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XL belt-line problems
I’ve been looking for a high quality XL for going on a couple years now, and one of the things that continues disappoint me how every XL I’ve looked at has paint bubbling at the belt-line. Do they all have this problem?
Here’s a pic from a 99 Marathon always in AZ stored in a climate controlled hanger for the last 15 years.
Clint & Tammy Summers
2000 XL 45 Country Coach (rivets)
1977 FC31 Bluebird Wanderlodge (more rivets)
Vonore TN -
32 Replies
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My 97 CC does not have this issue. The Sikkens paint still looks like new even though the bus sits outside under a large walnut tree while parked at our summer home in Kerby, OR, for a little more than half the year and outside on our lot at The Palms RV resort in Yuma, AZ, the other months of the year. We travel a lot so it is also outdoors in lots of places all through the year.
Paint lifting like you show is likely the result of less than perfect preparation prior to painting. Are you sure you are looking at factory paint and not a re-paint?
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I have some of that on mine and it came from Yuma parked under a cover
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Aluminum is one of the hardest materials to paint because surface preparation has to be done just right. The slightest flaw in surface prep allows aluminum (which is highly active) to begin to corrode and that corrosion will travel quickly beneath the aluminum and cause the paint to pop.
There is a mistaken impression that aluminum does not “rust”, but it forms white surface corrosion very quickly and only a very good pre paint surface treatment can insure a good bond between the paint and the aluminum beneath it.
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You can call James Stallings at Xtreme Paint and Graphics about Prevost and aluminum painting and prep. The prep of an XL rivet bus requires each and every rivet to be detailed thoroughly.
I think Jon is spot on, again.
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I’ve always assumed it was galvanic corrosion due to the joint where the aluminum and stainless butt-up to each other. I’ve had some aluminum cruisers that had stainless stanchions and those seemed to bubble the same way where they mounted to the aluminum deck. Just thought Prevost with their engineering depth would have found a way to isolate the two.
2000 Featherlite H3-45
2024 Jeep Grand Cherokee
Leesburg, FL -
It is about the pre-treatment. Maybe some galvanic corrosion may contribute, but that is not the primary cause.
Over the years my factories had powder coating systems installed, including the last one I owned that had the Detroit Series 60 engine finishing system, and I would rather eat bees than put a finish, powder coating or otherwise, on aluminum because of the difficulties associated with finishing.
The car manufacturers that use aluminum body panels go through a lot of steps to pre-treat and apply a finish that will adhere forever.
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What is the Marathon Bus number of the 1999 you looked at?
Later
bv
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right off hand I don’t remember, I would have to go back through my notes. Here’s another 99 Marathon that I looked at.
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I will add that I did a FaceTime yesterday with an owner of a 2000 Liberty – and we spent a lot of time looking at the belt-line for bubbles – and it had none. That was a first for me.
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Liberty Coach
Clint & Tammy Summers
2000 XL 45 Country Coach (rivets)
1977 FC31 Bluebird Wanderlodge (more rivets)
Vonore TN -
yes, stunningly beautiful, but $30K in deferred maintenance, owner with a ‘ain’t broke don’t fix it attitude’, zero documentation, with the price of a zero’d out museum show piece.
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Clint the reason I asked for the coach number is I could probably give you info of where it has been that you do not have access to.
Paint is a concern but more importantly is the difference between converters in the era coach you are looking.
Marathon has engineered equipment in places that are accessible instead of having to move a refrigerator to get at a A/C filter. You have a battery boost to start your bus if chassis batteries fail you and when you change them you don’t have to take the bus apart to get at it. Same goes for house batteries and you have stronger inverters and you don’t need a turbo water pump to flush the toilet. And after you flush you don’t have to worry about replacing the shit tank because it is the wrong material. The difference in how the Aux air systems are plumbed is a huge difference. I could go on but that’s just a little bit of info.
There’s a reason you can’t find a bus in the year range you are looking. When the covid hit it seemed like everybody wanted a Prevost for under 200k with the belief that it would be perfect. The market was and still has buses that are in need of desperate help, you have found that out.
I believe one thing that has hurt new buyers is the influence of a few Youtubers doing videos of buses and promoting them in the secondary market that is grossly over hyped. A guy like Andrew Steele doesn’t know the difference between a bus and a bulldozer. If he wants to advertise for others that’s fine but charging money for advice services is ridiculous.
My business is usually a first indicator of the market conditions we can expect in the near future and it isn’t pretty. The increases in pricing is untenable. The windfall the whole RV market has experienced has to level out and with that people will get out due to not knowing what they got into or not knowing how to manage their time traveling or not being able to find a campsite that isn’t full. Or their wife does not like it.
So maybe you will find what you want soon.
Later
bv
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I know I sound like a broken record, but I find it impossible to properly maintain a Prevost conversion without some form of continuous documentation that lists what maintenance is done and what is due and when.
Each coach has so many different schedules for maintenance ranging from miles to time and everything in between nobody can track or remember what was done or what is due to be done.
The bulls shit phrase that says a bus was maintained by Prevost or the converter is just that, nothing more than garden fertilizer because nobody covers everything and nobody keeps records of the coach so maintenance is progressive. Anyone buying a coach that lacks detailed maintenance records, logs, receipts, and a list of what is due and when is a gambler. I was a gambler three times and I was lucky because my 3 buses were in almost perfect condition when I purchased them. But as coaches get older luck starts to run out.
Be warned.
2000 Featherlite H3-45
2024 Jeep Grand Cherokee
Leesburg, FL -
You are spot on about the Youtubers and the one you have mention in particular.
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My 1998 Country Coach has NO belt issue.
2000 Featherlite H3-45
2024 Jeep Grand Cherokee
Leesburg, FL
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