North Bay Truck Center is becoming the go-to place for motor home chassis work. That is because if you take the shell off of a motor home, you take the body off of it. Let’s say, for example, a diesel pusher. It’s really a bus chassis. It’s really built by the manufacturers. Some of them that built the motor home chassis also built big trucks, Freightliner, for example. For us, if we’re under the motor home or we’re looking into the engine compartment, we’re really looking at the same picture as we are if we’re looking on a Class 6, 7 or 8 truck.
We are well versed on the platforms of engines that they use, primarily, they use Cummins or Caterpillar engines on some of the older ones. For the diesel pushers, we’re very well versed on those engines. We have the computer software to plug into them. We’re familiar with the Allison transmissions that are most all of them use. The braking systems on a lot of them are airbrakes, similar to that of a Class 6 through 8 truck. They also have suspension components that are shared. They use air ride suspension on the front axle a lot of times, which is found on the newest class 6 through 8 trucks. We’re very familiar with the chassis of the diesel pushers.
North Bay is also going to be able to look up maintenance schedules on those as well. Motor homes generally will come with all manuals in a big binder referring to your refrigerator, your heating system, air conditioning. If your vehicle is new, you should have the Cummins manual for the engine and in the case of the Freightliner chassis, a Freightliner chassis manual with maintenance intervals for that chassis as well as the engine, again, we can help look those things up if you don’t have the manuals.
On the diesel pushers, we have a facility large enough to bring the biggest unit into the shop. A 45-foot 3-axle diesel pusher, we can bring it in to our shop and it can be kept under cover. If it does require to be outside or you have surveillance cameras outside our shop, we can assure that the place is lock down that the cameras are working 24/7. Even the nicest motor homes, you can rest assure they’re going to be locked up and safe in our facility.
The smaller coaches that are built on a gasoline chassis such as Ford or Chevrolet, or even the Sprinter chassis, those we’re familiar with and able to recode with our standards. Again, it’s a Ford van setup or a Chevrolet van, or GMC chassis. Very similar to the pickup trucks so we’re well versed on those, braking systems, air conditioning. When it comes to the chassis, air conditioning on all motor homes. The air that comes out of the dash registers, we work on. The overhead air which is the roof mounted air, we do not work on, but we can definitely get the dash air working if you have an issue with air conditioning. We work on all of the components on the light duty coaches. This is the diesel pusher, but it comes from the Springer chassis up to the Ford and the Chevrolet chassis and there’s some new ones coming out.
Bearings, tires, the rear differential, the transmission, the steering components. Everything to do with what makes it go down the road and stop for sure.
When it comes to tires, as with the trucks, it is just as important with the motor homes and it’s a huge area that is neglected on motor homes because they sit so much. They develop flat spots in the tires, and they can get to the point where you have a side wall cracking. In some cases, UV rays really heat up the rubber over years of it’s being exposed, and then you flat spots developing because the coach, the way that it coaches is just one spot on the tire. Now, you got a tire that is not round any longer and it won’t fix itself if it’s bonded into the rubber. The only way to get rid of that is you replace the tire. We do sell and install tires on any motor homes, from the class piece on it to the big diesel pushers. We’re able to balance the biggest tires on the diesel pusher as well. We have a large tire balancer here that we recently purchased.
North Bay recently purchased 6 Mohawk pedestal lifts that will allow us to lift the largest diesel pusher up in the air outside of our facility. If we’re not able to work on it inside or get it on one of the lifts inside and the work should require to be underneath it, we’re able to lift the vehicle up in the air.
