[RWG75]

So the garage doors shipped on 11/24/21. Took me a few calls to Lowes to find out they were on a train headed to a local dealer. Another call last week netted me contact info for the OEM. Finally get them on the phone today. Apparently sending the doors to the Lowes that ordered them results in too much damage so they now send them to the local garage door retailer. Stupid, but ok. Give me the address and I'll go get them. We can't give you dealer contact info because they hate hearing from 3rd party customers. They should have called you by now to arrange delivery / install. Leaned on OEM to get retailer on phone only to discover that the entire shop, except the accountant, has covid.

I also stubbed the drain in the wrong place.

 

[RWG75]

Latest convo with the OEM is that the shop is over the covid and looking for my doors - that they've had since 11/25/21. Anybody else over the covid?

 

[RWG75]

I ordered my doors in August. Around the time the building went up in October I walked in to a garage door store, asked if they could get what I need because I bought the base, simple door. They call the warehouse, can put (2) doors w/ tracks et. all for same week pickup - for only roughly 2x what I already paid. Made my weekly harass the OEM call yesterday, rep slipped up and gave me the name of the shop they shipped my doors to. Been trying to get that info for at least a month because I have a pick up and I want my freaking doors. The place is maybe a 1/2 hour from me and I really hope I don't have to break in to the place.

Meanwhile, the big bad nor'easter only clipped us:

 

[RWG75]

So I drove over to the door company, intentionally blocking warehouse access when parking, went in for the dance. Can I help you? WD says you've had my doors for 2 months. Entirely possible and likely buried too deep to find today. Umm no, we're digging them out. Digs around in the computer, verifies they were shipped, can't tell if they were received. Starts giving me noise about how I should have called first so I told them WD wouldn't give up his info and claims to have been calling them weekly. Don't see any notes of that in here. Whatever, just give me the freaking doors.

Kids in the warehouse are pulling them as we walk around back to start looking. The bozo had the stones to cry to me about how tough it is getting doors while I'm tying them down. I had to tell him to STFU before I started getting actually rude about the whole thing.

 

[mttaff]

Congrats!!! Glad you were able to get them in spite of the complete incompetence that surrounds us!

 

[RWG75]

I'd call it a complete and total lack of customer service covered in a layer of incompetence.

Lowes apparently made a company wide decision to not ship doors to their stores because of damage issues. Certainly seems easier than fixing inventory issues at the store level but seems like a thing the customer service reps should know. Maybe even a thing that would be found out during the 10 or so calls asking where the hell my doors were. Tweaking the back end to put that info on the receipt is clearly too much to ask.

Wayne Dalton is clearly using a 30 year old ACD for their help desk - disconnects the call at 16 minutes flat when sitting in queue. When ya finally get connected they're about as helpful as Lowes. One rep actually told me that once the door gets to a local dealer, it's not their problem any more. When ya try to escalate to 2nd level, ya get transferred to another 1st level rep that gives the same dance.

The biggest problem here was clearly the local shop. If I believe 1/2 of what WD tells me about leaving voice mail and talking live to the shop, they just completely blew off my order. I'm guessing something about not making a dime on only being the delivery boy. I will give them some credit for the way that dealt with my disgruntled ass. I was patient at the counter while they were being incompetent behind it. I didn't yell and scream like a jerk off. I just made it perfectly clear that I was done with it and wouldn't be leaving without my doors. Every time they tried blaming things on covid, supply chains or phases of the moon my voice got 1 notch louder and the amount of cursing followed.

My f-ing doors have been in your f-ing warehouse for 2 f-ing months. They're are f-ing going to be in my f-ing truck TODAY.

 

[JoeRudi15]

On the bright side, those are pretty nice doors. Installed what looks to be identical doors in my garage, 2011. Good insulation. Solid smooth operation. I re-snugged some bolts a few years back but other than that flawless. The bullshit freaking Genie openers I bought lasted only 10 years.

 

[RWG75]

I've been toying with the idea of a Genie opener with battery backup because no power run to the warehouse. They apparently use garden tractor batteries and are pretty easy to hook to a solar panel and charge controller. They are of course back ordered until the 12th of never. I miss Sears - (2) craftsman openers pushing 25 yrs each.

 

[RWG75]

I let a call go to voice mail this morning. Checked it later and it was the garage door company calling to schedule delivery. I hope they call back so I can give them a date.

