[victor]

Don I have redone two bus I agree with you they need care as they get older

[Archived]

…the most dangerous hours flying are just after an annual or after an engine overhaul.

Maintenance induced failures are not uncommon. I generally subscribe to the “don’t fix it if it is not broken” camp but on the other hand some items do have limited life. Lucky for us, failures in a coach are not as “interesting” as in a plane, but one can sill get stranded out in the boonies which typically means lots of hassle and money.

With that in mind, I just had all 8 air bags, two upper A arms and front brake pads and one tag rotor replaced at Prevost Richmond in BC. Much smaller than Mira Loma but a good place if you are in the neighborhood and need service. Getting 30% more for your US $ does not hurt either.

Gerald

[Larry & Diane]

Don, we are in agreement. There are two schools of thought and which side of the question a person is on depends on their tolerance level for surprises.

I have established my personal life cycles for components ranging from tires to batteries to air bags to brake chambers, Norgren valves, etc. I change items like those listed when I think they have outlived their useful life. I throw away a lot of perfectly good parts. That drives some people crazy, but I can travel knowing I have done all I could to insure our trip will be trouble free.

There is a second part of this topic and that is also aviation related. It is my back up plan. No matter how hard I try, I know stuff will break. So I have added back up, or provisions for failure. I have installed a back up water pump for example. On a previous coach I created an inverter by-pass circuit so an inverter failure would not become an issue.

Then there is the third element, also aviation related. I have done the “what if” scenarios and have a plan for when something breaks. If my alternator quits I have a plan. If a brake chamber diaphragm fails, I have a plan. If the engine cooling fan quits I have a plan. The point being I try to prevent problems before they start, but if I do have a problem I have an alternative, and if I do not have an alternative I try to have a means of dealing with the problem.

My free advice to everyone that drives a coach is to learn the systems, try to understand the basics, and give thought to how to prevent or deal with problems. The absolute worst time to be trying to determine a course of action is when you are sitting by the side of the road unless you don’t mind the excitement of having to be towed just because you didn’t have a spare fan belt or didn’t know you could jumper a sensor, or you failed to replace a part that has reached the end of its life.

[John]

but I’m quickly falling into Jon’s camp.

As an engineer I have seen too many units come of an outage to go right back down due to infant mortality for new QA program quality part failures. I’m in the “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it” group.

That said, after a 20 year old, $18 tag slack adjuster had me on the side of road, I have 6 new slack adjusters in the barn waiting for me to get in the mood to get greasy. Jon’s recomendation was to just replace the bad one. So I’m throwing good parts away.

BTW, I got most of the parts from finditparts.com. 20% better prices than Prevost. Prevost was 50% lower than my local NAPA store could do with the card. Drop shipped direct from Bendix, I had the parts in 3 days. I had to get 2 of the slack adjusters from Prevost since the minimum order was 6. Took 2 weeks from Prevost who had to order from Meritor and then ship to me.

[Peter]

Not bragging, just giving background – I recently retired from the military after flying for 28 years in the Navy, Air Force Reserves, and Air National Guard. I also taught the virtues or preventative maintenance plans in aerospace manufacturing. I FIRMLY believe in adhering to maintenance schedules!!! To me there is no other way. You maintain the very best you can, and like Jon said, always have a plan for when things fail. That way you have the highest probability of getting the mission completed (in our case having fun with your friends in a great place). Our refueling tankers were built in the late 50’s but are still very, very reliable.

I would bet we’re the same group that would rather overpay for a garage-kept, well-maintained cream puff, than under pay for a neglected, mechanincs special…

Taking a 30,000 foot look at it though, you will suredly save money by only fixing things when the break. However, you will be late for more trips, and miss more trips because of your choice. We’re on the ground, so I doubt you will die on more on trips due to mechanical failures (unless you very foolishly choose run extremely old tires).

If Don would get a cabinet maker to “privatize” his toilet I would immediately buy his coach :-). If I end up with one that hasn’t been maintained it will be very expensive for me to get it up to snuff.

[Mike & Brigitte]

Kurt, I am very comfortable fixing things on my coach. It is a rare event when anyone services anything because I like doing my own work and because I can, I more than likely go beyond normal maintenance.

But when I am buying a coach I want it 100% right. All three of my coaches were bought with no known issues. I say no known issues because on our coaches we can always find something to repair or adjust sooner rather than later. For me I don’t want to start out having stuff to fix. A new coach to someone is a substantial undertaking to begin with. There is so much to learn and so many little things to deal with to make it your own I just prefer not to add to the work ahead of me by having to fix stuff. But that is just me.

The flip side of that is to go into the purchase of a coach prepared to deal with whatever repairs are required knowing when you are done fixing it everything is done and done right. A lot of owners have struck some very good deals by buying an underloved coach (but basically sound) and making it right.

Whatever approach a buyer chooses however there is one path I would urge every owner to take and that is to develop a master schedule for maintenance and not only stick to it, but to document everything. Whether pro-active or reactive there is no one on this planet than can mentally keep track of all the work it takes to keep a coach in great shape. I think for those owners who are not mechanically inclined, or who choose to not do their own work that master schedule which can be created from the service requirements of the chassis, house, generator, appliances, etc becomes the checklist for the preventive maintenance that keeps the coach on the highway and not on a hook.