Life Expectancies

[Jon Wehrenberg]

Gary asked about the life expectancies of various components.

I will share what I am now using to guide me in replacing parts, and fluids rather than waiting for a failure.

Tires: 6 years or when worn out.

Batteries: 5 years or sooner if a problem occurs.

Brake chambers: 5 years. Note: it is recommended that chambers be replaced every 100,000 miles or one year by Prevost.

Air bags: 10 years. Maybe it is coincidence but two members of this group with 10 year old coaches have experienced air bag leaks, and my previous coach had an air bag leak at ten years.

Air dryer: 2 years.

Engine coolant: 2 years

Engine oil and filters: 5000 miles

Hub seal: As necessary

Air filter: As necessary based on restrictor gauge

Fuel filters: 5000 miles

Transmission oil: 25,000 miles, filters 50,000 miles

Brake pads and lining: As necessary

Air hoses: 10 years or at the first sign of wear from chafing or cracking. (Rubber only, does not include plastic DOT air lines)

[Just Plain Jeff]

I'd agree for the most part, but with a coupla modifications:

Tires: 5-7 years or 100K miles, whichever comes first

Oil & Filters: Once a year (for normal motorhome use) It is easier for most of us to post a date on stuff than mileage. The exception here is the air filter, which due to ambient infiltration may have to be changed much more often. Cleaning doesn't get it.

Air Bags: 7-10 years-stay ahead of the game?

Batteries: Check much more often than stated above. One bad cell can cause an entire bank to 'cook,' causing more batteries to fail. But figure on replacement at 5 years.

Wife: As needed.

[Gary & Peggy Stevens]

Thanks Jon and Jeff for the Information. I now have a better understanding of maintenance on these rigs.

Jeff, do you keep a spare wife in the bay, like your spare parts? Just what kind of mileage are you getting on them.
Mine came with a Lifetime Warranty.:p

Gary

[Just Plain Jeff]

Nah, I was just checking to see if anyone noticed.

Helen was napping when I wrote it, so I am pretty sure I slid by this time. But don't get me wrong, I am NOT hen-pecked. She told me I wasn't.

[win42]

Jon: Thanks for another great post on Maintenence schedules. Another place to watch is the Generator Engine. I replaced a fuel filter there just in time. It was paper and just on the verge of shredding into little pieces to clog things up.
I would like to receive a list of suppliers and prices you have encountered in your recent changeouts of Brake Chambers, Air Bags etch. You may not wish to put it on this public forum, if so a PM would be appreciated. I like to support Prevost Parts whenever possible, but not at higher than normal prices. I realize my 40 footer will have different part numbers than your 45 footer.
Thanks Again

[Jon Wehrenberg]

I can't let henpecked JPJ get by on this one.

Oil and filter changes are cheap relatively speaking. The single most expensive item on our coaches is the motor. Unless we owners drive our buses regularly, as in daily, or at worst weekly, we are subjecting them to harsh duty.

As such frequent oil changes should be the norm. There is no downside to being a little conservative with respect to oil change frequency.

[Joe Cannarozzi]

Harry Just had to replace some of those things because of that wreck.

#30 brake chamber 47$
Air bag 175$

[Jon Wehrenberg]

Joe,

As the professional among us, when do you change components or do you wait for failure? Inquiring minds want to know.

[Joe Cannarozzi]

I knew I was eventually gonna get asked this.

Jon Being VERY LOCAL, I dont run further than 10 or 15 miles out EVER, I have developed a system over time that works very well for us.

When I believe that something might be going bad I immidiatly go out and buy that part but put it in the back of the P-U along with all my tools, and that P-U sits where I park the truck and that is 1 minute from the front gate of the quarry.

With all this concidered, It allows me to then continue to run things a little longer than I would be otherwise able to and often that is quite a significant amount of time, saving a significant amount of money. Ive never been towed and were over 900000 miles now.

We have learned over time that there is not alot of profit in running a truck, and there isint any 1 thing that you can do to increase profit, however, there is a hundred little things that you can do to acheve this and the trick is to get good at doing ALL these things togeather and then that shows up. I would never attempt this method with the bus and thats why I kinda sit on the sideline and read alond with the rest of the folks.

With that said I would also add that because of YOUR habbits and influence all the members here should do VERY WELL in these terms. Your aproach, for what we are doing here, in my opinion is SECOND TO NONE, Keep posting we are all listening.

[Joe Cannarozzi]

Home again, short day, with any luck that will be the last time I turn the key on that Pete until April!

A few things came to mind after I left this morning.

The last thing I do every Friday is put on my coveralls and get on my back with the grease gun and crawl under that truck. I dont know how many times I was able to catch stuff that would otherwise hurt me later. Allowing someone else to do this, even the best of mechanics, wouldnt do as well.

Learn how to lube your bus yourself and do it frequently. You will be amazed at the stuff you will catch while under there.

We run, accept for engine oil, all full synthetic lubricants with the corisponding Lucas products. I go 2 years on the rearend and trans fluids. We still have all the original drivetrain components(accept the trans but more later on that) and if you saw the off road places and the things I put that truck through you would be able to appreciate that as much as I. We even sport All original drive axles, I wear this like a badge of honor, In my buisness this is a frequent problem and Im almost at that magic million miles. Another original component is the king-pins and they are still tight. On a scale of 1 to 10 thay are an8. Grease baby,grease.

A lot of folks say oil is oil but I dont think so. We have a Cat and I started using Rotella and it went through a gallon every 3thou. or so. Switched to Cat oil and it helped some but It wasnt untill Debbies bro started using Delvac, suggested by a DD mechanic because of a consumption problem he was having with a 60series that I really learned this. I now go 10000 inbetween changes and its barly down a gallon. This is great oil. As for Lucas products it gives me an extra 5 pounds of oil pressure thru the entire cycle.

When we first bought the bus, during the summer with the A/C going at an idle in gear, the low oil warning light and buzzer was flickering(we have an 8V92TA). It actually died on me once, this is not fun,if you should kill it in gear it wont restart without manually putting the linkage back in neutral and that means on your back under the rear of the bus wherever that might be. Lucas in the 40wt ended that problem.

If there is ever a drivetrain failure do not go the rebuilt/exchange route. Take YOUR case and components and have that rebuilt. A while back our motor developed a pretty bad leak that facilitated removing the trans to repair it and since we were at 600000 at the time I decided to get a rebuilt trans and the one I gave them was better than the one I got back.

The only time other than that leak repair that the motor was opened up was at 550000 for a valve and Jake adjustment. Used to be at 300000 you did rod and main bearings but the Cat mechanics took apart so many motors at that point to find 0 wear that now they say just take oil samples at changes to check things.

Its the simplest and easyest stuff that in the end will save you the most and this is stuff that I know all of us here are more than capable of.

As for running the parts into oblivian like I do on the Pete-My dad used to say, do as I say not as I do!

[MangoMike]

Joe,
Nice post by you and Jon. That's the kind of maint. info we need. Thanks for taking the time to share that with us.

Mike