Motorhome Chassis/Engine Maintenance & Towbar Install?

DrewE wrote:
For the most part, I do maintenance things myself. The E series chassis is not really difficult to work on; there's reasonable access to most things you need to get at on a regular basis, and it's not so heavy duty that you need unusual tools.

Chassis lube is four steering tie rod ends and the ball joints if they have grease fittings. Check the manual, but there's a good chance the differential has synthetic lubricant that does not have a scheduled periodic replacement (changing only required if you drive through water deep enough to submerge the differential).

DrewE,

I could not have said it any better.

And doing it yourself, you know it was done and done right. I find it remarkable how many times people pay for vehicle service that doesn't get done, or even damages the vehicle. I volunteer as an auto mechanic for a charity and have seen the simplest maintenance done hastily resulting in damage to a vehicle. I've seen many stripped oil drain pans with doubles gaskets on the plug. I've seen catastrophic loss of oil due to improper installation of the oil filter. Nobody will be as thorough and as careful as you the owner. It's not hard work, it saves you big money, your vehicle is better protected, and you are better educated if you become stranded or need more serious work done, a 3x win to doing as much as possible for yourself.

Ron Dittmer

I do all my own service however I have had a mobile mechanic come to my home for something I could not do myself and no one was here to help.
On the road I had a mobile RV mechanic help with my refrigerator issue. Look in your area.
RV repair shops, dealers, yikes.

Anyone use a truck stop that services big rigs? Curious if they would do lube/oil services.

We live in a very small rural town, and use a local Mechanic that has a garage large enough to put our rig inside. In a small rural town, every good mechanic has to be able to work on about any type or brand truck, and that is the prevailing type of vehicle. So no problem with the v-10 engine or chassis, brakes, and such. We have a local, trained, RV repair that takes care of anything on the coach part. In cities, mechanics that know about trucks and truck systems are hard to find, and can be be very expensive. If you have a DP instead of a gasser, double or triple the maintenance costs, and wish you luck finding someone. Check out the bigger truck stops, they can handle routine maintenance, and a few will if the price is right.

This is a detail that ron.dittmer brought up some time ago: Those of you with a certain year(?) E350/E450 chassis RV make sure that - if it has it - you change the EXTERNAL transmission fluid filter per schedule.

My 2005 E450 has this filter and I wasn't aware of it's existence until Ron mentioned it. The first time any service shop mentioned changing it for me was after we had owned the RV after, maybe, 11-12 years!

I wonder if my external transmission filter wasn't perhaps nearly clogged and hence maybe the cause of the early failure of our E450's 5-speed TorgShift transmission at around only 60K miles?

This filter looks like it's IN SERIES with the transmission fluid flow to/from the cooler up front in the radiator - so a blockage of this filter means no, or little, cooling of the transmission's fluid. This was an expensive over-sight - if it was the cause in my case (over $5.5K for a remanufactured tranny - they aren't available new anymore).

Locally we have an excellent independent shop that specializes in trailer hitch work. They also do tow bar install and wiring. Most Ford car dealers won't do much on the E450. Independent truck shops may be your best bet. If you need front end alignment (most E450's will especially if new) go to a shop that understands the peculiarities of the E450 with motor home body.

Try this Click [url=] Put in your city and state, choose which dealer you want and then select more information and the dealer will list class A or C Motor Homes if they service them.