Question Class A maintenance - self or no?

[Russsilber90]

Who does your own engine/chassis maintenance on a Class A motorhome? What do you do? What don't you do? If you do your own maintenance, do you still take it to your chassis vendor for programmed/annual maintenance?

I do all general maintenance. Oil, gas, air filters and radiator fluids. Air up tires regularly. Grease fittings. Roof maintenance. Air filters in ceiling vents. Marker and head light changes. Highdraulic Jack maintenance.
O2 sensor changes etc. All engine, brakes, transmission and mechanical repairs I leave to my trusted mechanic.

 

[Orrin]

I used to own a trucking company (semis) and we performed all of our own maintenance including rebuilding engines and transmissions. I don't have the space or the equipment any longer nor do I really have the desire to perform those duties. I will however do the smaller stuff as necessary on our coach. I very much like tinkering with it and making sure each mechanism works as it should. Just my .02 cents.

 

[FloridaSon]

Agree with you, there is satisfaction in knowing each mechanism and maintenance is a great way to understand it.

 

[JRS]

Being full timers, unable to work on the Chassis. First year went back to Newmar and combined with warranty work. Been going to Freightliner Oasis Dealer in Rochester, NY last 2 seasons. Might go with Gaffney next fall on way to Florida.

 

[ARD]

I take it to Spartan and let them do a full inspection and maintenance work. Expensive, but they have found things that I wouldn't have otherwise known about and replaced under warranty.

 

[turbopilot]

I just sold my New Aire but during 4 years of ownership I did all the coach maintenance. It had never been to a dealer for coach maintenance. I made some trips to FreightLiner for chassis maintenance but it was such an awful experience I began using mobile lube services for the chassis.

 

[FLSteve]

I have always had Freightliner chassis' and tried to get them up to Gaffney for all the annual services. I really like that place. I normally take care of all the generator service work myself here at the house and have even done chassis engine oil and filter changes on several occasions when I could not make Gaffney work in time. Now that I am getting a Spartan chassis I have not figured out where to get the annual service work done as it's a long way up to the Starting service center but may still try and do that and just work it in on trips if possible. If not, maybe get it back to NIRVC Atlanta where I am buying the coach. I only live 10 minutes from NorthTrail RV but don't see them real excited for me to bring in an NIRVC bought coach for service work even though I have bought all my previous coaches from them.

FLSteve

 

[MapNerd]

I just had chassis service done at NIRVC Atlanta. The only problem I had was that there were so many coaches there that the place was overflowing. The overnight service spots only have electric hookups which wasn’t a big deal, but our service took almost a week to complete as we had some other issues addressed as well. I was quite surprised by how small the place was. I was expecting it to be the size of a Carmax, it was half that.

 

[FL-JOE]

When we had our Newmar I went to Freightliner/Cummins service center for all oil and fuel filter maintenance. I did most of the other stuff. Prior to that we had a gas Class A and I did everything on that, including the oil changes.

 

[Neemer]

I just had chassis service done at NIRVC Atlanta. The only problem I had was that there were so many coaches there that the place was overflowing. The overnight service spots only have electric hookups which wasn’t a big deal, but our service took almost a week to complete as we had some other issues addressed as well. I was quite surprised by how small the place was. I was expecting it to be the size of a Carmax, it was half that.

@MapNerd, how did you find their pricing on annual service items? I was looking at a NIRVC pricing schedule someone posted a while ago and it appeared to me their pricing for annual service was pretty steep compared to Freightliner’s.