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Looking for new bus
HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONEEVERYONE.
This is our very first post in a Prevost forum.
My name is Jeff and my wife’s name is Barb.
This post is about learning the differences between Liberty, Marathon, Angola etc. Perhaps this is not the right place for seeking this info, if so please steer us in the right direction.
We currently have a vintage Wanderlodge and are looking for a larger bus. We don’t need slides but do like to boonedock. 40′ is perfect for length. We are looking at bus vintages between 1990 to 1996. We definitely need propane for cooking and Aquahot, Espar etc… would be good for heating. I currently do most all maintenance on our bus except drive train work and am a Certified RV Tech. Our engine is a Cat so will need to learn a bunch about the 8V92 or Series 60.
I realize these are big questions to answer but am only looking for some direction to help us begin our quest. Once we know the conversion differences we can get started.
Thanks all, in advance, for your guidance.
Jeff and Barb
1986 FC35RB
Bluebird Wanderlodge
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5 Replies
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Hi Jeff (& Barb).
As a wannabe owner myself, can I (politely) suggest that you look at as many past posts as you can if you haven’t done so already. There are loads that are appropriate to folks like ourselves. Once you have armed yourself with general and more detailed info, you can then ask the experienced and incredibly helpful chaps (and gals) on here more specific questions.
You will be glad you came here!
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Propane is not likey to be found in any, or maybe just a few Prevost conversions. Aquahot or Webasto should not be an issue. Those are very common to almost all conversions. You will have to wait for other to chime in on which conversions would be a good fit for the model years you indicated.
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Welcome Jeff & Barb,
Like Mark said, finding a Prevost with propane will be hard. I’ve seen a few real early 40 footers with propane, but they are rare. From 90 to around 94 you’ll be looking at an 8V92 and 4 or 5 speed transmissions. The transition period to Series 60 was around 95 and some early ones had the 5 speed, eventually going to the 6 speed. Nothing wrong with an 8V92 as long as you’re aware getting them worked on is getting harder.
A mid 90’s conversion is hard to beat since your looking for a 40 footer, I had three of them and they were all really good coaches.
Be sure to check out the coaches for sale here on PC..
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Welcome Jeff and Barb.
I had a propane equipped Prevost. It was an 87 and around that time converters were gradually moving towards all electric coaches. As has been mentioned it is going to be very limiting if you are not willing to consider a non-propane coach.
We liked it because the coach made extensive use of propane and it was great for dry camping. The stove, three furnaces, the BBQ grille and the refrigerator were all propane which made use of the batteries quite minimal. But the next two coaches had no propane and we really haven’t had any issues with its lack. In fact the main advantage of later coaches was the house type refrigerator which more than made up for the lack of propane. My wife hated the Norcold.
If I were you I would not rule out a 45 footer. If you are concerned with the greater length preventing access to some campgrounds and sites we have had no apparent problems going from our 40 footer to the 45.
Good luck in your search.
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Early 1990’s vintage Country Coach Prevosts often had propane for stovetop and fridge and Webasto for comfort heating, and 40′ was pretty common. Country Coach conversions of that vintabe are very high quality. Several posters on this site have them. I had one (1990) with this configuration that was great for boondocking. Because the fridge ran on gas and we’re not big TV watchers, we rarely even turned on the inverter. Our 4 x 8-D batteries would require recharging about every second day, and those were flooded cells running through an old-school Heart inverter with separate converter-chargers. AGMs and a modern inverter-charger might have gotten us three days. Although I never had any problem with mine, I was concerned about the propane refrigerator as they have had MANY safety recalls. A couple of years ago a motorhome burned up at MCC in Indio while I was there. Afterward the sidewall had a distintive Norcold shaped hole and the owner told me the fire started there. All I’m saying is that caution is required if you have a gas fridge. The other drawback of the gas fridge is that they are typically much smaller than a residential fridge. For the safety and size reasons, I prefer the residential refrigerator in my current bus. I really miss having a gas fueled cooktop, though, and I do need to run my generator every day while boondocking.
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