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PREVENTIVE MAINTENANCE
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I get it Dick. Every penny of dues or every gratuity (like good aged cheddar cheese) I split exactl in half with Tom.
One half of zero is……………..
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I want to give a personal testimony and reaffirm the importance of routine maintenance. Here’s my story:
Yesterday, I was on my way to a DD shop in Nashville to have some engine work scoped. About 10 miles from the shop, I blew a lower radiator hose. Then the warning for low coolant. Fortunately, I was near an off-ramp and got everything shut down before any heat rise of the engine.
Upon inspection, I found the hose was original to the coach (roughly 16 years old) and had never been changed. It was split just about all the way around the diameter of the hose and basically a shread. It’s now at DD getting all new coolant hoses, etc.
A little background….I purchased this coach from a wonderful gentleman who had lost interest in travel and the coach had been sitting for 2-3 years indoors on power, and only being run 1-2 times per year. Once I got it to TN, I had Jeff do most of the baselining maintenance, but I ignored the coolant hoses….obviously a mistake.
The lesson here: Do your maintenance. Don’t skimp or take shortcuts……it matters!
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And the worst part of trying to continue a maintenance plan someone else might have had is how easy it is to overlook stuff that needs attention, but isn’t listed anywhere.
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I have your checklist and have adopted it for my coach. Seems very complete and worthwhile. Thanks.
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Marshall,
What did Prevost charge to change all the coolant hoses ?
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Please if anyone is using my maintenance list try to understand it is likely incomplete or not appropriate for a coach other than mine.
By incomplete I mean I know I fail to list everything I check and do at my normal service intervals because I do some things without thinking about them. Thanks to Brian Eserly I was saved from a disaster because he alerted us to replace the small hoses coming from the coolant expansion tank. They were not on my list or even considered, but he told of how they get brittle. Sure enough when I replaced them, the old ones literally cracked into pieces.
I am sure there are other examples of omissions that some of you know about.
Also I don’t list it, but periodically I get the weight off the steer tires and check as best I can for slop or play in anything associated with the steering linkage. I found 2 bad tie rod ends doing that, something that should never have happened in only about 100,000 miles, but they were bad.
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I had Prevost Jacksonville do a three-axle alignment at 75k miles seven months after we bought coach. First thing tech did was check tie-rods with steer tires hangers by free as John mentions. There was play. Tech had new tie rods/ends laying out before he brought the coach into the shop. Said he finds them loose quite often.
1999 XLV X-6872, liberty #440 -
Jon,
Thank. Understood. I took your list as a template and modified it for my needs. Helped me get something in much less time than assembling the data myself.
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