The two MH's eagerly await their morning test drive
I’d heard about Henderson’s ages ago. Actually our very first week in the RV an old-timer in a Monaco told us that if ever we wanted to thoroughly trick-out our ride Henderson’s Line-Up in Grants Pass was the spot to do it. Since then I’ve seen their name on forums and a bunch of other spots. These guys are THE place to check, analyze and upgrade your RV ride whether it be a motorhome, truck or a trailer. In fact they’re the guys that train the other guys on how to do it, and they’d been on our “wish list” for quite some time.
Alex & Ellen in the pit with the tech
Now we’ve gone a bit bulky on our RV repair budget this year so getting a tricked-out ride as compelling and droolingly luscious as that would be, wasn’t exactly in the $$ count. But we WERE curious…..and it turns out Henderson’s provides an excellent little service for the likes of us, the Road Performance Assessment a complete go-through including 15-mile test drive, 4-corner weighing, and 50-point pit analysis of steering, tire wear & alignment, shocks, disc-brakes, drive-train and more for only $150.
Kenny checks the wheel track on our home
Although we weighed our rig (front/back totals) back when we first got it and have always been careful about maintaining our tires we’d never had 4-corner weigh (weighing each wheel individually) and that little perk together with the full analysis was enough to get us over to Henderson’s for the package. Add-in the bonus that Henderson’s offers a free hook-up (30Amp) for the night and WE WERE THERE!
Our 4-corner weighing
So, off we went. We spent a peaceful evening in the on-site hook-ups and woke bright and early for the 8AM drive-test. Our tech Kenny was a friendly and informative guy, patient enough to go through all our questions as well as invite us into the pit for the underneath analysis. Our overall grade was a very good one (1′s on almost everything) with good handling, good weighting (we’re within a few hundred pounds on each side), even tire tread wear and absolutely no leaks or seeps underneath. Our RV caravan buddies had a few small issues they needed to fix (one of which was critical and made the entire trip for them worthwhile), but were in good shape otherwise too.
The two rigs ready to enter the pit
After the review we got a bunch of info on potential safety upgrades (the Safe-T-Plus Bar), drive upgrades (Koni shocks being the gold standard together with sway-control bars) and even interesting info on stuff I’d never heard about (mercury balancing for wheels -> what a cool concept!). We declined the work this time around, but given the good feedback I’ve heard from others it’s pretty much ALL on our wish-list for the future. And in case you’re curious as to the cost of completely tricking out our ride to sail the road like a 30,000lb monster-smooth-mercedes? About $5K…not bad at all for a rig our size, and yet another reason to come back to Oregon.
On the test drive with Kenny
Paul discusses upgrade options with the owner
I grew up in Grants Pass! Which has no bearing on this post, lol, I was just so excited to see my hometown here.
Wish we had taken Mayhem here when we were home last… they might have been able to address some of those incessant issues for us.
Oh how cool! I knew you were from OR, but didn’t realize we’d hit your home town.
Nina
Damn! You guys have all the fun!
Hehe…yeah, this was definitely a fun stop! Nina
Great tip! Will put that on my list of stops when I head north. I found out the tires on my rig are 13 years old. OUCH! So will be budgeting for one new tire a month. Hello Slab City for savings for fix-its on this 21 year ol rig!
Ouch…..13 years is definitely an older tire (in tire-years
)
Hope you get the ‘ol rig up north. It’s a great ride!
Nina
We put the Safe-T-Plus on our motorhome and it really made a big difference in drive-ability.
GREAT to know. I wanted to read/hear more about the Safe-T-Plus before we installed it, but the product and demo info was very compelling. Good to know it really improved your ride! This will likely be top of our list for next year. Nina
Great blog, wish we had something like this in south Florida.
You would definitely have enjoyed this place. Your kind of techie visit!
Nina
Yahoo! That’s a target for us in the future! The 4-corner weighing is available at many of the bigger rallies, often at the Gypsy Journal eastern and western rallies, each year. We’ve paid about $50 for that. The first time we had it done, they told us we were heavy in the right rear, and we should lighten the load there. That’s where the built-in heat pump as well as the propane tank are located. Can’t move those guys. For a quick job you can do yourself, Oregon has permanent weigh stations on some of the back highways. They leave the scales turned on (or at least they used to) even when they aren’t open. We have pulled into one and driven around so each wheel, one at a time, is on the scale. It takes a few minutes, but it’s free!
What a FABULOUS tip! I’d never even thought of using those scales, but I see them all the time. Thanks for sharing that little idea!
Nina
Nina, In May 2010 we had Henderson’s put a Safe-T-Plus on our MH before our Alaska trip. What an improvement. A 600 mile day is now like a walk in the park! Great folks at Henderson’s.
Really great to hear the positive feed-back. The Safe-T-Plus is now on our “definite” list!
Nina