[77newell]

Regarding my 77 coach there are two different answers; one for the chassis and one for the house part. Getting parts for the chassis has been little problem though occasionally due to age it has required some research to figure out the exact part number that is applicable. Getting work done on 2-stroke Detroit Diesels has been a bit more of an issue since it has been about 20 years since they were last produced for over-the-road service. My solution has been to check on the experience with these engines if a mechanic is going to do work. I have done most of my own work so this has not come up very often.

On the house side, the older coaches have relatively simpler systems and getting parts has again required some research but I've never run into an "impossible to find" part. In terms of service personnel I've needed very little and on those occasions that I did need help I was easily able to find capable people.

One of the themes you may have noticed in my answers is that our coach has been largely self-serviced rather than hiring people. This has significant economic consequences. The older the coach the more things wear out or age out. Most of these are not huge but if you pay someone to fix them the cost is considerable.

At a minimum if you are going to hire repairs done I would strongly suggest you substantially hone your troubleshooting skills so that the repair person is just doing the repair and not spending oodles of time figuring out what is needed. Even a skilled service person can easily spend far more time finding the item with the defect that fixing and if their troubleshooting skills are weak you will end up paying for a lot of stuff that had no effect.