Travel Supreme Repair for Coaches and Full Paint Fifth Wheels

A fifth wheel front cap takes the worst of everything: road debris thrown by the tow vehicle, pin box loads transmitted into the structure behind it, and flex every time the rig articulates. On a Travel Supreme that cap was a low volume molding, and no replacement exists at any price.

So we repair it. Cracks are ground back to sound laminate, rebuilt with cloth and resin, faired and refinished. Where damage is extensive, we can take a mold off the sound portion of the panel and lay up a replacement section rather than trying to source one. That is real hours and it is the only honest path.

Owners of decaled trailers from the same era have a real problem: the graphic package is out of print and a modern substitute looks wrong. Travel Supreme owners escape that entirely, because the finish was paint. Paint can always be matched, mapped and reproduced regardless of what happened to the company that applied it.

The catch is age. A twenty year old painted surface has moved from its original formula, so matching is done against the panel rather than a code, with spray out cards confirmed in daylight. Upper surfaces frequently need clear replaced over a wider area than the damage, because blending into failing clear does not hold.

Select, Alante, Envoy and Classic coaches used Spartan and Freightliner chassis, both of which are still fully supported. That means suspension, brake, steering and air system work behaves normally, with published dimensions available for rack setup and parts arriving on commercial timelines.

House systems are equally serviceable, because appliances, generators and slide hardware came from suppliers who are still in business. The orphaned portion is strictly the coach shell: caps, skins, glass and moldings. Splitting the estimate along that line gives owners a realistic view of what is fast and what is slow.

These fifth wheels were heavy for their era, and the mounts that carry that weight have now been cycling for two decades. Landing gear mount fatigue shows as a crack in the frame web near the leg, sometimes hidden behind an underbelly panel. Pin box wear shows as movement you can feel at the hitch.

We inspect and repair those as structure, welding to the original section rather than plating over a crack. Underbelly panels come off for access, because a fatigue crack found from underneath is a repair while the same crack found after it propagates is a frame job.

A written estimate is $150, credited in full when the repair is authorized. Body, mold and refinish work bills at $210 per hour. Mechanical work is $260. Sourcing and diagnostics is $285 per hour with a one hour minimum. Deposits are 50 percent over $2,000, with a further 25 percent at parts arrival over $10,000.

OCRV Center is an independent shop and never had any connection to Travel Supreme. Everything happens in shop at Yorba Linda. On an orphaned unit that is essential, since taking a mold off a damaged cap and laying up a section are both building operations rather than field operations.