General question: Time Spent on Maintenance?

[Longwell]

Since we don't have any experience fulltiming, April has a question I can't answer.
She would like to know how much time is spent (and how it is broken down, like hours daily, weekly, monthly, etc.) performing routine maintenance on your Montana. Any reasonable estimate will suffice.
After reading the forum, it appears that there is a lot of routine maintenance frequently required, but that may be just because it is a subject area on the forum (?).
We pretty well know the maintenance required for the Tow Vehicle, but need some input on the Montana side.
(It may help her if it could be compared to routing maintenance on a stick home, but that may not be possible.)
We know that modifications/additions are a separate category so don't count them, OK? (Sorry Ozz )
This subject has her worried that too much of our time, just about every day, will be spent maintaining the Montana.
Your real-life experiences in this area will be very helpful.
I hope this is a reasonable request. If not, just let me know.
Thanks.
Larry

[bncinwv]

Larry,
I am definitely not experienced enough to answer your question fully, but I can say that in our first eight months of ownership with about 12 weeks of residing in the Montana, the only maintenance I have had to do is cleaning the front cap twice, about an hour each time, constantly rearranging the basement area, another hour each time, and filling the propane bottles once. I do check lug torque before pulling each time since it is new (Definitely a good habit to get into). So, based on all this, I would say your first year or two should be relatively maintenance free. I do not consider DW constantly cleaning to be maintenance, but I would venture to say that she probably does!!! Sorry I can't help you more, but I feel confident others will chip in.
Bingo

[noneck]

Bingo's items are good. Add the following;
Once a year pull all wheels and drums to clean, repack bearing, check adjust brakes.
Periodically, drain and check water heater anode...I do once a year during winterizing.
Inspect and clean fridge and AC condensor coils.
Check slide rails and relube dependant on use (Monthly, Quarterly).
Check battery water levels Quarterly.
Inspect roof seal locations for cracking Yearly or when your up there.
Not sure I got them all...but not worried others will correct me if I errored.

[Mrs. CountryGuy]

Time compared to a stick built, our experience, much less. One of the GREAT attractions to full timing is lower maintenance time. Just think, no lawn cutting, snow blowing, or weeding the flower beds. Add those hours up each week/month.

My housecleaning time is reduced significantly as well. I guarantee I cannot clean my almost 2000 sq ft stick built as fast as I can clean Tana. I can clean Tana from top to bottom in a matter of hours, no way with that big stick built. And cause I love Tana so much, I tend to do it more frequently and loveingly.

[richfaa]

That is hard to answer Larry. As a CDL holder and bus driver I do a "pre trip inspection" before every trip. I do a "walk around" every time we stop for fuel or whatever. That is all routine maint. Just had the wheels pulled and brakes checked..do that once a year.I am under it and over it on a regular basis. IMO the camper requires MORE maint than the stick house..a different kind of maint but more because of the hard use the camper takes traveling down the road. Check all fittings, connections, pipes, wiring and do it often.

[Mrs. CountryGuy]

Rich,

You make a very good case, Al and I do walk arounds and checking as a matter of fact, it has become such a part of our normal life/behavior, I guess we don't consider it "maintenance".

As an example:

It only takes 2 minutes to check to see that the spare tire is tight in its holder. Longer if we find a problem, is the problem loss of air in the tire, or do we need to tighten the holder. Al does it several times a year.

[Montana Sky]

For me the inside gets dusted, vacuumed, windows and floors washed once a week just like the stick house. Time it takes me to do the coach--2 hours. The outside gets a bath with wash-n-wax once every two to three weeks. If I am on the road, the nose gets washed once I arrive to a campground where I will be staying more than a few days. The roof gets washed once a month or every other exterior washing of the coach. Total time for me to wash the coach from top to bottom: 3 to 4 hours. The rest of the coach gets inspected as I set up or break down camp. Like Rich,I have a pretrip inspection as well as a visual walk around inspection when stopping for fuel or potty--takes less than 5 minutes. I also check the tire pressure on the truck and coach before pulling out, have yet to find any of my tires below 80 psi on the coach. Also during my pretrip walk around I check lights, blinkers, and overall appearance of running gear. Brakes and bearings are checked and adjusted once per year. Hitch is visually inspected every time I unhook the coach. Overall, my "inspections" before and during the trip take me less than 30 minutes.

[crandallbradley]

The old stick house I lived in was MORE work.

[simonsrf]

We spend about the same amount of time on maintenance that a stick house owner would cutting their lawn.

[boylanag]

I agree with the others. Maintenance is done "regularly" when traveling but it is done, as Carol says, so that it doesn't even seem like maintenance. A walk around when stopping and a general tightening when stopped. Wash the cap when arriving at a campground and general washing when time is available. This is not generally time consuming or even uncomfortable - it just is done as part of our "longtimer" life. It almost seems habitual. I probably do more maintenance on the Monty than on the stick house but, then, we have a condo so there goes some of the maintenance that others may have. - Jim