Kingman · Mohave County

RVs, trailers and work trucks

A motorhome is two machines sharing a frame, and only one of them is a truck. Knowing which half your problem is in saves a wasted call-out.

Chassis or house: the split that decides who you call

Chassis means the engine, transmission, brakes, charging system, steering and suspension, and a mobile mechanic handles all of it. House means the fridge, roof air, water heater, plumbing and 120-volt systems, which is an RV technician's trade, not an automotive one.

Getting this wrong is the most common wasted appointment in RV service.

Chassis, and squarely automotive: engine performance and diagnostics, starting and charging, chassis batteries, brakes, cooling, belts and hoses, oil and fluids, steering and suspension, generator engine service on many units.

House, and a different trade: the absorption refrigerator, the roof air conditioner, the water heater, the furnace, propane systems, fresh and waste plumbing, the converter or inverter, house batteries, slide-out mechanisms and roof sealing.

There is a grey area worth naming. House batteries and charging sometimes get handled by whoever is there and competent with 12-volt systems. Propane appliances should not be, unless the person is specifically qualified for them.

When you call, say which half it is in. "The engine cranks and will not start" and "the fridge stopped cooling on propane" go to different phone numbers.

What a mobile RV mechanic in Kingman handles on a chassis

Heat and weight are the two stresses. Cooling systems, chassis batteries, tyres and brakes take the worst of it, and long periods parked are hard on all of them in a different way.

A motorhome combines high mass with desert temperatures and long climbs. That concentrates wear.

Cooling. A heavy vehicle on a grade in July is the worst case a cooling system is designed for, and here it happens often. Hoses, belts, coolant condition, fan operation and radiator cleanliness all deserve checking before a trip rather than during it.

Brakes. Weight means heat. Long descents on US-93 and on the runs toward the lake road are where this matters, and engine braking is not optional equipment on a heavy vehicle.

Tyres. RV tyres age out before they wear out. Sidewall cracking from sun and heat is the failure mode here, and a date code matters more than tread depth. Check pressures cold.

Batteries. Both banks. Heat kills them, and so does sitting discharged for months.

Sitting. A unit parked from March to October develops its own problems: flat spots, seized brakes, perished rubber, rodents in the wiring. A pre-trip inspection on a vehicle that has sat is worth more than one on a vehicle in regular use.

Trailers: bearings, brakes and lights

Trailer wheel bearings need repacking on a schedule and are the most common cause of a roadside trailer failure. Brakes, the breakaway system and the wiring between truck and trailer are the rest of it.

Trailers get neglected because they have no dashboard to complain from.

Bearings. Repack on schedule. A bearing that runs dry seizes, and a seized bearing at highway speed can take the hub, the spindle and sometimes the axle with it. A hub that is noticeably hotter than the others after a run is the warning you get.

Brakes. Electric brakes on most towables. Worth checking that they are adjusted and actually engaging, and that the controller in the truck is set correctly for the load.

The breakaway system. A cable and a small battery that applies the trailer brakes if it separates from the truck. The battery is dead on a startling number of trailers.

Wiring and lights. The seven-pin connector corrodes, the ground fails, and the symptom is intermittent lights that work until they matter.

Tyres. Same story as the RV: age and sun, not tread.

Boat and utility trailers around the lake road live harder lives than most, including immersion at the ramp, which is exactly what bearings dislike.

Fleet and work trucks: the argument is scheduling

For a small fleet the case for mobile service is uptime, not distance. Vehicles serviced in their own yard before the day starts are not sitting in a queue, and servicing several on one visit spreads the call-out across all of them.

If you run two to ten vehicles, the maths is different from a household.

A truck in a shop queue is a truck not working, and the cost of that dwarfs the difference in labour rate. Servicing in your own yard, early, on a schedule you set, removes the queue entirely.

What tends to work:

• Batch the visits. Several vehicles on one trip means one drive, shared.
• Service on your downtime. Early morning, or whatever your quiet day is.
• Keep records per vehicle. Knowing which truck is due for what prevents both neglect and duplicated work.
• Fix small things early. On a work vehicle, an unplanned failure costs a day, not a repair.

Ask about a standing arrangement rather than one-off calls. Most operators would rather have predictable work booked in advance, and that is usually reflected in what they charge for it.

Before a trip, and before storage

A pre-trip chassis check covers fluids, belts, hoses, cooling, brakes, tyres including age, batteries and lights. A pre-storage service is about leaving nothing to deteriorate: fresh oil, correct fluid levels, and batteries maintained rather than left flat.

Before a trip. Oil and coolant level and condition, belts and hoses, radiator and fan operation, brake condition, tyre pressures and date codes, both battery banks, all exterior lights, and the trailer connection if you are towing. An hour, and it is the cheapest hour of the trip.

Before storage. Fresh oil, because used oil is acidic and sitting in a crankcase for months is not neutral. Full fuel tank with stabiliser on a unit that will sit through a season. Batteries either maintained on a tender or removed. Tyres inflated and, if possible, off direct sun.

Coming out of storage. This is where the failures live. Everything rubber has aged, brakes may have surface-rusted or seized, batteries are usually flat, and rodents may have been busy in the wiring. Checking before the first trip is far better than discovering it on US-93 in August.

Generators, and the part a mechanic can actually help with

The engine side of an RV generator is automotive work: oil, filters, plugs, fuel delivery and starting. The electrical output side and the transfer switch belong to an RV technician.

Generators get neglected more than any other part of a motorhome, and they punish it. An engine that sits unused for months develops stale fuel, gummed carburettor passages and a flat starting battery, which is why so many will not run on the first evening of a trip.

What a mobile mechanic handles: oil and filter changes on the generator engine, air and fuel filters, spark plugs, fuel delivery problems, starting and charging faults, and general diagnosis of why it cranks but will not run.

What belongs elsewhere: the alternator output side, the transfer switch, the distribution panel and anything to do with the 120-volt system inside the coach.

The maintenance that prevents most of it is unglamorous. Run the generator under load for a while each month rather than leaving it idle, use stabiliser in the fuel if it will sit, and service it on hours rather than on years. A generator that has run twenty hours since its last oil change is overdue, regardless of the date.

Getting a stored vehicle inspected before you sell or travel

A chassis inspection before a trip or a sale covers fluids, belts, hoses, cooling, brakes, tyres by date code, both battery banks and lights. On a unit that has sat, it is the difference between a trip and a recovery.

Two moments make this inspection worth buying, and people usually skip both.

Before a trip. Especially the first trip after storage. The failures that strand people are almost all findable in a driveway: a hose gone hard, a belt cracking, a battery that will not hold charge, tyres with sidewall cracking, brakes that seized while parked.

Before a sale. Knowing what is wrong lets you price it honestly and refuse a reduction based on faults that do not exist. A buyer with a written inspection in hand is also a buyer far less likely to renegotiate at the last minute.

What a chassis inspection covers on a motorhome or a trailer: engine oil and coolant condition, belts and hoses, radiator and fan operation, brake condition and operation including the trailer side, tyre pressures and date codes, both battery banks under load, all exterior lighting, the breakaway system, and a look through the wiring for rodent damage.

An hour or two, and it is the cheapest insurance available on a vehicle worth several thousand dollars that has been standing in the sun.

Call (928) 482-3009

Where this service is available

KingmanGolden ValleyValle VistaButlerDolan SpringsYuccaChloride

Local companies serving Kingman and Mohave County; travel to outlying areas is usually included in the estimate — ask.

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