Bill Wyrick’s Los Banos Rv Center

Bill has taken care of our Automate needs for 20 years. Been above and beyond our terrible shooting the typical rv well baby issue and other repairs and personal modifications. He is not afraid to modify the rig to meet our changing needs. Especially good for ADA mods. Thanks Bill for everything.

So here is a raw uncensored consumer warning straight from the street about a shifty, fly-​by-​night business that you want to avoid when it comes to 5^th wheel/​travel trailer manufacturing, sales and service. I made the huge mistake of hiring Bill Wyrick at Auto Mate out of Los Banos, California to build a fifth wheel for me in which I paid thousands for. Since completion and pulling my rv off the lot in ’04, I’ve experienced numerous problems ranging from fundamental design flaws to unserviceable fused circuit boards sealed inside the walls of my rv. For the first few months of warrantee, anytime something went wrong, I would have to drag it back to their shop (120 miles round trip) to leave it there for an adjustment to a slide that wasn’t installed correctly. Then go back to pick it up and slide still did not open and close as it should. I had to apply a five dollar can of insulation foam to fill a gap where the slide wouldn’t close all the way. A couple camping trips later and I’m headed back to Los Banos for more corrections and repairs for my brand new multi thousand dollar 5^th wheel. One of which was air bubbles developing in the rubber floor of my ramp door. Shortly after, the support springs installed on ramp door broke off one at a time due to improper placement. Delaminating rubber roof. Noisy floor boards. Exterior molding that rotted off inside of 9 months. Recently and long after manufacturing warrantee has expired, more problems that have earned the rv it’s nick name, Just Bill Me. Nick named after the fast talking owner, Bill Wyrick. For each set of problems this guy always has a shpeel that results with more money, more inconvenience or more stalling and talking in circles to avoid accountability. Shortly after my warrantee expired, Mr. Wyrick and Auto Mate went out of business. I remember feeling like I’m on my own with my 5^th wheel and hoping for no further problems.
Recently one of my slides stopped working. Brought rv in for repair of my slide to two different dealers and both couldn’t find the problem. Slide motor working fine. No breakers or fuses out. No sign of a bad ground or a short. Then when I got rv back to storage, late at night, I noticed a strange noise coming from inside a partition while pressing the button to the broken slide. The service yards where I brought trailer were too noisy and you couldn’t hear the noise coming from inside my wall. Desperate for answer, I reached out to the rv manufacturer despite last hearing they had went out of business. Much to my surprise, Mr. Wyrick and Auto Mate had somehow managed to start up shop again. I confronted Mr. Wyrick about my failing slide and the odd noise coming from an inaccessible and unserviceable portion of the rv walls. At that point he vehemently denied any practice of construction or installation of anything in his 5^th wheel and trailer walls or partitions. Since then I have documented via video camera of the extraction of a Power Gear circuit board with a replaceable fuse attached to it. The circuit board apparently stopped working and as a result, I can’t get the 12 volt power to my slide to open and close it. I’ve sent the video clip to Mr. Wyrick at Auto Mate and followed up with a phone call in which I was able to speak with him. His response was he had decided to claim that I was verbally abusive and refused to help me to resolve the problem.
This slide takes up half the rv and is literally inside of itself when it’s inoperable. I’ve taken steps to contact Power Gear for a replacement circuit board. They’ve been very helpful but they do not sell direct so I have to continue doing everything the hard way when it comes to this 5^th wheel.
For a brief moment I was relieved when I found out that Auto Mate was back in business. Soon after and faster then I could put it into words, I quickly discovered that not much has changed and I am still on my own with this 5^th wheel. My last words with the owner at Auto Mate or whatever name they might be doing business as was vowing to warn as many consumers, rv’ers and applicable authorities about his questionable workmanship and his gross and blatant lack of concern to stand behind his product.