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How comfortable are no slides?
We have been looking at Prevost and my DH leans toward wanting slides. I lean towards no slides due to less problems. I have seen one slide models. What are your thoughts on slislide or no slide? Thanks in advance for your time and consideration of this question.
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23 Replies
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Hi Lady L, My Bus has no slides and I’m very happy with my configuration. I have a couch on one side but have seen others that have opposing coaches. I didn’t like that configuration because it closed in the salon so much.
I also like when my bus is going down the road its the same bus as when it’s parked. I have nothing against slides, the coach I had on order had three of them. I frankly didn’t know I could do without them until I was in a Prevost. A slide in the salon gives you just over 2 feet of added walk space. I see no Benefit in it, but again the configuration of the salon/kitchen can make a big difference.
My bus seating is 5 in the salon (3 on couch 1 on lounge chair and 1 on passenger seat), 4 in the kitchen (with booth seating that will actually seat 4 full size adults). And 2 footstools. That’s seating for 11 folks, 12 if you include drivers seat. Heck that’s a rally!
Find a bus with the interior you like, do the due diligence and enjoy your bus and the incredible bus owners you’ll meet along the way!
Harry
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That’s depends if you are full timers or just weekenders, We just use ours for vacations and travel, we went a little over 5 weeks so far and no problems being uncomfortable, but if we were full timers and lived in the coach then Yes! we would have slides.
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Owned 3 Marathons in this order;
2005 XLll 2 slides by Prevost
2000 H3-45 no slides with OTR air
2007 H3-45 3 slides by Valid
Each bus I purchased probably # 1 thing was curb appeal. Then mechanical condition and / or overall reliability based on how the complete inspection played out.
General smell inside bus and the big question was pets. That’s a good one reading about so many bus owners with no pets and never been smoked in. Take your flash light, look under the refrigerator.
Bus mileage IMHO has little to do with buying a bus. Low mileage has issues and lots has been posted on this subject.
When I visited a bus my first impression always was noted on my work pad. Took flash light, legal pad, my own 26 page inspection list, camera.
Another was owners records or lack of. If there were none and I had interest then I spent as much time needed to have an opinion if the bus was a possibility.
Best advice …do your homework on the bus, nego a price and then it’s survey time.
AL
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When I was looking for a coach, a long time RVer said you’ll always want bigger and better so why not start out with the best…hence a Prevost with 2 slides. The slides don’t cause any more work than taking care of the rest of the coach. The extra room is certainly the right thing for my wife and me. And even on overnight stops, the slides come out and we’re right at home.
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I’d argue with the comment that no slide coaches are just for weekends. We routinely stay for 8 weeks in our no-slide bus with two small dogs. No problem at all.
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We have owned three Prevosts. Two with slides (our last two buses) and one without slides (our first Prevost). When we traded out of the non-slide coach I wanted another non-slide coach but was not able to find what I wanted in the used market. I wanted a non-slide coach because we do a lot of driving and not a lot of sitting in one place and I like not having the slide wall behind the driver’s seat. That being said, we have enjoyed the slide coaches especially on football tailgate weekends when the weather is not good for outside activities.
It really boils down to finding a coach that suits your needs. I wouldn’t hesitate to have another non-slide coach but my bride prefers the extra room when parked. Guess who wins that argument.
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All of us have preferences, but none of us can tell you which is best because we aren’t you.
Here are a few facts relative to slides. They are complex and no matter who made or installed them they are going to cost more to maintain. Maybe not right away, and maybe never if you trade coaches often, but there will be maintenance costs related to slides.
They add weight. A non slide coach is likely to weight less than a comparable slide coach.
Slides take away space. Each slide requires 8 or 9″ on each side to contain the mechanism. With two slides it has cost the space equivalent to a tall closet, a pantry or space for a washer and dryer. They also steal headroom in a bay, reducing the opening height of the bay because reinforcing structure for the slide runs beneath the coach floor the full length of the slide. Maybe the bay retains almost all its volume, but height to access that space has been reduced.
Slides will add cost to a coach’s purchase price.
Some slides, depending on the floor plan and converter limit travel space in the living space. You likely can walk front to rear with the slides in, the walking space may be less than a non-slide.
But slides make a coach feel spacious. If your use of the coach is to stay in it for extended periods the interior opens up and doesn’t feel as cramped. And while that may seem like a weak argument in favor of slides compared to the negative aspects it has been so widely accepted by buyers as a feature I don’t know if anyone will even build a non-slide motorhome. And that speaks volumes about whether to have slides or not.
But the bottom line still has to be to determine how the coach is going to be used, if there is enough money in the budget to justify slides, and if the loss of storage space will be a drawback.
