COUNTRY COACH BUILD PROCESS: DynoMax-The Proprietary Chassis of Country Coach

From the chassis to the house, Country Coach motorcoaches were developed with Safety, Function, and Design in mind. Before Country Coach, LLC closed in 2009, Carolyn Gsell, then custom coach manager, took a walk through the Country Coach manufacturing plants for a bottom to top, outside and in, look at what makes a Country Coach stand out as first in its class even now over  three years later out on the highways and byways. At my request, she put her thoughts on the CC build process on paper for future inclusion in the Destinations magazine. 

Here I take a look back at those notes and again I realize again the care and attention that went into the custom-tuned, proprietary DynoMax Chassis. 

Again, thanks to Carolyn Gsell for the information which follows.

The foundation of every Country Coach (with the exception of Prevost Conversions) was the DynoMax Chassis.  A look at the steel structure is telling. The massive framework of welded tubular steel with 8 x 3 frame rails will withstand almost any brute force that it comes up against.  But ultimately what owners of a Country Coach experience is the incredible ride and handling attributes when driving down the highway, and its nimbleness when faced with tight turning areas in campgrounds and in-town driving.  So how did the engineers at Country Coach marry ruggedness with driveability?  The surface answer goes back to the company’s basic engineering principle – Safety, Function, & Design.

…The Chassis designers went to work to develop a steel structure of unsurpassed strength and durability. Utilizing high strength tubular steel they welded together to create the steel cage (the basement, if you will). They next welded the cage to massive 3” x 8” tubular steel frame rails.  With this structure in place, Country Coach could utilize the highest horsepower engines on a chassis that could absorb the sheer power and torque that such big engines generate.  This meant they chose not to use C channel steel (imagine tubular steel that is missing its widest side, hence the “C” shape).  They could have employed an easier, quicker process of bolting the steel together, rather than fusing the steel with high grade welds… but the didn’t.  A fiberglass coach has the roof, walls and floors connected somehow to the chassis.  CC engineers had to figure a way to integrate these separate house components with the chassis so that it could be fully integrated for the coach to safely travel the road.  Chassis engineers built cross bracing into the steel cage structure, properly spaced openings for storage and other components, evenly distributed weight of components, and designed a laminated floor for the house that fully integrated into the chassis structure. The result was a semi-monocoque design where the house came together with the chassis for a motorhome of superior strength and stability.

Another critical aspect of the DynoMax design is the suspension system.  Engineers determined that the Independent Front Suspension (IFS) was a crucial component contributing to the smooth drive of a motorhome.  From this standpoint, safety and comfort points stack up with the use of DynoMax’s Independent Front Suspension with its double wish-bone construction.  The IFS design allows one front wheel to react to an impact independent of the other front wheel; and a major reduction in road stress achieved…The other feature of the suspension was Country Coach’s approach to airbag size and positioning.  Country Coach recognized that if they mounted the airbags farther apart, as in outboard mounted airbags, your coach could have the feel of a race car suspension.  The DynoMax difference is to mount large volume air bags inboard of the wheels.  The size and positioning, in combination with the weight of the coach, provides the luxurious ride that owners love in their t Country Coach.  Further stabilizing the ride, Country Coach engineers supplied plenty of on-demand air from strategically placed air canisters to the air bags, so that as your coach makes its way around corners and deep curves, the instantaneous delivery of air to one side makes up for movement on the opposing side.  Now add the IPD anti-sway bar and all factors add up to one of the best driving motorcoaches ever built.

DynoMax chassis elements that contributes to your personal safety and comfort are many.  Note the massive “firewall”, the plate of steel to which your brake and accelerator pedals are mounted, and which also in conjunction with fiberglass dash and fiberglass front cap creates a barrier between you, sitting in the driver and copilot seat, and the world beyond your front bumper.  Notice the wide entry area between the firewall and your co-pilot’s seat.  This distance, in combination with the steel firewall and steel cage structure below, adds monumental protection in the unlikelyevent of a head-on collision.  As one testimonial to this, back in 2003 a Country Coach driver was delivering a Country Coach to an industry show.  He found himself in the midst of a sandstorm. With his visibility obscured, he ran into a semi truck while traveling at 40 mph.  The driver walked away from that accident uninjured and the coach was returned to Country Coach for repairs. Now that is a great testament to safety! 

Once the entire frame with axle assemblies was welded together, the chassis was taken to a special paint booth where rust inhibitive paint was applied around every bit of steel that makes up the structure.  While the process is important to protecting the steel, Country Coach took this one step further.  Most chassis manufacturers utilize an assembly line approach, with the paint application being the final step.  At Country Coach, builders took the time to pull the frame out of its station, take it to the paint booth, and then move it into another short assembly line where the drive train was installed.  Open up the engine access doors of a competitor’s product and you may see paint overspray on the engine, transmission or hose lines.  By taking the time to paint the frame prior to installing drive train components, it’s unlikely you’d ever see this on a Country Coach.  Note: As a special note regarding the special black rust inhibitor applied to the chassis, sheet metal and angled iron used at that time was not available from the suppliers with the zinc oxide process. So thees areas are more susceptible to rust (wheel wells, battery bay, propane bay, service center). NOTE: A preventative care step is to give a good thorough powerwashing of the coach undercarriage after each trip to help prevent rusting in those susceptible areas. This is also a good idea simply to remove road grime/road surface treatments the chassis undercarriage may have picked up enroute (like salting chemicals used in winter months). Now...back to the chassis info. 

