A Pleasant Speedco Experience

One of the things that really puts me on edge is getting the motorhomes' oil and filters changed and the chassis lubed. I've had some a bad experiences over the years of service techs telling me one thing and only to find out later they did not follow through.
One example is when I get the MH chassis greased is.......do they grease all the fittings.

They always assure me they did but when we had our 2000 Newmar Dutch Star we lost our u-joints on a trip into California and Arizona. We limped into a repair facility in Phoenix where we learned all of our u-joints where bad due to the lack of not being greased even though each time we were assured that all fittings were greased. The service manager showed me the u-joints and they all were powdery and dry as a bone.

Because of this bad experience I started greasing the chassis my self. This way I knew all were properly greased. Now that I'm a little older it is very difficult to do this myself so I must depend on the service tech doing the correct job again. So when the time comes for this service I naturally get a little antsy.

That time came around again and for most of our services lately we've relied upon Speedco for our maintenance. There is a Speedco facility in Greenwood, La about 90 miles east of us. So, I called them Monday to make sure they had all my filters and to make sure they used Fleetguard. They gave me an affirmative and did jobs on a first come first serve bases. I also got a tentative quote that for 28 quarts of oil and all filters it would cost me about $295.

Upon our arrival I checked in at the service counter and was informed we would be next and to drive into Bay 2 when told to do so. We waited for about 20 minutes before the Mayflower eighteen wheeler pulled out of the service bay after his service was completed.
Once in the bay I was greeted by the shop foreman who discussed what they were going to do as well pull all the right filters. One of the things I discussed with him was how difficult it was to replace the fuel filer on the engine block. For some reason this filter being located where it is on the engine and the Spartan chassis it's very difficult to remove. Something to do with respect to it been located near the starter and just not having the room to manipulate the removal tool. He assured me they would get it changed as well as grease the fittings properly. I was allowed to stay on the shop floor during this servicing.

As anticipated they had a bugger of a time removing that fuel filter. Even to the point the shop foreman going below himself and after about twenty minutes was able to git-r-done. He questioned if this filter had ever been replaced in prior servicing....hummm?
Prior to my paying the shop foreman did a walk through and reassured me all service was done to their specifications and yes all fittings were greased.

When I went in to pay the young lady behind the counter said you are not heavy duty but a medium duty service and the fee was around $245. Now that is a savings of $50 and i left there with the assurance that all service was done correctly.

Oh, I had an appointment with VA Shreveport at 2pm and asked would it be okay to park the MH behind their facility as we drove over in the Jeep. She said sure and told us where to park so we wouldn't be in the way. Now how nice is that. If you are near Greenwood and need your diesel motorhome serviced I highly recommend this facility.

Until next time. . . .MtnAire Travlers.