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Looking to purchase, in need of experienced input
My wife and I are looking to purchase a Prevost in 1.5 years +/-. We have been to Milleniumm and met with Ken and received a lot of great input. We have also been to Florida Luxury Coach. Next time we are in Florida in November we will go visit Bradenton and Stuart hopefully.
We think we want to for the most part fulltime and start an adventure to see our beautiful country. Probably winters for the first couple of years. We currently are thinking our budget will be $350K on the top side.
We want to pull a stacker trailer with a street rod or 2, and shop for antiques and the such. We have heard that if we want to pull a stacker that we would probably lean towards a H3. it looks like there are more XL’s in the marketplace. We know that slides make things more spacious but I wonder about the potential issues / expense of ownership. Difference in cost of ownership/maintenance of A/C between the H3 and XL units. Good and bad of tile, wood, carpet flooring in a rolling home. My take on 1.5 bath models would be that it would be excessive when you are dealing with limited space but not sure. All electric / gas models plus or minus. It seems that Michelin tires are the preferred for coaches. I have heard that side cameras could be more of a distraction than help to an experienced driver. I have experience driving a Freightliner extracab 16′ flatbed with flatbed. We probably want to do some boon docking if that is still a viable option. It looks like the size of what we are looking at could inhibit our ability to get into a lot of camping facilities, especially State Parks.
Any input / education will be appreciated, we have a lot to learn. We did a 40′ 5th wheel for a few years a while back and enjoyed that immensely.
Funny note, my Dad says I am crazy, “you could stay in fancy hotel 7 days a week for less money”, I laugh and said not true but also noted that we will have our own bathroom, kitchen and bed that no one else uses, and if I get a not so nice neighbor I can just put the keys in the ignition and move rather than have to shoot them. Dads are great because if your smart you listen to there wisdom and understand before you jump in, but I have to say dad is not working with good info on this one, Prevost is the best most comfortable way to see the great USA.
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33 Replies
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Paul, I will throw my free advice in here. You have to promise however to understand free advice is worth every cent you pay for it.
I don’t think it matters which model you use to pull a trailer. They have the same drivelines.
While it is nice to have the ability to pull a stacker loaded with 2 hot rods, antiques and whatever else you choose to put in it keep in mind Prevost coaches are typically going to have trailer hitch weight limits. My previous coach had a standard factory hitch and it was limited to 10,000 pounds and a 1000 pound tongue weight. My current coach has a 20,000 pound limit with a 1500 pound weight limit.
Personally I would suggest you seriously consider how much you really need to tow. I know a lot of folks will gladly tell you how nice it is to drive a coach with a stacker trailer and all the toys that will fit, but towing has significantly more negatives than the positives I can see. A lot of RV parks cannot accomodate a large trailer. That extra weight costs serious money in fuel costs, but also it affects the coach. Owners of stackers have posted here and on other sites about overheating issues, and it sure will impact transmission life. And the weight limits are serious in that our coaches were designed as buses and not semi tractors. They lack the strength to support loads in excess of the limits and the consequences can get expensive AND WILL NOT BE REPAIRED BY PREVOST. I am talking about hidden structural damage as a result of exceeding the towing or tongue weight limits.
If you opt to tow a stacker go into it knowing there will be a cost.
As to slides, they make the use of the coach much nicer. We have slides. I resisted them for years, but we bit the bullet and would not be without them. But I also recognize there are things owners need to recognize. Slides take up room. They give you more floor space, but each slide probably takes away a 6 to 9″ space on each side to house the mechanism. With two slides that means you give up almost 3 feet of space along the wall the slides are on. The structure for the slides compromises bay space and access. For us it meant a lot of stuff we have been carrying around with us, now is no longer in the coach because we lost storage space.. Everything has a cost and slides cost us some space. The good news is what we left behind we likely did not need anyway. In fact I know we haul around more than we should.
It is unlikely you will find any coach in your price range to be equipped with gas appliances, like a range. All newer coaches are all electric. As to maintenance costs I doubt if there is any difference between the XLII or the H3. Bath and a half is rare. Probably none available in the price range.
Try not to focus on details like the brand of tires or side cameras, but to define how you will use the coach and then list all the coach features needed to work best for that type of use. If boondocking is a likely use focus on coaches with ample battery power and minimal required electrical use. If you will put a lot of miles driving, do you really need slides? Again if doing a lot of driving, especially in hot and humid areas consider OTR. If not at least make sure you have 4 AC units for a 45 foot coach. There is no such thing as too much AC. You won’t be opening windows on a hot day.