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Great appreciate your input. We have always had an rv with slides, but we will explore our options further as time goes on. Perhaps my DH and I will find our dream coach. We want one that is pre def. When did Prevost start having to put a def using engine in? Seen some major engine problems with def on other forums.
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We have been full timers (truly homeless) in a non-slide Prevost since 1999. Our coach had opposing couches. One was thrown out the door almost immediately leaving a large space in the living area. We added a slender desk where the couch was and a stand-alone chair with built in foot rest (don’t like the separate foot rests). Now, my requirements are very different than more Prevost owners. When I am ready to travel, I MUST travel that day. That means that not having a slide pull in is a serious determent to my life style and will cost me money.
Prevost tried to sell Willie Nelson a new bus with slides and when they did a demo, it failed. They said “oops” come back tomorrow where it failed again. Double oops. The next thing you know, Willie is driving “another brand”.
You just need to think about how you will be using your coach, how important moving or not moving is and make an informed choice.
We LOVE our non-slide coach and we are looking to update to a new NON-SLIDE coach. The way I see it, the only thing the slide gives you is more carpet or tile to clean and allows you to sit a little farther away from your spouse. I LOVE being close to my spouse so separation is not important at all to me. Keep that part at the top of your list…TO ME……
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We were specifically looking for a non-slide Prevost. With just the two of us, we saw no need for the extra space, and we are very comfortable in ours.
If you really want slides, I would recommend a coach that has slides installed by Prevost. We talk a lot about crashworthiness of Prevosts; by the time you cut a big hole in the side of the shell, you compromise the structural aspects. Early Prevosts that came slide-equipped from the factory had trusses added in the basement under the slide to make up for the lack of structural rigidity. You typically won’t find this in aftermarket slides. While these trusses were needed in early models, they also made underfloor access more difficult–I have seen coaches with batteries mounted behind the truss–good luck changing those!
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What I find most interesting is the folks I’ve spoken to loved their non slide bus. Some have even said they’d love to have it back. I think the point is, a bus is a bus and it doesn’t get much better than that!
Harry
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One path I avoid traveling is to compare slide options unless I have taken a lot of time studying options and possibly have experience with those options. Before I had a 2 slide coach I was like a lot of others and could not see how slides can be justified because both my non-slide coaches were very easy to live in.
In fact both had features I lost when we bought our existing two slide coach. My previous 45 foot non-slide coach had an abundance of storage space compared to the slide coach and it wasn’t fully realized until I tried to move our stuff from that non-slide coach into the current coach. I had a lot of stuff we used to carry that I could not fit. The largest disappointment was the reduced height of the bay due to the slide reinforcement prevented me from getting our two bicycles in the bay.
Having said that, there is still no way we would go back to a non-slide coach. The way we use our coach now is completely different than how we used previous coaches. When we travel now we tend to go somewhere and stay a while. We are not doing trade shows so we do not need a lot of space for storage in a bay. Having the extra floor space provided by the slides has a real value and makes the use of the coach much easier and more enjoyable. Even if we are just going to stay overnight somewhere we still run the slides out, something that takes just a couple of minutes. The only thing I have to do relating to slides other than pushing the buttons is to roll up an area rug used on the living room floor. So use of the slides is easy and doesn’t require more than a few minutes to put them in or out.
But the biggest deal about the decision regarding slides or no slides is if they make sense regarding how you use a coach.
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After 6 non slide Prevosts, the current single slide H is pretty amazing with the extra living space. Gee, I’ve only had to manually retract the slide in 6 months just once.
Sure do miss just turning the key and making smoke.
Now I have to make sure there is no foreign objects on top the slide, drop the nose down to let any water run off, get to ride height, open the toll window, make sure the rug is rolled up, piss off the non Prevost campers who don’t know why the dumb ass next to him is running his engine at high idle, press and hold the slide in button and if all works out, high 5 mstruk cause the slide is in and locked and then hit the road.
So do I miss my non slides, oh ya, but there is happiness in mstruk land.
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Our first bus had two slide outs, the second had three, and our current one has four and I doubt we would ever go backwards from there. We get so much extra room inside while parked it makes the coach feel more comfortable. I have had to get at least one slide out adjusted on each bus after taking delivery, but as of yet, no seals have leaked. We have all Prevost slide outs.
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Mark3101,
While having my level 3 service done last week at Prevost Goodlettsville, the ‘silent recall’ for the chassis computer update, updated the slide sensors along with many others (from what the tech told me).
We, too, like our four slides but as Jon has said many times, all coaches are a compromise. Four slides makes a smaller kitchen which doesn’t affect us as we don’t cook, just warm food. The two burner cook-top will never be used in our coach.
We could have a ‘square-dancing’ shindig in our salon with the slides open!
Safe travels,
Mark
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