Spartan Chassis Input Needed

[GeezerViz]

Originally Posted by 777 Driver

Mike, I had a DEF head failure this past March as I was returning home from Florida. The check engine light and associated DEF head failure codes displayed about 11:30AM, just before we stopped in a rest area for lunch. After we had stopped for the evening, about 3:30PM, I called Spartan Customer Service to discuss the issue. The Customer Service rep wanted to see a photo of the associated codes, which I provided to him via an email. He asked our location (Fayetteville, NC) and direction of travel (northbound on I-95). He was able to locate a Cummins Service Center 45 miles north along our route and had a replacement DEF head next day delivered to that location. The DEF head replacement arrived there the next morning at 10:30AM (19 hours after I first notified Spartan).

We had planned to spend two nights at Fayetteville, so the replacement part actually arrived at Cummins almost 24 hours before we did. The Cummins folks moved us into their shop as soon as we arrived and in about 4 hours, the repair was complete.

Had we chosen to depart immediately, the sum total delay to our progress would have been about 4 hours. We did chose to spend the rest of that afternoon, evening and night at the Cummins facility (50 amp hookup) so my DW could enjoy a nearby outlet mall shopping experience. The Spartan/Cummins repair was covered under warranty (no out of pocket expense), the outlet mall experience was not.

Should you suffer a DEF head failure, it's entirely possible that your experience could be as pain free as mine.

All things considered, I couldn't have been happier with the way Spartan/Cummins handled the failure of my DEF head.

Take care,
Stu

For me it is more about the cost of the repair, not the inconvenience. Like with the radiators, that they know are defective, they refuse to issue a recall. My messed up radiator is now going to cost me thousands of dollars and they knew it was a piece of crap. Spartan refuses to take responsibility for the defective units they put on the road and won't stand behind their product. Yeah, they did a good job getting the replacement part to NIRVC.

[RVFunlovers]

We have only had Spartan’s. I have never owned any other diesel chassis.

We have had a few issues but overall they have been good. The number of places you can get a Spartan worked on is limited when traveling.

Good Luck.

[MRUSA14]

Originally Posted by RVFunlovers

The number of places you can get a Spartan worked on is limited when traveling.

I have a diffrent opinion on that. I have not had the need to have my Spartan Chassis worked on by non-Spartan shops, but I previously had a Beaver coach on a Magnum chassis. There are almost no Magnum shops anywhere, but I found that Freightliner shops were perfectly willing to work on it and that is where I had my Magnum chassis maintenance done. Unless you have an extreme problem, I'm pretty sure the same would be true for a Spartan Chassis. As I said, in the 9 years I have owned a Spartan Chassis coach I have had no need to test this hypothesis. I have found Spartan support to be excellent.

[Douglee25]

These chassis aren't that complicated. They all use the same parts (relatively speaking). Axles, oil, grease, alignment, etc.

[milly59]

i have owned a few DP starting with the roadmaster then freightliner and now a K2 spartan...i can assure you that the spartan is a lot better riding and driving RV...support is also very good...there are people that had def sensor failures but that seems to be resolved now...and seems is mostly caused by people storing their rv s then run it with old def fluids...

[JRI]

The question falls in line with: What came first, the chicken or the egg? Ford or Chevy?

The only correct answer is the one you come to after you research and apply your personnel requirements. The one with the greater number of pluses over minuses is the one you will want to drive.

[Clemson]

Originally Posted by Quicktrip

We are considering buying a 2013 Entegra Aspire 42RBQ. We have always owned Motorhomes with Freightliner Chassis. Would like opinions of the Spartan Chassis and the Entegra brand. Thanks

THIS IS A CLASSIC Ford vs Chevy question. I’ve owned both 2018 and 2022 Newmar Class A 43’ coaches. No difference IMO. The Freightliner have dozens of more service locations but other than that. No difference

[righellis]

Originally Posted by Quicktrip

We are considering buying a 2013 Entegra Aspire 42RBQ. We have always owned Motorhomes with Freightliner Chassis. Would like opinions of the Spartan Chassis and the Entegra brand. Thanks

We are on our 2nd Spartan chassis on a Newmar. Cannot compare to Freightliner as have never had one.