 

[RCCADMAN]

Free doors, on the way! LOL

 

[RWG75]

Digging in to a bit more, I'd rather spend for a simple chain drive opener. Skip their voodoo and just run an inverter / charger with the panel. Got one door finished today and was amazed at how quiet and smooth it is. Kinda makes me wanna replace the other 3 if I hit the lottery. Speaking of solar: 3 collectors / batteries with their output wired in parallel and light sensors blocked. Generic thumb wheel switch inside.

It's functional, cheap, enough light to find a part because warehouse.

 

[RWG75]

A couple rare days of temps near 50 was handy, had fiber installed too. Freaking door took way too long but that's on me. Other one will easily be 1/4th the time but not before it gets cold again because HGS but oh well.

Well, of course not.

The extra frame up lumber came in handy.

 

[RWG75]

Door number 2 is up and I came up about 40' short on the radiant barrier. Probably should have installed furring strips at least on the ceiling but gonna take a run at the duct tape seam sealer first. Push comes to shove I could always do it over the seams for a cozy post and beam feel.

The solar flood light kit I bought this year was same brand / model as the (2) sets I bought a few years back - except they've got about 1/2 the output. It was always intended to be a short term solution with some sort of real solar system to follow. Well, until I hung the doors and discovered it takes one finger to lift them.

 

[RWG75]

The off-grid research I should have done in the first place:

The big mistake I made was not taking a couple hours to figure out panel generation, storage capacity and load. A 1/2 hp opener should be about 400 watts max which works out to 4 amps for say 60 seconds to open and close the door which is about .03 ah. 48" LED shop lights are 40 watts which means (4) linked together draw a full amp or 1 ah. Generic walmart garden tractor battery is 275 CCA which is roughly 20 ah which means it would take almost a full day for the lights to kill the battery if I left them on. Typical peak output of a 30 watt solar panel is 1.5 amps which means about 16 hours of full sunlight to charge a dead battery.

Buying an opener with a built in battery back up adds about $125 to the price and is less than user friendly about tying in to other batteries / charge controllers. All things considered, it's just a lot cheaper and easier to install an inverter and skip trying to hook the openers directly to batteries. Shopping exclusively on amazon, the whole set up comes in under $300. 30 watt panel, mount kit, charge controller, inverter, cabling, extension cords, led shop lights.

At least plan A was a cheap screw up.

 

[RWG75]

Got a voice mail from Wayne Dalton a couple days ago. They were following up and wanted to know if my doors had been delivered - 2 months later. I really should call them back, go DB on them and demand an immediate replacement shipment or the contact number for their legal department.

 

[RWG75]

Grabbed some more of the extra frame up lumber and started on "drive train corner". I'll move the engine blocks, k-frames, drive shafts and the rest of the rims / tires later.

If I measured it right the hard top cart, topless RC and my LRE should fit down that side.

Might be a bit tight but at least it will be out of the shop.

 

[RWG75]

Went back to basic DC theory: lamp set at end of string farthest from battery so made (2) chains hooked in parallel and now operating as expected. Still a short term but nice to have it work. Moved a few more bits and had an idea I should have had earlier: I've got extra noses, grilles, head lights so hook up a few. Dug out a few harnesses last night and pictures or ya won't get it.

 

[RWG75]

Any putz can take a roll of speaker wire and a wall switch to hook headlights to a battery. I'm entertaining my self here.

This wall hanger is from a 75 Imperial and don't know where h/l door motor went.

A quad h/l grille rad support I scored came with the h/l harness

Reuseable cable ties to lay out the harness on cribbing worked well

Would ya believe a 79 Dodge truck and a 75-77 Dodge b-body share connectors?

c-body h/l switch also plugs right in

I was thinking about just stripping out what I needed but then I got it spread out and decided not to hack it up. So far I've got hi beam and low beam working off the switch but not the marker lights. I can see this snow balling.

Find a b-body h/l switch, I have radios, maybe hook the blower switch to room fans. Gotta see what I have in the way of a door harness for a dome light a maybe an ignition lamp. I have a set of corning lamps.

 

[RWG75]

Back to the crazy for a minute: Chrysler h/l switches actually have (3) power feeds and of course the head lights and marker lights don't use the same source and the lead I need goes through a different connector. On the B body harness, there are multiple power feeds that tie together under the hood and would ya believe one of them goes through the ignition switch to feed the park lamps? I'm pretty sure I can splice around that later but bigger fish to fry at the moment.

Plan A is at least functional for now. This shot is with all the doors closed and the camera set on night mode, no flash. Reality is a bit darker but this should work for finding an alternator with out a flash light.

 

[KurtfromLaQuinta]

Isn't great to have a nice place to work on your stuff?
I'm suprised how much B Body parts are on my truck.