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Getting there
Pam and I just returned from Commonwealth Coach with the bus. We are finnaly making strides to get ready for our trip out of DC.
On this trip we had all new airbags installed and new tires mounted. We also had 2 new Atwood water heaters and drain solinoids installed. The Airbags that were on the bus were originals from 98. Needless to say they were well past due replacement. Our tires were just hitting the 5 year mark. I was hesitant to replace them as all looked great on the outside and had great tread. I took the advice Jon made on this site:Don’t drive on old tires! Turns out all of my tires had cracks inside. They were
starting to dry rot. I really was amazed to see such nice looking tires turn
out to be ready for recycle.Next trip down the bus gets new side marker lights. We will
install the RF Mogul Satellite system and replace the computer bay fans. Pam
wants a new Whirlpool refrigerator and jackknife couch. We’ll install them
& do a full service right before we leave.IF all goes well, this fall we’ll head north to New England
and explore the northeast. Once frost sets in, we will beat feet to Texas. -
16 Replies
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Chip: How long have you owned the coach? Did you know the air bags were original to the coach?
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Dick
We bought the bus in 2014 from a gentlemen named Bill R, from Hickory N.C. There was no record of the bags being replaced. Chuck said the bags were perished and that they were from 1998. I trust Chuck and suspect he saw a date time stamp on them. I was not able to see the bags as they were already in the dumpster. I did inspect the tires and saw the cracks and dryrot.
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Chip this is a good and important post for anyone looking to buy their first Prevost. Your coach was riding on air bags almost 20 years old … how long is a bag good for? I’m sure Jon will jump in shortly and tell us.
Chip knows what the labor and materials cost for new bags all around. If the air bags were almost 20 years old … how old were other coach components that time out?
You boys and girls looking for your first Prevost … please take Chip’s post to heart and put it in context to your search!
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I do take it seriously and I’m not even all that smart. Chip if you don’t mind my corrupting your thread I’d like to ask a question based on what can get you killed if it’s not right? These should be at minimum the things newbies buying 1998 Prevost needs to know? An inverter going out won’t kill you unles our dear wives rig it direct to us, something mine is more than capable of!So Chip, is it ok I ask right here and now… when I buy my 1998, 99, 2000 coach, what do I need to make sure is right that would otherwise enhance the chances of catastrophic possibilities? We know some of them like tires, but what are all of them?
Thanks guys, for me this is a big deal as I’m easing into my first coach!
HJ
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What works for me as a replacement schedule might not work for everyone.
As has been mentioned some air bags will serve well for a long time, or they may fail in a short time. Prevost is silent on a replacement schedule for them probably because there is no hard and fast rule regarding their lifespan.
The same holds true for a lot of other components that rely on rubber parts to work properly.
The things that we mention often are brake chambers, air bags, tires, Norgren valves and batteries. But there are numerous other components that can age out such as relay valves as one example, or hoses or belts.
When I picked 10 years as when I want to replace my air bags it was because there were three of us who had failures at around that time in service. Mine had one steel bottom can rust through and it leaked down as a result. Another member had severely cracked air bags where they rolled over the “piston” and as a result he had the leans. The third was one that just burst. All were in the vicinity of 10 years old so that became my standard.
I had a brake chamber diaphragm fail on a 7 year old brake chamber so I picked 5 years as my target replacement age. At about 10 years I had Norgrens starting to leak so I rebuilt them, then shortly after they started leaking again so I just picked 10 years for them.
The tire age is from the web sites of the various tire manufacturers and after last month’s seminar at Michelin I am more convinced than ever that 6 or 7 years is the absolute upper limit. That is reinforced by the fact that if I squeeze more time out of a tire and it fails while driving I not only have a tire ot buy at a very expensive price, I may end up making big dollar repairs to my coach.
My 5 year battery life is the direct result of having a chassis battery set fail at 6 years with no warning so I just picked 5 years and I am cautious about keeping them maintained.
My point is I was influenced by many factors in developing my standards for replacement and since each of us uses coaches differently and has different environmental factors that influence the age of our components we have to set our own schedules. I do know I would rather throw out perfectly good parts than have to deal with trip ending roadside failures.
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HJ
I trust Jon on what he stated. The experiance on this site is where i am learning my limits. I started reseaching the bus about a year prior to CINC House approval. We bought the coach in 2014. We love it.
As for your questions, what are the biggies, mine are:
1-Tires —- the no brainer. As the commercial says ‘Everything is riding on ’em’
2 – Suspension —– our bus front suspension done by Prevost Jax when we got it. The alignment took out the sloppy wheel play and i lost my fear of passing and being passed. If you cannot track properly while driving, you’ll end up sawing on the wheel. Its not fun and not safe. Lord help you if have to take emergency action, you are barely in control. 27 tons at 60 mph needs to be able to steer safely
3- electrical —– we had the heart freedom inverters. About 2 years ownership we had one inverter gobad. It started overheating the cheapo fan we had on the vanity. It was causing low volts and high amps. it would have burned up if my wife had not checked the back as we left the shop. 2 new magnums and we are happy campers
There are more items, like anything else they are subjective. Everyone has their own big ticket items. Those are mine. I have other items but toilets, roof seals and HVAC and plumbing vents are not as importants as those 3 i mentioned.
