Spartan Factory Service - First visit (Long read)
We were up at the Spartan chassis facility in Charlotte, MI last week. Wish that I could say the experience was enjoyable, but I have mixed feelings about the entire visit.
The initial intent was to get my worn Ball Joints replaced and possibly get a couple of other things done while there including their 100 point chassis inspection. I was looking forward to taking my coach there for service – by the actual company the built the chassis. After all, how much better can you get to have the original builder work on your chassis?
We had a pre-arranged appointment for Monday, July 27th, which was made back in May. The appointment confirmation stated that we were to arrive Sunday night and stay in their Parking/Staging area (50 amp power provided for each coach). The instructions said that we were to have our coach ready to be picked up and go in for service promptly at 7am. That meant, everything unplugged, slides in, jacks up and coach aired up and ready to go. There were approximately six other coaches scheduled for service that Monday as well. At 7am that morning, we were ready as instructed. The instructions also said that we would be in at 7am and depending upon the work to be done, the coach would be brought out at approx 3:15 that day and possible completed.
At 7am, I proceeded to the office with the other coach owners. We had to check in with the service department and receive our service tag/number for our coach. We didn’t get checked in until approximately 8:15. By then, two of the coaches had been taken into the service bays. Ours was not one of them. The rest of us had to sit around and wait. (They do have a very nice, comfortable customer lounge though.) There was no indication as to how they chose who’s coach went in first. Eventually, our coach got taken in at 10 minutes to noon – almost five hours later from the initial 7am call time.
The bad thing here was lack of communication from the service office. We were told that when our coach goes in, they will call us into the office sometime afterward and review everything that they find, and finalize and agree upon what needs to be done. We were all sitting around waiting, without any idea of what to do in the meantime? No idea as to how long the inspection takes? Is it an hour? Two hours? Do we have time to go get lunch? Should we remain on premises so that we’ll be there so that when they come in to review the initial inspection? All the service office would basically say is that they will call us in when the inspections had been completed. Therefore, we all just hung around. Fortunately, we were there with a great bunch of fellow RV’rs, so that made the waiting much easier.
We didn’t get called in until approximately 3:15 that afternoon. In addition to the Ball Joints, I was told that I needed Tie Rod ends (which I suspected as well). No problem. I also asked them to service the transmission (change fluid and filters), and flush the cooling system and replace the coolant and filter. I also asked them to replace the dessicant filter on the air system as long as they were under there. Fine. No problem.
In reviewing the 100 point inspection, they reported that I had a cracked turbo tube, A Class 1 leak of the outer seal on the transmission output shaft, a cracked fan blade on the cooling fan and a couple of other small items. I said, “show me”. So they did. They took me out to the service building and let me down into the service pit with the mechanic. The leak in the tranny shaft seal turned out to be nothing of any concern – barely at Class 1 which is barely a weep at best. The crack in the fan blade was only about 3/8” long in the center of the end of one of the blades – it didn’t quite go through the blade. No concern for me there (a little super glue will take care of that). However, there indeed was a hole in the turbo tube which most definitely needed to be replaced, so I gave to go ahead with that.
They also said that there was no sight glass in my coolant surge tank, but only a plug. They would replace the plug with the screw-in sight glass plug – for $50.00! I told them to leave the plug in. I had also brought along two new tires to put on the front and asked about having them put on. They wanted $100 each to mount the new tires. My truck tire guy here in town does them for me for $30.00 each (includes EQUAL). I took the new tires home with me. One of the other coach owners there with us wanted to get his coach weighed (which they offered to me as well). They wanted $55.00 to weigh the coach! You can get your coach weighed at most CAT Scales for about $15.00.
Overall, the facility itself is awesome, the mechanics are very knowledgeable (the mechanic spent time with each customer when their coach repairs were completed). The people in the service office are pretty nice folks too. However, in my opinion, their pricing is way over the top! Also, they really need to get a better handle on their scheduling and communicating (status update) with the customers. You just can’t have folks waiting around for hours on end without giving them some idea of what is going on with their coach. I feel sorry for anyone who goes in without any mechanical knowledge of their coach and chassis. They had better be ready to open their wallet!
Summary of everything that I had done to my coach:
> 100 point chassis inspection
> Ball Joints and Tie Rod ends (includes Ride Height check & adjust and Wheel Alignment)
> Replace Turbo tube
> Transmission Service – new fluid (Dexron)& Filters
> Coolant Service – Flush and replace with standard coolant and filter
> Change Dessicant Filter on Air Dryer
> Changed Differential Oil
TOTAL w/tax = $4138.
