Time for some maintenance...

[Desert_Captain]

My 2012 Nexus Phantom 23P {24'} which I have owned for 7.5 years and 60,000+ miles is due for a number of basic services:

Full synthetic Oil change

Full synthetic transmission flush

Full synthetic differential flush,

Coolant flush

Fuel injection service

AGM chassis battery

Air filter

I called a couple of the large RV Chains, Camping World, La Mesa RV, Lazy days etc and got some pretty consistent quotes from all of them. The bottom line averaged right at $2,000... seriously! :S

I live about 70 miles up the mountain from Phoenix in Payson and all of them of course wanted me to drop it off with the services taking a day or so. Most are booked up, CW said their next available appointment was 8 weeks out the others were all 2 weeks to a month.

Fortunately I recently found a great independent RV mechanic who is happy to come to my house for most RV repairs, he recently replaced the original water heater and tracked down a short in one of my brake lights working in my driveway. For all of the services enumerated above I dropped the rig off at his shop about 5 miles down the road. Not only is he a great RV technician he is also an ASE certified Mechanic.

Arizona can be a pretty harsh environment for RV's particularly in the summer so making sure everything was good to go was a priority. When I dropped it off I asked him to thoroughly go through it and if he found anything that he would do for his own coach to plan on doing it to mine. Yep, pretty much handed him a blank check. He is a tad bit busy up here as you would imagine but being in no hurry I told him a week would be fine.

He called this morning, a day early and said I could come pick it up. Said he checked it out thoroughly and other than the above punch list could not find anything else the coach needed but we agreed that replacing the plugs around 75K miles would probably be worth doing.

The bill came to $1,119.35... :B

Thousands of RV's pass through Payson every week bound for the White Mountains, Flagstaff and beyond so thought I would share this gem of a resource. Can Do Automotive & RV service and Repair, call Carl at 928 951-3500.

You're welcome!

:B :B :B

[klutchdust]

Mike's RV in Bakersfield area comes to Famoso Raceway when there is an event. He sold me a gasket for my toilet this trip. Honest and reliable.

[Desert_Captain]

Just returned from an 8 day 1,100+ mile trip up into the southern Rockies... the first since the recent maintenance. The coach ran better than it had in years. My coolant and trans fluid temps remained at or below 200 degrees. Mileage was back to normal, I get about 9.5 when not towing and 9 +/- if I cruise at 65 which I did for most of this run as a lot of it was on I-40.

{Never dawdle on I-40} :S

In addition there were a number of 10,000'+ passes as we spent 4 days in Pagosa Springs and an other 4 in angel Fire and the needed power was always there... gotta love that V-10 and the 5 speed torque shift tranny.

Now I am shopping for and Apple Car Play rear view camera combination... any recommendations?

:C

[pnichols]

Mobile mechanics are a great way to have maintenance done on an RV. We've begun to use one for service of both our 4X4 pickup truck and our Class C motorhome chassis right here in the mountains in our backyard - and we may try another one for the coach part of our Class C RV.

One is an expert on maintaining the Ford E450 chassis, and the other is an expert on maintaining trailers, mobile homes, and the coach portion of motorhomes.

Moble service guys have to be good or they wouldn't last long ... plus when they come to where your RV is you have their whole attention just for your job. There's no need to have the RV setting somewhere waiting for someone - out of perhaps several mechanics of varying skills - to eventually get around to it.

I'm all for the mobile service guys!

[valhalla360]

For most of the items, really no need to go to an RV dealer.

Any mechanics shop should be able to handle it. Even an oil change place (if you keep an eye on them, should be able to do most of that).

Adding up in my head, I figured around $900, so $1100 probably isn't too far off.

[Lwiddis]

Glad to hear it is all taken care of and that you got a good price.

[Desert_Captain]

PartyOf Five wrote:
Thanks for the referral and please write a review at RVservicereviews.com
It's a really nice site to find a mobile mechanic, and local services.

Will do.

:W

[PartyOf_Five]

Thanks for the referral and please write a review at RVservicereviews.com
It's a really nice site to find a mobile mechanic, and local services.

[bukhrn]

I guess shops are backed up everywhere, 2 of them i checked with here, are backed up at least 3 weeks, one wont even make an appointment till the middle of next month.
The Ford dealer I normally use has removed their truck lifts to install more car lifts.