Our coaches are built around the Michelin tire. But more important than the brand will be the date codes. Tires 5 or 6 years old are almost near the end of life.
A Prevost driving experience will be nothing like a Freightliner flat bed. Not in any respect.
Every one of us has heard how many nights we could spend in a good hotel for what we paid for our coaches. But there is not an owner in the world that would trade a night at the Ritz Carlton for a night in their own coach.
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Paul,
Be careful in your dealings with Lon at Florida Luxury Coach, I can expand on this privately if you wish.
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Since someone else brought it up, I would like to say we had a GREAT experience with Lon at FLC.
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You were one of the many lucky ones, I am happy for you.
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Just a general comment about criticisms of vendors or suppliers.
We do not want to censor posts. But we also want to be sure if a post has the potential to be damaging that it is both accurate and fair. Fair meaning enough information is provided to enable readers to see there may be two sides to the issue.
As written Georges post is clearly critical but does not present information as to why he is critical of FLC. Since FLC may not be reading our forum or may not choose to respond all I can say is Georges is entitled to his opinion but unless and until supportable facts are presented keep in mind FLC may be a good company but Georges and they may have an honest difference of opinion.
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I’m with Georges on this one. I visited FLC to look at a late Liberty XL and the visit was a big dissapointment. The bus was in poor condition, house batteries dead, chassisbatteries dead and gen battery dead. The Knew I was coming in advance. The salesman was useless and couldn’t answer any questions. It had a bra on the front that had been on for who knows how long sitting in the Fl heat and hummitity and the front end was surely damamged. Lon and his buddies where just setting around shooting the breeze and there was no real attempt to offer any kind of information or even an excuse for a coach being that mistreated. I assume it have been there a long time.
I will never be going back. If you buy there, you better make your purchase subject to a PDI at Prevost Jacksonville, although they will tell you it’s been all checked out and good to go. BUYER BEWHERE.
Jon and Tom — I don’t think I’m breaking the rules here, it is facts.
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Same experience I had when looking a few years ago at Fl Luxury Coach. Coahces in poor condidtion and the atmospher was like a less than credible used car sales lot. I also heard a guy bought a fairly new H, only to walk away when he showed up for his delivery.
Get an offsite PDI if you buy there.
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This Forum is a great tool for insight into the Prevost Experience. As others before me, I did not think the prevost experience would fit into our planned budget, but have since learned otherwise. The content has and will continue to provide great information I can see that.
I am watching post about the delam issue and they are very informative, and will hopefully show that the issue is being dealt with in a positive manor to all current coaches that are effected, which will generate a positive comfort level for future owners. I suspect the H-3 model being different is not effected by the delam and have yet to see any info of a potential issue of the same magnitude with a H-3.
I like the upfront honesty provided on this forum and I am sure that I will look for more information that will help me to make the best decision that I can. I like the info about a PDI @ Prevost Jacksonville. I suspect that to be an inspection of the Prevost shell or does that cover more. What kind of expense is known to be associated with a PDI, and are they something that is available in others areas of the country based on coaches available nationwide.
My wife & I cannot wait to start this next chapter of our life journey. I will have the indoor storage in Vt. by this fall and may look at having the same available in Florida soon.
The more research I do the better I feel, and more encouraged I become about this plan.
Thanks for the feedback, and THANKS for this forum
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Paul and Jane,
Welcome to Prevost Community web site. Post often and there is no such thing as a bad question.
AL
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Does anyone have any experience with Olympia Luxury Coach in Nashville, would that be a good place to visit. We are going to visit Liberty and Marathon later this year. Is Olympia more of a star/entertainer coach dealer being in Nashville.
Do people find that there are a lot of campgrounds which can accommodate Prevost, or does their size significantly limit access to available places to stay. I ordered the Big Rigs hard copy guide, looking forward to getting that.
Does anyone have experience with Passport America, Good Sams, or All Stays app..
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Paul,
Entertainer coach converters and leasors occasionally have motorhome conversions to sell. But that is rare. However, a visit to a company that handles entertainer coaches along with a list of questions will prove rewarding. You will see that there is a significant difference between a motorhome and an entertainer.Not only is the floor plan going to be different, the systems are different.
The obvious difference is how much space is dedicated to bunks. That takes space away from what we would consider to be kitchen and living room space. Often the rear bedroom is a sitting area, but if it is a “star” configuration it will be a bedroom, but lacking some of the features we expect.
