Dade City North is a small place on a busy road. The census-designated place covers about 1.8 square miles directly north of Dade City, it had 3,002 residents in 2020, and the US 98 and US 301 corridor runs straight through it. It is unincorporated Pasco County, but everyone here uses a Dade City mailing address. RDI Power repairs diesels for Dade City North owners and businesses at our shop in Brooksville, and our mobile technicians cover the trucks that cannot leave.
The old juice plant beside Dade City North
The Lykes-Pasco plant stood on US 301 at the north edge of Dade City, by Lock Street and Blanton Road. Roadside America describes it as having once been the largest juice processing plant in the world. The plant closed in 2004, and Jim Guedry bought it the next year. His company, JDR Investments, now owns the property as the Dade City Business Center, the former home of the Pasco Beverage Plant. A 2006 report said part of the old plant housed his Citrus County Groves packing house and retail store, and in 2017 Superior Precast moved into about 63,000 square feet there to supply precast concrete for Florida DOT road projects, with a target of about 100 jobs.
That reuse sums up the change at this end of town, from citrus processing to light industry. Tractors and heavy straight trucks get their own page, semi truck repair in Dade City North.
Dade City North’s stretch of US 98 and 301
Since US 98 was extended in 1952, the stretch of the US 98 and 301 multiplex from Trilacoochee down to Clinton Heights has filled with independent farms, restaurants, garages and motels. In Dade City North the highway is the main street. Lock Street and Blanton Road mark the north edge of the city, where County Road 578 ends at US 98 and 301, and Pioneer Museum Road heads east off US 301 to the Pioneer Florida Museum, a mile north of Dade City. Pasco-Hernando State College’s East Campus is close by on Blanton Road, inside the Dade City limits.
The community skews young, with a 2020 median age of 31.4, and the Census counts all of it as urban, which sets it apart from the older, rural communities strung along US 98 to the north.
The drive from Dade City North to Brooksville
Head north on US 98 out of Dade City North, through Trilby to SR 50 at Ridge Manor, then west on Cortez Boulevard into Brooksville. From the middle of the community, that is about 24 road miles and 35 minutes. A healthy truck makes it easily. A truck that is overheating, losing oil pressure, derating or refusing to start should stay put, and our mobile diesel repair page for Dade City North explains how a technician gets to it.
Diesel work for Dade City North trucks and vans
We repair light, medium and heavy duty diesels: Power Stroke, Duramax and Cummins pickups, the Nissan Titan XD, Sprinter vans, chassis cabs and box trucks, buses, diesel pushers and Class 8 tractors with Cummins, Detroit, Volvo and Caterpillar engines. RDI Power is Caterpillar certified and employs ASE certified technicians, and our Ford specialist spent more than 30 years at a Ford dealership.
Most visits start with one of a handful of systems. Fuel injection problems show up as hard starts, smoke or rough running, and we handle them as a Bosch dealer with Alliant Power fuel injection parts. Turbochargers stick or leak boost. Cooling systems lose coolant to radiators, water pumps and EGR coolers. Emissions hardware, the DPF, regen and EGR side, sets warning lights and derates. Glow plugs and electrical faults round out the list. The full scope is laid out on our diesel service and repair page.
Diagnosis and the paper trail for a Dade City North repair
Every job starts with finding the cause. We talk through the symptom, connect dealer-level software such as Ford IDS or WiTECH, and test the suspect system directly. Before you approve anything, a digital vehicle inspection arrives with photos and notes, so you see the cracked hose or the leaking injector for yourself. The repair fixes the root cause, and the labor is warrantied for 3 years or 36,000 miles.
Just south, the county seat has its own set of pages, starting with diesel repair in Dade City. For a truck in Dade City North, call (352) 433-3800 and say where it is parked and what it is doing; we will help you choose between driving in, towing in and a technician visit.