Why I do my own maintenance

[Georgia Mike]

21 hours ago, 96 EVO said:

What's your mileage Mike?

80,000 and I think only the tag is oil bath

[Mike Barrett]

Really good point on disconnecting all the computers in the coach before whacking the system with a welder.  Seems many of the switches etc are really sensitive to voltage spikes/drops.  

[jacwjames]

1 hour ago, Georgia Mike said:

80,000 and I think only the tag is oil bath

I had our Windsor's bearings converted to oil bath at Josam's in 2013, it had ~80K miles on it at the time.  The cost to change versus repack was about the same.  I know there is differing opinions on this but I opted for the oil bath.  

I was actually out of country and my wife took the coach in, they treated her great.  Actually did a chassis inspection and corrected a couple minor issues.  Great company to deal with.  I had a follow up call to discuss future maintenance requirements, he basically said just check oil level on a regular basis.  Since then I've only had to add minor amounts of oil. 

[zmotorsports]

Great thread and great catch Jim.

 

I can also attest that I prefer to do all my own work as well as I don't think others are as vested as I am.  I actually just don't trust anyone else to do the work to my standards as much as it pains me to say.

 

While I have been fortunate to not have found any cracks on ours in the 22 years and over 140k miles she's been on the road, I do crawl under it at least twice a year and put eyes on the chassis.  I was under it multiple times a year for all those years we drug our heavy enclosed race trailer around the western U.S.  Seems like I was under it after about every other trip during those years. 

One thing I did do early on in our ownership was to beef up the vertical supports for the drive axle.  Back in the mid to late 2000's I was fortunate enough to have a local Monaco dealer and he was great to let me crawl around and check out the new coaches when they arrived each year.  On the 2009 model year coaches I noted that they added a large gusset to the drive axle trailing arm supports and I had heard of several failures on early S-Series chassis.  I made a template and added these gussets to our 2003 Dynasty as a precautionary measure.  

[96 EVO]

4 hours ago, Georgia Mike said:

80,000 and I think only the tag is oil bath

Your drive axle wheel bearings get their oil lube from the rear differential.