Need alignment shop in Northeast

[Roadpilot]

I have a 2006 H3 that has been recently aligned twice, but still has a problem. It pulls to the right and the right front tire is now very worn on the outside edge. I've heard great things about Josams? in Orlando, but the bus is now in New Hampshire. Can anyone recommend a good shop to align the bus?

[Roadpilot]

I ended up bringing the Bus to Rochester Truck in Rochester, NH. Before they tried to align it they fixed or replaced things that would affect the alignment. The kingpin bushing was crushed. The kingpin had too much play (I felt it and it was a lot). They bored out the hole and installed stainless sleeves prior to installing new kingpins. They replaced the front tire that had been ruined from the misalign. I also had heard from Marathon that Koni's would provide a superior ride, so I had them installed all around.

The end result you would not believe.The difference in handling was night and day. It handles and rides fantastic now.

Anyway, if anyone needs a good, honest and reputable shop in the Northeast I highly recommend Rochester Truck. It's a pretty big operation, but Don Gagnon, the owner, took a special interest in the bus.

[Gary Carmichael]

Dick I am new to the world Prevost an have a question Is it normal for a king pin bushing to go out that soon? Yours I see is a 2006, I have a 2005, should they be replaced at certain intervals? I bought mine at stuart in Febuary and they did a complete inspection and found no problems. If I may ask how many miles do you have on your unit?

[jack14r]

Dick,The Koni shocks are adjustable,what setting did they set them to?

[dmatz]

Prevost in nj charged me $ 583.00 for a full steer, drive and tag alignment. I was pleased with their work.

[Roadpilot]

The bus has about 60,000 miles on it. Just before we bought it about 4 months ago, we had it sent to Prevost in Jax. They found a couple of issues with the front end but not to this extreme. Jax had a multi page sheet of things they went thru. I think the problem is that they don't find things that require taking things apart. The crushed bearing in the kingpin could be found by checking vertical play in the wheel assembly, but the kingpin had to be removed or almost removed to find the slop in it. Also when Prevost saw the bus, I believe the tire had already been replaced on that wheel so it looked new. Rochester tire was looking at a tire that had 1200 miles on it and was shot. But the wear pattern told them something.

I don't know what the setting was on the Koni's.

They have the alignment broken out on the bill at $251.

[Jon Wehrenberg]

60,000 miles in the projected lifespan in a bus is near the equivalent of taking a new car for a ride down the driveway. I would recommend presenting Prevost with the bill for two reasons. First, as the experts their inspection should have shown this problem. They are responsible for inspecting commercial buses and those inspections are stringent and the methods used should have identified the problem.

The second reason is the problem should never have happened and because it did they did something wrong during the manufacturing process, quite possibly affecting other coaches as well. Any time a steering axle has issues as you describe it is serious. If yours was an isolated incident you should be compensated, but if there is any sense this problem was not isolated a recall is mandated. I would not hesitate to contact the DOT.

I would start the request process through the service manager at JAX, but I would make it clear to him (or her) that if the request was denied I intended to move up the food chain of command and would not hesitate to involve the DOT if that is how they wanted to respond. I suspect you will be paid for the repairs and your tire.

[Orren Zook]

I would contact the first owner to see if he had any front end work done. All king pins sets with metal bushings are fitted (through a reaming process) to the king pin. I've seen king pin sets on OTR trucks that have been properly greased/maintained last hundreds of thousands of miles. Was your axle ok - or did it have to be built up and machined or repaired too? Also, what do you mean by 'crushed' in the bushing description in the earlier post? I suppose it might be possible to drive a king pin into the bushing/axle/spindle assembly but it would be so tight that steering would be nearly impossible.

[Roadpilot]

I believe there is a bearing set that goes around the kingpin. That bearing set was "crushed". Not crushed axially, but with a vertical load on it. Rochester Truck believed that the bus hit a big pot hole at some point that "crushed" the bearing. The wear of the a frame that the kingpin goes into was unrelated to this. I think the bus was abused by one of the owners, in the sense that proper maintenance and lubrication weren't high on his priority list. Before they would line it up they wanted to make sure everything was correct. It is now lined up perfectly. No pull either way and it doesn't tend to wander. Driving the bus up from Florida was very tiring with that pull. I haven't got a lot of miles on it after the repair and alignment, but it won't be tiring to drive no, at all.

[Jon Wehrenberg]

Dick, You should still pursue this with Prevost. I say this because these buses are designed for commercial service using hired drivers. They are not designed to be babied, and there are a lot of charter buses being used where potholes are normal. Before a pot hole crushed a bearing my guess is the tire or wheel would be subjected to some serious damage. The loads required to damage a king pin bushing or bearing would likely also damage the A frames, bushings, wheel bearings, etc. Are the wheels bent?

But regardless of how it happened you said something else that got my attention. Any bus or large truck that has not been lubed routinely shows it clearly to anyone looking. A well lubed coach is going to have signs of regular lubrication. There will be new or nearly new grease visible near the fittings and just looking at the fittings is a strong clue whether they have been lubed or not. When an inspector sees a joint and its fitting as dry as a popcorn fart he knows it hasn't seen grease in a while if ever. Seeing that should have prompted forther detailed inspection to determine if there was damage or wear as a result.

Just my 2 cents.

[Roadpilot]

Jon, our fear was that the A frame was bent and Rochester truck doesn't have the ability to straighten frames. I was really relieved when they told me it was not bent and aligned perfectly. As I had said before, it was lined up twice before and they had a bear of a time loosening the nuts to adjust things. Next time I see Robert Jones of Prevost, I'll fill him in on the details.