Safari Motor Coaches Repair on an Orphaned Oregon Built Chassis

Safari built its own Magnum chassis on the earlier Oregon coaches. After Monaco acquired the brand, later units moved to Roadmaster rails. Either way the outcome today is identical: no current chassis maker lists the components, and specification has to be established by measurement.

We work suspension, steering and brake sourcing the same way on both. Identify the part, record dimensions and ratings, then find a current equivalent or fabricate the bracket that holds it. Sourcing hours are billed as diagnostic time rather than hidden in a body line, because that is what they actually are.

The Trek was Safari's compact diesel pusher, and its signature feature was a bed that lifted over the sofa to free floor space. That mechanism is unique to the coach, uses parts nobody stocks, and is the most common non collision job we see on these units.

Repair means measuring the geometry, rebuilding or fabricating the lift components, and re establishing the travel limits so the bed does not load the ceiling structure it hangs from. It is mechanical work at $260 per hour, and it is worth doing on a coach an owner intends to keep, because the alternative is losing the feature that made them buy it.

These coaches wore full body paint, so the good news is there is no discontinued decal kit involved. Repair is refinish work: match each stage to the aged surface, re cut the graphic geometry from the undamaged side, blend into adjacent panels. Upper surfaces on coaches that lived outdoors in Southern California usually need clear replaced across a larger area than the damage itself.

The laminate is the harder part. A bond that released around a slide or window opening years ago spreads quietly, and by the time it shows as a bubble the affected area is substantial. We sound the panel to map it, then open only what needs opening.

We turn down work on these coaches occasionally, and the reason is almost always accumulated water rather than the collision that prompted the call. A coach with wet framing along a full sidewall, soft compartment floors and a released bond over several bays is a rebuild, and a rebuild on a coach of this age rarely returns the money spent.

When that is the picture we document it with photographs and moisture readings and hand you the file, whether you are paying or a carrier is. An owner who decides to sell an intact coach is better served than one who authorizes a teardown that ends in a settlement.

Everything starts with a $150 written estimate that is credited in full if you authorize the repair. Body and refinish work is $210 per hour, mechanical work $260, sourcing and diagnostics $285 with a one hour minimum. Deposits are 50 percent over $2,000, with a further 25 percent at parts arrival on jobs over $10,000.

OCRV Center is independent and has no relationship with Monaco, REV Group or the former Safari organization. All work is performed in shop at Yorba Linda. On an orphaned coach that is the only way it can be done, since fabrication, laminate and booth work all live in the building.