We have had no issues with service. We use a great mobil service here in in the Indio, CA area. The ride is supposed to be better on Spartan chassis, thus why we stayed with it. The one downside is there is a beam that runs the length of the vehicle that restricts how high we can stack stuff in the cargo bays with sliding trays.

[Steve 716]

Our Spartan chassis has held up very well so far. Access to filters, fill ports, chassis fuses, etc are all good. I did change my front shocks to Koni for a better ride and added a Safe-T-Plus for better steering. I also added the components for the Air Force One toad air brake system and it was fairly easy to add. My only issue has been needing two alignments in six years. While under warranty I had Spartan do all of my annual maintenance and they did a great job. I used the same mechanic each year and trusted his work. The few times I have needed to contact Spartan support they have been a great help.

You might want to consider attending “Spartan School” Entegra specific classroom training. It is expensive but, for me and many others, has been worth the cost. https://www.spartanrvchassis.com/own...ning/rv-owner/

[ScottyRV]

I own a Fleetwood Revolution 40LE E, a beast weighing 32,000 pounds mounted on a Spartan chassis. I will just replicate what the inspector said to me: look... I have driven many many RVs of this age (2006) and this one is by far the smoothest ride I've ever had.

[Memphis]

Originally Posted by Quicktrip

We are considering buying a 2013 Entegra Aspire 42RBQ. We have always owned Motorhomes with Freightliner Chassis. Would like opinions of the Spartan Chassis and the Entegra brand. Thanks

I figure I would share our experience: We are new to owning a Spartan Chassis. We, formerly, had an Freightliner M2 Super-C. When shopping for our current Newmar Class A, we looked at several FL's and Spartans and ended up with a Spartan and believed it to be an upgrade as I do a lot of my own maintenance and having consumables accessible seemed to be an overall win. Having spent almost a year with our Spartan, one thing I can say against it is there is huge lack of options for getting service for it, over our Freightliner; being in rural Southern Illinois, our closest service center, technically is 70 miles away, but in actuality, after calling the truck center, they no longer participate as a Spartan service center, effectively making the next closest 130mi away; and after calling them, they only service coaches they sell, making the actual closest service center, capable of handling recalls 225 mi away. We have not had any chassis-related issues as we purchased an 18-month old coach that had already been through numerous recalls, however, there is a recall on our instrument cluster that I am unwilling to make a 400+ mi trip for (@ $5+/gal @ 7.5mpg) and haven't been able to time a service appointment to coincide with a trip through the service center's area to make that happen. This is a bit of a bummer as we are near the I-64/I-57 split and there are plenty of well-qualified heavy truck service centers that performed any/all recall and service-related work on our freightliner/cummins where none of them will do anything other than basic maintenance (oil change / filters/ etc) on our Spartan. If I had it to do over again with hindsight being what it is, I would still probably make the same purchase. But I would have had the previous owner take care of that last recall before I picked it up!

[dave&ginny]

Spartan used to be a good manufacturer but those days are gone. They don’t stand behind their product. Countless radiators leaked, purge tanks rusting out, def head issues and air conditioning lines not crimped correctly. Worst part is their inability to take responsibility until they’re forced.

[Douglee25]

Originally Posted by dave&ginny

Spartan used to be a good manufacturer but those days are gone. They don’t stand behind their product. Countless radiators leaked, purge tanks rusting out, def head issues and air conditioning lines not crimped correctly. Worst part is their inability to take responsibility until they’re forced.

Everything you just mentioned, Spartan doesn't even manufacture. They purchase it and install it on their chassis.

[Gary.Jones]

True, but that means that it is their choice to install those items on their coaches, and then either warrant the items (on their chassis) or act as the middle man between manufacturer and owner. Regardless, the product is theirs when it leaves Charlotte.

Gary