I feel that price is high for what I had done. Yes? No?
The initial intent was to get my worn Ball Joints replaced and possibly get a couple of other things done while there including their 100 point chassis inspection. I was looking forward to taking my coach there for service – by the actual company the built the chassis. After all, how much better can you get to have the original builder work on your chassis?
We had a pre-arranged appointment for Monday, July 27th, which was made back in May. The appointment confirmation stated that we were to arrive Sunday night and stay in their Parking/Staging area (50 amp power provided for each coach). The instructions said that we were to have our coach ready to be picked up and go in for service promptly at 7am. That meant, everything unplugged, slides in, jacks up and coach aired up and ready to go. There were approximately six other coaches scheduled for service that Monday as well. At 7am that morning, we were ready as instructed. The instructions also said that we would be in at 7am and depending upon the work to be done, the coach would be brought out at approx 3:15 that day and possible completed.
At 7am, I proceeded to the office with the other coach owners. We had to check in with the service department and receive our service tag/number for our coach. We didn’t get checked in until approximately 8:15. By then, two of the coaches had been taken into the service bays. Ours was not one of them. The rest of us had to sit around and wait. (They do have a very nice, comfortable customer lounge though.) There was no indication as to how they chose who’s coach went in first. Eventually, our coach got taken in at 10 minutes to noon – almost five hours later from the initial 7am call time.
The bad thing here was lack of communication from the service office. We were told that when our coach goes in, they will call us into the office sometime afterward and review everything that they find, and finalize and agree upon what needs to be done. We were all sitting around waiting, without any idea of what to do in the meantime? No idea as to how long the inspection takes? Is it an hour? Two hours? Do we have time to go get lunch? Should we remain on premises so that we’ll be there so that when they come in to review the initial inspection? All the service office would basically say is that they will call us in when the inspections had been completed. Therefore, we all just hung around. Fortunately, we were there with a great bunch of fellow RV’rs, so that made the waiting much easier.
We didn’t get called in until approximately 3:15 that afternoon. In addition to the Ball Joints, I was told that I needed Tie Rod ends (which I suspected as well). No problem. I also asked them to service the transmission (change fluid and filters), and flush the cooling system and replace the coolant and filter. I also asked them to replace the dessicant filter on the air system as long as they were under there. Fine. No problem.
In reviewing the 100 point inspection, they reported that I had a cracked turbo tube, A Class 1 leak of the outer seal on the transmission output shaft, a cracked fan blade on the cooling fan and a couple of other small items. I said, “show me”. So they did. They took me out to the service building and let me down into the service pit with the mechanic. The leak in the tranny shaft seal turned out to be nothing of any concern – barely at Class 1 which is barely a weep at best. The crack in the fan blade was only about 3/8” long in the center of the end of one of the blades – it didn’t quite go through the blade. No concern for me there (a little super glue will take care of that). However, there indeed was a hole in the turbo tube which most definitely needed to be replaced, so I gave to go ahead with that.
They also said that there was no sight glass in my coolant surge tank, but only a plug. They would replace the plug with the screw-in sight glass plug – for $50.00! I told them to leave the plug in. I had also brought along two new tires to put on the front and asked about having them put on. They wanted $100 each to mount the new tires. My truck tire guy here in town does them for me for $30.00 each (includes EQUAL). I took the new tires home with me. One of the other coach owners there with us wanted to get his coach weighed (which they offered to me as well). They wanted $55.00 to weigh the coach! You can get your coach weighed at most CAT Scales for about $15.00.
Overall, the facility itself is awesome, the mechanics are very knowledgeable (the mechanic spent time with each customer when their coach repairs were completed). The people in the service office are pretty nice folks too. However, in my opinion, their pricing is way over the top! Also, they really need to get a better handle on their scheduling and communicating (status update) with the customers. You just can’t have folks waiting around for hours on end without giving them some idea of what is going on with their coach. I feel sorry for anyone who goes in without any mechanical knowledge of their coach and chassis. They had better be ready to open their wallet!
Summary of everything that I had done to my coach:
> 100 point chassis inspection
> Ball Joints and Tie Rod ends (includes Ride Height check & adjust and Wheel Alignment)
> Replace Turbo tube
> Transmission Service – new fluid (Dexron)& Filters
> Coolant Service – Flush and replace with standard coolant and filter
> Change Dessicant Filter on Air Dryer
> Changed Differential Oil
TOTAL w/tax = $4138.
I feel that price is high for what I had done. Yes? No?
