Camp Freightliner … We Survived

Wednesday, 10 July
En route to Cross Hill, South Carolina

Our two days in class passed in the blink of an eye.  At the moment, we are on our way to Cross Hill, South Carolina for a month-long stay at Lake Greenwood.  But that’s for another blog post.  Now that we’re on I-85 South, I have about 75 miles (120 km) in which to write about our chassis class.

Camp Freightliner is designed for RVers who have motorhomes built on FCCC chassis — in our case, an X-CR (pictured to the right).  By the way, FCCC stands for Freightliner Custom Chassis Corporation, which is owned by Daimler in Germany.

Attending Camp Freightliner was high on our list once we began fulltiming.  In fact, we initially scheduled it for March of this year.  When Mui’s sister announced that she would be in New Orleans in March, however, we shifted our plans around and re-scheduled for July instead.

The two-day class is held in Gaffney, SC … home of the only Freightliner-owned service center.  Our initial plan included having the Phaeton serviced and weighed here as well.  When we postponed the class to July, we canceled our service appointment to stay on track with our regular maintenance schedule.  We did keep the four-corner weighing appointment, which was taken care of in one of the six service bays while we were in class on Monday.

I’ll digress for a moment and admit that we had a bit of a scare when we got the weight results back and saw that we were slightly over our rear-axle limit.  Then we remembered that we had a full-tank of fresh water on board for our stay in Freightliner’s electric-only campground.  A full tank for us is 90 gallons, which equates to 750 pounds (340 kg) … not something we usually carry around.  Add to that some stuff that we had moved from the car into the rear of the coach, and that explained the overage.  We’re back to our normal weight now — phew!

On with the class …

The table and the floor around it has Mike Cody’s show-and-tell props.

The class ran from 8:00a to 4:30p on day one, and until 6:30p on day two — we had a lot of questions and wanted to make sure we reviewed the new annual maintenance lists before calling it quits.  The good news — no more M1-M2-M3 service for us; we’re on the new schedule.

Each day had a morning and an afternoon break, as well as a 30-minute lunch break — catered, in our case, from Firehouse Subs one day, and Zaxby’s Chicken the next day … both with very yummy chocolate chip cookies for dessert.  Dinner at the end of the first day was included in the cost of the class — BBQ chicken and pork with sides.  The cost: $175 for one; $225 for two if the co-pilot attends.

If you’re having service done, or if space is available, you can stay free at the service center campground on site for the duration of the class.  Otherwise, the KOA nearby gives a 10% discount to Camp Freightliner participants; shuttle service provided by Freightliner.  Since space was available, we stayed on-site for the three nights that we were there.

We joined eight rig-owners in the classroom.  All but three of the drivers were attending with their co-pilots, so we had a full class of 15 participants.  We had a mix of coaches — one other Tiffin, a couple of Winnebagos, Fleetwoods, and Thors, and a Newmar.  Model years ranged from 2006 to 2013; some with DEF, others without.

Each rig-owner received a generic binder, which we customized as we went through the material during class.  The binder included a section with pictures of just about everything to do with the chassis and whatever Freightliner installs on it before delivery to the builder — such as the engine, the dash, the wheels and tires, the shocks, the air system (which operates the brakes and suspension, etc.), and the fuel and DEF tanks.

Camp Freightliner instruction materials …
the keychain and “I Survived” pin were our graduation gifts.

We each also received a sheet with information specific to our vehicles (based on the VIN), such as: the actual build date for the chassis — important for the maintenance schedule; engine make/model; transmission make/model … and on and on.  We referred to this information throughout the class to customize our binders.

At the conclusion of the class, each rig-owner was given a CD with e-versions of the binder content.  Once we confirm that we do indeed have everything on the CD, we’ll recycle the binder.  After all, we don’t need the added weight of a couple hundred sheets of paper in the rig ;-)

The class is taught by Mike Cody.  If you have a Freightliner chassis, you’ve probably heard his name sung in high praise.  It’s well-deserved.  He is a walking encyclopedia for all things related to the chassis.  If I recall correctly, he’s been with Freightliner for 17 years.  Though Mike spent a chunk of years in California, his drawl (not to mention his humor) gives him away as a southerner.  All this came out quickly during the first part of day one, when we made the round of introductions.  His instruction style made the class fun — no dry and boring lecture here.

Mike and Mui talk about the coalescing filter maintenance requirements.