After the chassis frame is painted, it was moved to the drive train assembly area.  Installers and assemblers with engine/transmission hoists installed the power plant that makes your coach move down the road.  When it comes to engines and transmissions, Country Coach utilized only the most powerful power plants on the road.  The line up of heavy duty engine/transmission combinations boasts horsepower and torque curves that gave each motorhome the boost needed for climbing hills or navigating our nation’s superhighways.

While the engine installation was in progress, the wire harnesses, brake fluid lines, heater hoses and air lines were laid down in the channel between the two main frame rails.  To prevent chaffing of hoses and conduit against metal, strips of neoprene line the rails upon which the wires and hoses rest. This procedure greatly reduces the amount of friction and assures the integrity of the lines.  So that your bays look clean and attractive, the lines are covered with removable cargo panels so that they are accessible for any possible trouble shooting or repairs.  Batteries on convenient pull-out trays, filters, air tanks, brake and accelerator pedals – basically everything necessary to the function and maintenance of the chassis, are installed and hooked up at this time.  The initial set up for the plumbing bay was also started in this area.  The insulated floor was installed, and the holding tanks were mounted in place.

And speaking of heavy duty, weight distribution plays a key roll in how comfortable you feel when driving your coach, and also plays into safety.  An unbalanced load would make driving a motorhome  challenging at best.  Country Coach engineers paid close attention to creating the right balance at the basement level of your coach, through careful placement of holding tanks, the fuel tank and other chassis components. To that end, you’ll find in most Country Coach chassis designs, the fuel tank located directly rearward of the front wheels, and spanning curbside to driver side, with the bonus convenience of allowing diesel fuel to be pumped on either side of the coach. Just forward of your drive wheels is one large bay for all the fresh, black and gray holding tanks – again, weight balanced side to side.  With the lower weight distributed in accordance with axle carrying capacities, engineers designed the bay storage in between the front and rear so that you, the owner, can load up your provisions knowing that the proper weight balance has already been 98% achieved by the inherent design and placement of the chassis bays.

Let’s not forget about towing – DynoMax chassis are rated for towing.  With high tow weight ratings, owners have a wide range of options for what they may choose to tow, without the limitations that many other RV’s put on their towing capacities.

CC engineers went the extra mile in this chassis design by adding a layer of neoprene, which acts as a vibration dampening material, on the underside of the engine deck floor, with continuous strips of this same material being applied forward of this area on the upper side of all the chassis steel rails.  Most other RV manufacturers choose not to take the time to add this material.  It is another of the differences that you’ll find throughout the Country Coach build process that makes Country Coach stand out ahead of every other motorcoach  in its class.

These chassis features add up to create the luxurious smooth ride that one experiences driving a Country Coach. One testimonial on that smooth ride was shared in a 2005 issue of CC Destinations. An owner of a 2002 Affinity once rested a pocket knife curved side down on the belt molding of the driver side slide room.  Not remembering he had left it there, he and his wife departed from the campground complete with speed bumps, navigated a steep grade and large chuckhole, and then traveled another 128 miles where they stopped at another RV park.  The next day, the coach owner found his knife still sitting in the same exact location where he had left it (that story, “The Little Kershaw Knife that Could”, appeared on page 64, Autumn 2005 Destinations Magazine).

If your were to ask any manufacturer of a motorcoach how they test their chassis, they may describe the initial design and testing when the chassis model was first designed, or they may describe the road test that they perform on their newly manufactured units.  Nobody tests a motorhome, and in particular the chassis, the way it was done at Country Coach.  Before each chassis is put into production, it was taken to the Dynocenter, where the chassis was chained down and the engine hooked up to a Dynomometer.  Before the Dyno Test began, quality auditors closely inspected welds, wiring, hose connections and bolt torques to insure that every chassis component was correctly assembled.  Once done, with the use of 7000 lbs of water delivering force to steel drums that allowed the drive wheels to work against a load, the chassis was “started” from an enclosed room overlooking the test area.  By putting the drive train through the paces, Country Coach evaluated the data to make sure that the horsepower output of the engine matched the manufacturer’s specifications.  If anything came up during this process that was suspicious, it was immediately corrected and if necessary, the chassis was “dyno’d” one more time. The Dyno program was in place from 2001 until the company closed in 2009 and the rigorous Dyno process further assured the quality and integrity of your DynoMax chassis.

And there you have it, one aspect of the Country Coach Motorcoach difference… 

And the great news is that you can still purchase pre-owned Country Coaches across the nation at select dealers, two of which I recommend are Premier RV Services and Country Coach Corporation, both located in Junction City, Oregon. And if you are a lucky owner of a Country Coach, there are businesses who specialize in upgrades, renovations and repairs to your coach. Many are good friends of mine, Bob Lee and Pat Mason, co-owners of Oregon Motorcoach Center; Ron Lee of Country Coach Corporation; Gary Obermire and Louie Courtemanche of Premier RV Services…the list goes on. My Country Coach friends may always feel free to contact me with questions regarding service and parts resources, and anything Country Coach!  I am their greatest fan….in fact, I currently have my fingers in THREE upcoming 2012 rallies, one in Alabama, one in Michigan, and one right next to the factory where every Country Coach was built! See http://www.countrycoachfriendsincorporated.com/ to learn more.

The love affair with all things Country Coach, the lifelong friendships with Country Coach owners, and the passion to promote Country Coach rallies just NEVER gets oldJ

Do consider joining me at a rally somewhere up the road…I’ll be the one bussing tables, and flitting hither and yon, attending to rally attendees rally experience. LOL!

Til next time, Safe Travels, my Friends,

--Sherry