[Archived]

I tried to get access to the owners manual or the service manual to confirm the recommendation that we have to operate our transamissions every 30 days to extend their life.

They want to charge for information such as owner’s manual or service manual, so I went to where some information is free, The Prevost owner and service manuals for the transmission. If there is a need to run the transmission like the tech says any reference to that operation is absent from the Prevost site.

Perhaps my cynicism is showing through but we seem to get a lot of fertilizer from “experts” and when something as significant as the advice listed above is offered I now go to the real experts, the folks that design and build the product and the service and owner manuals they write for the product.

[Archived]

Don’t know about that particular “nugget”, but driving it every 30 days is always good advice. Geo.

[Harry]

Whether it is true or not, I just like to take the coach out once a month. I can always find some excuse to go driving!

[Archived]

Although I referance every kind of manual there is for application to operation, I live in a real world. I have seen things and called for support only to be told that can not be happening…..Only after either sending picures, data or videos to they see I am not telling a story.. Although I dont know about every 30 days as stated I do know the importance of excercising the coaches systems. I also know that for the majority of people time flys by and even though there are good intentions to “run the coach every 30 days” I also know that people say I just had those tires put on or any number of other things, yet when I show them the date codes, they cant believe its been that long….So all this to say I guarantee excercising your coach every 30 days is a good thing.

Manuals and literature for most products are published with the introduction of the product. Not very often do they go back and make changes, especially a couple years after with the product out in the field and being used…..Prevost is one of the few that offers service bulletins, Product improvement bulletins, etc that not only are published but more importantly that you can find online….

[Corey]

Geo,

I wasn’t making a reference to the merits or drawbacks of exercising our coaches, but of Allison calling for a procedure as described by the tech.

My position on exercising our coaches remains the same. If you are not going to drive it for an extended period, either drive it long enough and hard enough periodically to get everything up to full operating temperature, or don’t start it at all. I cannot speak about other coaches but on my last two it takes forever to get the transmission up to its full operating temperature and if the coach is not taken out and run on the highway I am not sure a transmission will ever reach its full operating temperature.

[Archived]

Any vehicle that sits around will get run down after a while. Especially the rubber components. There has most likely never been any real data tracked study on the subject of the few Transmissions that sit for months and dry out. I am sure the majority of them are worked and worked in the way they were designed. There was a thread a while back on whether or not the series 60 needed started regularly. A Tech that has dealt with transmissions for years might just have some good insight from the few cases He has seen over the years of the ones that were left sitting for extended periods. I just wanted to share the info since a lot of these coachs sit way more than they get drove. I have seen mid 90’s coach’s listed for sale that will list new engines and or transmissions or Remanufactured drive trains.That have less that 200K on the Chassis. Were they abused or not maintained properly, Or left sitting around ? I think I will exercise mine.

Safe travels,

Rocky

[Archived]

There is apparently no disagreement a coach used regularly is going to likely exhibit fewer issues than one rarely exercised.

Just the tires alone benefit greatly from steady use. We have so many rubber or rubberlike components we all seem to understand exercise seems to ward off aging to a great extent.

But we all cannot drive our coaches daily so we have to decide how to deal with the inactivity. What we should do is be sure we are doing the right thing. It is clear if we fail to completely heat soak all the drivetrain we are far better off if we just leave it alone, but getting everything up to full operating temperature seems to be far better than not exercising the coach.