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Prevost Chassis Inspection
Jon, We have an appointment in late Sept at Prevost-Nashville for a minor clunk in the front suspension on uneven pavement. Should we have them, in your opinion(much valued BTW) be looking for anything else as long as we’re there. Brief history: Bought bus w/92000 mi. Had complete service and maintainance records to 77000 mi. Zeroed out maintainance and started fresh. We now have 112000 mi. Any input or recomendations greatly appreciated and thanks in advance.
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5 Replies
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I don’t know how often you get an opportunity to get under your coach, but when you do there are many things I have found very worth while.
The clunk is a good starting point. I have found more frequently now that the increased use of bushings, especially the red urethane bushings used in sway bars and other links to be a problem and fail. And they fail within a few hundred miles so I include a detailed inspection of bushings, something I rarely had to consider on my older coaches. As a personal note I am not replacing the red urethane busings with the same type, but I am going back to the two piece or single rubber bushings which Prevost does stock. As long as that is the area of interest it will be good to verify no bad ball joints or tie rod ends, etc.
But probably my most important task is to drain the air system not only to check for moisture, but to verify the protection and check valves are functioning properly. Draining the tanks in order and still having pressure in the next tank is the verification I am looking for. I also look at the frame area on the base of the air dryer as long as the air system is on my mind. If the frame has evidence of oil spray on it I know the air dryer cartridge is overdue. I have a 2 year schedule on them.
Your disc brakes have wear indicators, but rather than rely on them I look at the actual pad thickness. I also look closely at the drum brakes on the drive, not only thickness, but for cracking of the friction material. I give a quick look at discs and drums to make sure there are no cracks.
I look for hub seal leaks, chafing hoses or wire, and pretty much look for anything that needs attention.
For certain on average I am under the coach lubing it no less than every 5000 miles which gives me the opportunity to do all of the above. I don’t know if a tech who is on the clock pokes around under a coach like I do, but over the years doing that has caught minor issues long before they became something more serious and usually it is stuff that you don’t expect. I have found dripping temperature pressure relief valves on my HW heater because of drips from the tube coming under the coach from the valve, I have found missing bolts on baffles for the ACs or generator, I have seen where generator muffler clamps dragged on the ground, evidently from going over a high spot in a driveway or road crown, and I have seen air lines that were rubbing. When the coach is up in the air if they don’t object at Prevost you can learn a lot with just looking. I am sure your CC has some differences than my Liberty but all coaches should get the same look with a critical eye.
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Corey,
My two cents on this…. I had an alternator issue and was at Prevost in Nashville to get it looked at. I asked them while they had it up and on the lift if I could take a look with their tech to see if there was anything else. The Bus had been worked over by a Prevost authorized shop in Phoenix as part of the sale… The tech checked it over with and found a few minor things that I went ahead and had fixed while I was there. We were just about to head out on a 14 month trip and I wanted to err on the side of being proactive. I was super impressed with the tech and the entire operation. The did an awesome job.
Bill
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Bill, We were in the Nashville Service Center last fall for a fairly minor gen-set problem without an appointment. We were impressed with everything including the amount of the bill.
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George & Cory,
Chances are you will need A-Arms and it’s painful. Mine were gone at 101K.
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A arms are going to have to be inspected as part of the “clunk” inspection. Prevost is well aware of what constitues a bad A arm bushing.
The general rule about the acceptability is if the bushing looks ugly and failing it does not mean there is an issue, however if the pin is loose or free within the bushing that is a failure. I suspect a lot of A arms or A arm bushings were replaced on early IFS coaches until it became known that just because the bushings look bad does not mean there is an issue.
Entertainer coaches with a lot of miles seem to be getting 400,000 plus miles before the A arm bushings fail. What is not know or at least not discussed is if the bushings age out or wear out.
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