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Another Great Trip Out West
Happy New Year Everyone!
We had another great family Ski Vacation out West with the Bus. Stayed at Tiger Run in Breckenridge. We were able to dodge a few ice storms on the way in and just got out of town on afternoon of the 31st avoiding what was predicted to be 4-8 inches more snow. It got a bit sketchy from Idaho Springs to Denver but the bus handled great.
Temps while we were in Breckenridge never got above freezing and were as low as 12 below. The bus and basement all stayed warm and we had a great time. I know some would say I/we are crazy for taking the bus into these extreme conditions and perhaps we are…. but it’s pretty impressive the design and engineering that go into these coaches to allow them to work in extremes…
Hit another storm thru Kansas as wife and kids watched the ball drop in times square… it was stupid cold again and snowing… but blowing so hard it didn’t stay on the road it just blew off… I decided not to shut down the Chassis and let it run on high idle along with the genset and webasto to to ensure we didn’t have any issues.
Woke up and headed the rest of the way home on the first and all was going great…. until we stopped for fuel about an hour outside of our home and the Bus decided it didn’t want to go back into drive. I had this same issue on my 15 month 49 state trip with the family so I headed to the drivers side bay to check the marathon system…. yep it had lost pressure so i reset it and I got pressure everywhere but the slide seals… which shed inflating… which is why the trans was disabled as a safety precaution. I checked a few other things… no luck…. so I call the marathon emergency number at about 3pm CT on New Years day… They put me right thru to Jamie who was super helpful but didn’t have all the access codes for my Valid Slide Controller… he gave me Valid’s emergency number so I called them they answered on the second ring and were able to help get me back on the road.
I know I am likely preaching to the choir for Prevost owners here… but this is a 11 year old coach and I am the second owner… to get that level of support on a holiday from both the converter and their Supplier is nothing short of amazing. Which is why I wanted a Prevost since we purchased or first V10 gasser Allegro 19 years ago.
Cudos to both Marathon and Valid for their support!
I got the bus back home and into it’s heated garage and called marathon to figure out what was the problem as both slides now appeared to not be getting air. I went right to the worst case and figured I trashed the seals with ice or something on the retraction but that didn’t add up. Marathon walked me thru a few things and then I realized I had one valve closed in he drivers bay that needed to be open and everything went back to normal.
Perhaps the reason we have been comfortable in what others would consider extreme conditions…. 115 degrees in desserts or below zero in snow or 6 weeks in Alaska…. if we get into trouble there is someone that I can call who will answer as well as a great group of super smart people here on PC that have saved my butt more than once.
So, Happy New Year! Thanks to Jon, Tom and Al who helped me get into this bus 7 years ago. It’s been quite an adventure and a lifetime of memories with the family
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1 Reply
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Excellent post Bill, shows the utility of a Prevost Motorhome in extreme temps both cold and hot. You have used your bus as it was designed and I admire your adventures.
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