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Here are air bags 15 years old….a hint of what can not be seen with bag installed.
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None of us knows how long anything on our coaches will last so the best we can hope for is that we maintain them according to a schedule and that we get a good service life as a result. I think we can all agree with proper maintenance we can expect decades of use from our drivetrain. But we also can expect some of the components we rely on will not go for decades before failure. Al’s photos are pretty clear in showing there are things we rely on that need our attention.
Every one of us is going to employ some risk versus reward analysis and we will range in our approach to maintenance from anal to devil-may-care. Except for some very simple things that cost nothing we can expect to spend some money to buy peace of mind. The simple things are things such as keeping tire pressures where they need to be and draining air tanks to insure there is no moisture and the check and protection valves are functioning. The not so simple or cheap things are changing tires or air bags.
Every now and then we will get a surprise. A relay could go bad, a switch may fail or a fitting may leak air. But almost all the time we get clues before something has a total failure. As owners we just have to be aware of all that is going on and I am confident if we try to deal with little problems quickly we are going to be far better off than if we let the small stuff go ignored or pile up.
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Really great advice!
Hey Chip, Is your coach a 40 or 45? Was it your first coach or did you have a plastic one before? I ask because I’d love to know your driving reaction when you first took a bus on the road vs plastic?
BTW what does it cost to replace airbags? And it should be done about every 15 years?
HJ
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The price of air bags depends on the vintage of coach.
They are on sale now and a late 90’s XL probably can be outfitted with air bags for about $1200 plus about 8 hours labor. I would guess $2500 will cover it, but I also know at one time Prevost wanted about $4400 for that work so it pays to shop.
Prevost sells air bags cheaper than anyone on the planet. It just seems they make their money with the installation cost.
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wow, that’s pretty reasonable money for the piece of mind you get and how long they last. That works out to like $260. 00 a year! Really cheap especially when you factor in an accident because of it. Priceless!!!
HJ
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Brake chambers and rubber brake lines and new Norgrens and ride height valves.With updated DOT compression fittings. Proper working Jake brake or transmission retarder. Tyron steer tire safety bands ( I hope i never have to test them ) And a good TPMS that has alerts. Also place new shocks when doing air bags.
Safe travels,
Rocky -
My first coach was in service about 21 months when I bought it, but I didn’t have to do anything to it because of its age. I owned it for 15 years and over that time eventually replaced just about everything once, some things more than once. All of the things we discussed above plus brake linings, radiator, alternator, and the engine was rebuilt because a head got a crack between two of the valves.
My second coach was a 97 I bought in 04, but with no records available I zeroed it out, meaning I replaced all of the stuff mentioned above including every filter plus all fluids. I started with the items I determined were important (fluids and filters) and then went through the list in order of what I thought would cause the most grief if it failed on the road. I did the work over the first year I had the coach. When I got done all I had to do was the occasional oil change for the next 5 years. What I learned from part failures on the first coach defined my maintenance so when the second coach came along and I zeroed it out I had no on the road surprises.
I continue that with my current coach and when I have the air bags and Norgrens replaced this summer it will have had everything zeroed out and I suspect it will continue to be reliable.
When I had the first coach there was no exchange of information as we have today with the internet. We couldn’t compare notes with other owners and we ended up gaining experience just after we needed it.
It may sound like preaching when we talk about things to maintain, replace, or service but we now have the benefit of at least a couple of thousand owners on this site who are willing to share their knowledge so newer owners no longer have to find out the hard way about things to fix or replace before they become an issue.
BTW, air bags to me are far more important than brake chambers. No matter what wheel a failed brake chamber is at it can be caged or otherwise taken from service so we can drive to a location of our choice for replacement. An air bag that has burst at the best will only allow us to limp slowly to a safe spot or nearby service because the bus goes down at that point of failure and we risk undercarriage damage by driving. For those who are OK with pressing the life of air bags at the very least learn how to use the level low to stop the air leak so all air systems can operate at normal pressure.
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Just a quick point on airbags. Our coach is a 2000 on a 1999 Prevost shell. When we replaced the airbags last year, they had a 1998 date on them, so original airbags may be two years older than the converter year. Our airbags had no visible cracks like in Al’s pictures, but I heeded Prevost and Jon’s advice and replaced them. BTW, cost January last year at Prevost Ft Worth was $2756.
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Jon RE: “learn how to use the level low to stop the air leak so all air systems can operate at normal pressure.”
Please explain the “level low”? If it’s too involved, if you could point me to a website to read about it would be great!
HJ
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