Following introductions on the first day, Mike went through a list of parts, and what he suggests every rig-owner should carry — whether you intend to use them yourself or have them handy in the event a technician doing work on your rig doesn’t have the right part (or the cost is exorbitant).  This is done early in the class so that any parts you wish to order can be brought over before the end of class on the second day.  Mui already had most of the things on Mike’s suggested carry-list, but we did order a few additional items.

Then Mike got into the meat of the material, and continued with it through day two.  As he discussed various aspects of the chassis, he pointed out who in class had similar components so that we could “chat” on our own later, and share tips and tidbits.  The discussion was punctuated with frequent questions from the students, and he patiently answered — and re-answered if warranted.  He took us through “Access Freightliner,” the website where owners can look up information on their rigs based on VIN number and find detailed schematics and parts information.  Mike also ran through an LBCU simulator to show us how to program it to meet our own needs — three years of owning the rig and we had no idea that the LBCU (light bar control unit [located in the dash]) was programmable!

Throughout the two days, Mike dropped useful hints to make us all better drivers.  From how to use the mode button effectively; to keeping the engine in optimum RPM range by downshifting for best fuel economy; to long idling in some states becoming a ticketable offense, and how to get around that if you do idle for more than 10 minutes … just to mention a few.

In researching Camp Freightliner, I’d read that some co-pilots opted not to attend, or left after sitting through a small portion of the class.  I’d also read that some co-pilots found the information overwhelming, or boring, or difficult to comprehend.  That had me a bit concerned at first.  Having been through the class now, I am glad I opted to attend the full session.  I can’t say that I “got” everything Mike explained.  I didn’t, and I wasn’t there to get it all; that would have been too overwhelming.  My goal was to have enough of a familiarity with the material to be able to carry on an intelligent conversation with my driver.  During class, I found that tuning out when Mike was talking about information not-specific to us, gave my brain a rest and I was more alert when he discussed specifics with us.

That Mui, as the primary driver, “got it” is what matters in the grand scheme of things.  He did comment when we were discussing the class last night that he’s glad he didn’t attempt to take the class before he had some hands-on familiarity with the coach.  By waiting to take it after owning the Phaeton for three years, he felt he “got” more out of Mike’s instruction.

Another graduation gift ;-)

To wrap up our Camp Freightliner experience …

It’s not that the information Mike shared with us is not available elsewhere.  It is … in owner’s manuals, websites, etc., etc.  But the class environment brought it all into one place, making it easier to find and use.  All of that was well worth the cost of the class!  As for the un-written tidbits that Mike shared with us … priceless.  Attending Mike’s class is well-worth the price of admission in our opinion, and we would recommend it to anyone who owns a rig built on an FCCC chassis.

You would think that after two days of all things Freightliner, we would be ready to high tail it out of dodge.  Not so.  After a good night’s rest, we got up this morning, prepared the coach for departure, and then locked it up and went off to do one last thing on our agenda — a free tour of the Freightliner plant a few miles down the road from the service center.  Not surprisingly, many of our classmates had the same idea.

Wearing our “new” uniforms, we felt at home at the Freightliner Plant.
Thanks for the t-shirts, Mike.

The plant in Gaffney has three production lines to build chassis for walk-in vans (think UPS, FedEx), school busses, and motorhomes.  Currently they are averaging 100 chassis per day, with capacity to increase should the number of units ordered warrant the hiring of additional techs.

After collecting our visitor badges and viewing the safety video, someone from the marketing staff took our group of 12 around the small plant, stopping periodically to explain over the din of production what we were seeing and answering our questions.  It was interesting to note that all the chassis rails are manufactured in Mexico.

The initial work on the chassis is done while it is upside down on the production line.  Once the under-chassis work is completed, it is lifted, rolled over in the air, and placed right-side up to complete the installation of such things as the engine, DEF tank, etc.  We were in time to watch the roll-over process and see several units come off the line in preparation for the next step — putting the chassis through rigorous testing in the dyno room (which is not part of the tour).

From the galvanized rails, I might guess that this is a UPS walk-in van being turned right-side up.
(No photography allowed inside the plant.)

The tour was interesting, and we’re glad we went.  Buuuuuuuut … having been through the Tiffin plant and paint shop tours, where you can wander on your own, take pictures, and talk to the techs to have questions answered, this tour fell a bit short of our expectations.  That said, the Tiffin tours are an anomaly, so we’re glad we spent the 1½ hours to check out the Freightliner plant to wrap up our Camp Freightliner experience.