chassis that should be retrofit with mesh or screens or whatever. It's not difficult to cram copper wool where it's needed (we do this with slab-on-grade houses in the south, stuff larger weep holes to prevent entry).

When we replaced the plumbing to our gray tank, we used spray foam to seal the gaps between the vehicle and the pipes. That stuff is chewable, but generally the mice have to have a sense that they are going to get somewhere worthwhile via their chewing activities, so there's usually some small gap or whatever that they exploit.

This has the makings of a future project for me, the skinny woman - go out to our storage locker after dark, turn on every light inside the AI, and scoot around upside down beneath the vehicle looking for pin-points of light that need to be stuffed with copper.