The best defense to keeping your motor home or tow vehicle running

							                    Driving habits and chassis upkeep
The best defense to keeping your motor home or tow vehicle running in tip-top shape is to treat it
right. “The squeaky wheel gets the grease” is a good adage to live by. But sometimes even the
silent wheel needs grease also. In the past I offered a basic maintenance chart for motorized and
towable vehicles, which included parts ranging from wheels to roofs to compartments and their
proper upkeep. However, the upkeep goes beyond maintenance and often relies upon driving
habits as well. To demonstrate my point I’ll use Joe Fastrack as an example. Joe Fastrack is a
fairly good driver and always changes his oil every three thousand miles. The problem is,
sometimes he has to install new brakes pads every three thousand miles also! Joe never applied
his brakes until the last possible moment needed to stop. Basically, every stop was a “panic”
stop, thus causing excess wear on the front brake pads. In a diesel motor home, a good way to
help prevent this type of stopping is to install a Pac Brake or a Jake Brake. These types of
braking systems supplement the existing chassis brake. The Pac brake actually limits the exhaust
leaving the engine, thus limiting its power, whereas the Jacobson brake changes the engine
compression to limit the engine power (both utilize the transmission for assistance as well). Both
are good systems and are recommended if you feel you need to supplement your existing braking
system. Otherwise, down-shifting the transmission within the vehicle’s limits is the next best
way to reduce wear on your brakes.

Another driving habit that can cause headaches is related to engine temperatures. Although
motor homes are designed and tested in a variety of heat and cold situations, you simply cannot
pull a large boat or car up an Arizona mountain at full speed without the engine getting hot. You
can, however, take steps to make sure that you get up that mountain, intact and without an
unplanned stop. First and foremost, always read your chassis owner’s manual section on driving
techniques. I learn something new about my car every time I pick up its owner’s manual.
Second, keep your engine speed up, not your road speed. In other words, as the coach slows
down, manually downshift the engine. This will keep the engine coolant flowing at a high rate at
all times. A good example of how this works is a common three-speed floor fan you might have
in your house. If you’re going up that hill at 55 mph in sixth gear, your engine fan is blowing at
the same low speed as the floor fan set on “low.” Downshift to fifth gear. This is equivalent to
turning the floor fan to “medium.” Now downshift to fourth gear and give your radiator the best
blast from the engine fan. By shifting from sixth gear down to fourth gear you can decrease your
engine temperature by up to 15 degrees (depending on humidity and road conditions), and yet
you can still maintain 55 mph if your load or the road allows. Some times you have to manually
down-shift the transmission when going up steep hills.
Aside from driving habits, always make sure that your radiator is clean of debris and bugs. A
partially blocked radiator will have it’s cooling capability greatly reduced. Using a power
washer to clean out your radiator will noticeably increase its cooling capacity. Also make sure
that the coolant is a 50/50 mixture of antifreeze/coolant and water. Adding more coolant than
water will not increase the cooling capacity of the radiator. Engine coolant is formulated to
provide optimum cooling at an equal 50/50 mixture.

These are just a couple examples of how driving habits will affect your maintenance.