MEDIC Addresses Problems Encountered with Terra Star Chassis

Mecklenburg EMS Agency (Medic) is the EMS provider for all 540 square miles of Mecklenburg County, North Carolina including the city of Charlotte. The Agency has a fleet of 72 ambulances, 64 of which provide ALS coverage while the other 8 are dedicated to non-emergency transports. Two years ago Medic began transitioning its ALS fleet to ambulances built on the Dodge 5500 chassis. Thirty such vehicles have already been introduced into the system; the remaining 34 vehicles date back to model year 2012 and are built on the Terra Star chassis by Navistar. Last year Medic started to notice a trend developing among the agency’s older Terra Star chassis. Engine issues were increasing in frequency and common themes were developing. When two engines from vehicles purchased in the same model year required premature replacement within months of each other, it was apparent something was very wrong. It didn’t take much research to find a number of articles depicting issues being experienced by customers operating chassis manufactured by Navistar. The issues all seemed to stem from what was deemed to be a faulty emissions system design. The more research done by the agency’s Fleet Supervisor, the more familiar stories popped up about defective diesel particulate filters, fuel in the engine oil, broken rocker arms, and failed compression tests. Medic’s fleet department consists of five master mechanics, each of which has thousands of hours of experience maintaining and repairing Ter...
Source: JEMS Operations - Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: Tags: Ambulances & Vehicle Ops News Source Type: news