Is the steering finally repaired ?

After delivering the RV to Lazydays on 23rd May 2016 Spartan promised that they were going to jump on this straight away as they felt they needed to put this problem to bed.

Anyway Spartan arrived on July 13th to start work and a week later they confirmed in writing what work they did (see below)

Ours techs wrapped up the repair with your coach yesterday after a 350 mile road test. The feedback received from them was they were able to drive the coach with one hand in variable situations.  The path consisted of highway and secondary roads, high winds, uneven surfaces; with curves in the mix.

The good news, we didn’t have to go to other shops as I had conveyed and anticipated. Though we had inquired with Lazy Days prior to our trip, they had the lifts we needed for all of our work; we must have spoken the wrong person.

Below is an outline of the week.

  • The Spartan team arrived @ Lazy Days Monday, starting out with a simple 20 mile road test for initial gauging of the situation, noted a very minimum pull to the right.  
  • Went through a visual inspection of all the steering, suspension and axle components. The U-bolts on the drive axle and HTB (Hendrickson Torque Box) fasteners were found not to be torqued to specification. Though there was not witness marks indicating there was movement with either of the components these fasteners support, I thought it was important to note. As a maintenance recommendation from our supplier these fasteners should be checked for torque every 10K miles. If you cannot find this information on your Spartan owner CD I’d be more than happy to assist with you with this.
  • They found a small amount of lateral movement in steer axle bell crank assembly.  
  • Found the rear ride height control valve intermittently hanging up on a fastener. When the coach air springs would re-inflate after the suspension was dumped, the linkage for this valve would come into contact with some hoses in the area. After contact, the linkage would be deflected and intermittently would be stopped short of the intended travel. Our techs secured the hoses out of this area and retested, each time the linkage would complete the full range of travel.
  • The  alignment heads were installed and it was found to not be in specification, specifically the caster on the driver’s side. This was noted by our service engineer in the 3 previous alignments performed.
  • The new bell crank and related hardware were received and installed.
  • The U-bolts at the drive axle and HTB  fasteners were torqued to specification
  • The alignment heads were reinstalled and a full chassis alignment was performed and adjusted to specification.
  • Various suspension and steering components were marked. This was done to check for any movement in these components during the impending road test.
  • Coach was driven was driven 350 miles to access the corrections made.
  • Brought into the shop and rechecked the alignment, was still @ the same measurements prior to the road test.
  • Put unit back up on hoist, no indication of movement in the steering or suspension components, as well the ride heights were still good.

We take each and every one of valuable customer concerns very seriously and we are completely confident that you will be pleased with the results. We look forward to hearing your feedback once they’ve had an opportunity to get back behind the wheel. We are extremely confident your coach will meet our expectations as the best driving chassis in the industry.

 

So after owning the coach for 12 months will this finally be the first time that it drives the way it should. I can’t say anymore until I can get back out to carry out a test drive myself.

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10 Responses

  1. Kathy says:

    Glad to see the update. Best wishes on your return that your chassis alignment mystery is finally resolved :-). Looking forward to meeting you on road sometime, too!

    • GRT says:

      Hi Kathy
      We will be at the Albuquerque balloon festival and then onto Las Vegas for the Entegra Rally. So come say hello
      G

  2. Don says:

    I’m a lurking potential Entegra owner who has followed your story for a few months. When do you foresee your next drive? Thanks for your efforts to document your story!

    • GRT says:

      Hi Ron
      I’m hoping to get across (special trip) just to check the steering on or around the 10th Aug so I’ll report back then.
      G

  3. Roger Thompson says:

    Did Spartan explain why the drivers side caster was consistently changing ?, Bell crank would not change this.

    • GRT says:

      No , all I know it that it drives better now than it ever has.
      G

      • Roger Thompson says:

        Good luck, hopefully it’s corrected. Still do not understand how a slight movement in a Bell Crank can cause the caster eccentric adjustments to change.

        • GRT says:

          I’m with you on this, I’m not sure about this, but they only tell me what they want me to know. So who knows what they have found. As long as the bloody think is fixed I’ll be happy. I’ll let everyone know once I have done a couple of thousand miles.
          G

  4. Multichannel says:

    Thanks for finally writing about >Is the steering finally repaired ?

    – Our Great Escape <Liked it!

    • GRT says:

      Hi There.
      I’m going to do a special video in the new year regarding the steering and some comparisons, it just takes awhile to get all of the info together. But when I do it will be a “no holes barred” video. But to answer your question, they say it’s fixed but I think that if this is the best they can do then there is a bigger problem.

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