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preventative maintenance
My coach, a 2006 Vantare H345, recently hit the 100,000 mile mark. This is my 6th Prevost. My past experience prior to this coach was to trade for a new one once it hit 60,000 miles. We still enjoy this coach, have had few problems, and see little reason to trade.
I have had the coach fastidiously maintained since new. However, hitting this mile mark plus and it’s age me worries me about possible problems we may encounter. I hate having problems while traveling and would happily make an investment in preventative maintenance as insurance that I have lowered my potential risk of problems. The coach is used 4 months every summer to escape the Florida heat plus a trip to Scottsdale every year for the collector car auctions. Otherwise it sits inside my toy garage plugged in with an air running.
I recently had a fan clutch go out, discovered some splintering on my fan which I had replaced, etc. I was wondering if you had any type of checklist that owners typical have a problem with (parts that start becoming a problem after 6 years of life and 100k of miles) that one might replace as a part of preventative maintenance to further eliminate a chance of breakdown on the road.
Thanks
Dave Brewer2006 Vantare H-345
Longwood, FL
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7 Replies
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David,
I created a maintenance schedule for my coaches that established a mileage, time in service or other measurement for when the service or replacement was required. A poor copy of it is here:
http://prevostcommunity.com/articleDetail.asp?ID=7
The above gives you a starting point for yours which you will make up specific to your coach and equipment. You will note I did not wait for failures such as air bags, Norgren Valves or brake chambers, but replaced them based on my estimate of their useful life. Both our previous coaches were at about 250,000 when we sold them and with one notable exception we never had an unscheduled failure. Ironically the one exception was a fire in the engine area due to a replaced AC compressor by Carrier Corp.
You cannot expect to be trouble free 100% of the time, but with a strong preventive maintenance program you are in control of where and when you want to deal with necessary repairs, such as air bag replacement.
If you review the schedule I used for the previous coach you will see I am not waiting for problems to occur, but taking steps to prevent having to deal with problems such as batteries, tires, air bags, etc. I throw away a lot of parts with useful life but I have considerable confidence in the condition of my coach. I now have a 2006 with slides and I am trying to finalize that schedule based on how that coach is equipped.
You are hurting the economy by keeping a coach longer than 60,000 miles, but we will forgive you for that. (Just kidding)
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If you review the schedule I used for the previous
coach you will see I am not waiting for problems to occur, but taking
steps to prevent having to deal with problems such as batteries, tires,
air bags, etc. I throw away a lot of parts with useful life but I have
considerable confidence in the condition of my coach. I now have a 2006
with slides and I am trying to finalize that schedule based on how that
coach is equipped.
I’m glad I’m not the only one that does this .. I keep some of the pull-offs for spares on board. It does give me a peace of mind.
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I dont do the work on my coach but I do keep real good records!! I just bought a new to me coach with 50,000 miles and they said the tires were in good shape and good easliy go another 25,000 miles since it’s been stored inside. But since the tires were six years old I bit the bullet and had them all replaced. My thinking on that was if I had a blow-out it could cost me a whole lot more than what I spent on 8 tires not to mention the saftey yo my myself and wife and to someone else!!!!!!! I’m still a little old school inthat an ounce of perventon is worth a pound of cure. Well thats my 2 cents
Sid Tuls
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Dave,
Your bus is at the 6 year mark and the normal wear items are tires, batteries and possibly shocks. You may have already taken care of those items. You’re the second person I know with fan problems for your vintage, wonder if there was a bad batch of components back then.
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“But since the tires were six years old I bit the bullet and had them all replaced.“
Most tire compounds start to break down on the inside of the tire at about five years, replacing them at your age of six years was a good idea. They can have a huge amount of treadwear left on them, but the sidewalls are starting to weaken at that age.
Good move Sid,
BCO
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Thanks so much for the great advice. I have had most of the suggested work done, but there are a couple of items that I noticed that I will have done.
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Dave,
I don’t think any of us can keep track of all the needed maintenance items without a specific plan, a method of tracking maintenance, and a way of recording the various tasks when completed.
Some of the things we have to do are obscure and hidden in the Prevost maintenance schdule or the generator maintenance schedule or are not even mentioned, but we learn of them either through need or by accident. For example, have your changed the power steering filter? How about differential grease? How often are your air tanks drained? The air dryer cartridge changed? etc. If I did not have a list that took a long time to create I would overlook some obvious and not so obvious needed tasks.
Your coach is “new” in the respect that its percentage of life used is probably still in single digits compared to its design life, especially if you do have a strong maintenance program.
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