The biggest differences will be in the bays. Entertainer coaches typically have at least 2 open bays. To get that much available bay space you give up tank capacities, banks of batteries, entertainment systems, etc. You will find the holding tanks are not necessarily user friendly because they are not necessarily set up for campground use. You may find two generators. The AC systems may be 5 or more roof units. There may not be awnings. One thing that will give you comfort will be the number of miles on the coach and hours on the generator(s). It is not uncommon to see entertainer coaches with somewhere between one half and one million miles or generators with over 30,000 hours. Then when you see a motorhome conversion with 200,000 miles you will recognize it has hundreds of thousands of miles of life left in it.
If you want slides you will find an entertainer has only one slide and it is much smaller than a motorhome slide. Expect the materials used in the conversion to be more for durability and long life, but less decorative than a motorhome. The dash may not have the nice appearance of the motorhome and in some cases the driver’s area may actually be isolated from the rest of the coach so he can drive without distraction. The coach will have taller interior measurements, a longer wheelbase than most motorhomes, and the side opening windows will not be awning type, but sliders.
As far as campgrounds, we have been in every kind imaginable over the last 23 years and some have been a challenge but I have never been in one where I could not get into a space or work my way through it. One took some effort to get through, but that was because the other RV owners left their aluminum fishing boats in the way preventing turns. There have been small campgrounds we have bypassed because they looked like crap but not because we couldn’t fit. We make good use of the big rig book and if we cannot get 50 amp I just go somewhere else and run my generator.
No experience with the ones you list.
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Paul,
Those camping clubs usually are tailored to the fiberglass crowd of trailers, 5th wheels and motorhomes. I have a membership to Coast to Coast that I will give you if you want it. A lot of them say big rig friendly, but with many, that’s a stretch.
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We use all time at high end camogrounds( Passport America). If you want luxury only don’t have a suggestion for you. Corp of Engineers have great camp grounds also. Depends on how EXCLUSIVE you need to be. Me I can camp next to a pop up and enjoy life just fine. PA is usually 1/2 off reg price. Some dates are blocked at some places. Bad experiences with KOA for me and coast to coast(lost membership because home park went bankrupt) seems to happen often than one would think. My experience only as a low income older prevost owner. Bob
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I’ve been from FL to AK and have yet to find a CG we couldn’t get in. I do check to see if they have sites that are long enough first. I rule out any that say they can’t. In some cases it was tight and I may have to change assigned site, which I do before even heading to the site. I find the biggest challenge with CGs that have long enough sites is trees and tight turns. On the east coast I’ve ruled out state and national parks, on the west coast I understand many to be quite roomy.
I’ve spent the night at some CG as I’m passing through and that’s as long as I’d want to stay in some. I’ve had missed satisifaction with KoAs, generally more bad than good, but some very good. I was a member of Passport America, but with their restrictions I don’t think I was able to use the membership even once and we were on the road for over 6 months last year–I won’t be renewing. I am a member od Good Sam; primarily for the discounts at CGs and Camping World. I am a member of FMCA. If you ever need Michelin tires then it’s a no brainer.
Most of the high end Class focused RV Resorts can be very nice, but you are paying for it as many have daily rates at or over $100 a night. The one in Portland, OR was the best deal around when we stayed there last year. The owners had just taken over and I ended up with a cliff side site overlooking the Pacific at $50/night.
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Passport America is a good value, most campgrounds streach the use rules to get your business. The first time you use it it pays for itself, same with Good Sam.
FMCA works well also and should be joined as you will be supporting an association for the camping industry. It also offers member benefits such as the special pricing on Michelin tires.
AAA will also get you 10% reduction at most camp grounds.
My recommendation is get them all to start and then drop the ones you don’t use.
Big rig best bets is a good book, but it is by far not a comprehensive listing of campgrounds that you will fit into.
I too will not enter a park that only provides 30A, it is not worth it nd a PIA on top of it. If you are already there ask for a dry camping rate.
Walmart, Cabellas, Perkins, Cracker Barrell, city streets, fairgrounds, dry camping for convenience only, not to save money. If you must run the generator for say 8+ hrs you might as well be in a campground.
Rules to self: Never make a reservation in a campground where you must prepay.
Be sure to ask about the availability of sattelite reception if you want it.
Don’t commit to a second or more nights until you are in your site and satisfied with it.
Be sure to understand the cancellation and refund policy.
If you don’t have that warm and fuzzy feeling with the check in person, excuse yourself and promptly leave.
Prior to check in walk to the site to inspect and walk the path by which you will leave, by doing so you will never knowingly stay at a bad park.
Evaluate campgrounds you have used in RV Park Reviews.
Drive the Red roads on the map!
JIM
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