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ANNUAL COSTS
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Jon it is my understanding you do most of the work on your coach yourself. Most Prevost owners do very little of the work and depend on outside vendors. Based on my experience keeping a coach in top condition depending on others to do the work the 26k is absolutely realistic and could be even more. Still this is much less than depreciation on a new or newer coach. This is not a hobby for someone on a tight budget.
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I don’t think any savings in labor is significant. Annually a professional shop might invest 50 hours at the most and i think that is stretching it. A routine service might take 3 hours, air bags 8 to 10 hours divided by their service life, ditto for Norgrens, ditto for brake chambers, Do the same for fluid changes divided by their service life and you might get into the teens with labor hours. The balance of the hours would be to fix stuff that is not normal or scheduled such as my recent tie rod replacement or toilet replacement.
Other than maintenance and needed repairs most other work is elective but even with a high labor content job like floor replacement, when its hours are divided by life expectancy there is still not a lot of annual labor costs.
And when we go to qualified shops that know Prevost coaches or conversions those folks can knock out the work quickly.
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Hi guys,
Please allow me to ask a question this way…
If I were to buy a 1999 Prevost 45′ Marathon conversion for example and the coach has tires and batteries that are two years old with all the paperwork. So you you can easily track all maintenance and all things done to the coach from the day of purchase. (I also understand that Prevost has much of this information. This wouldn’t help for someone like Jon who does his own maintenance), But it’s a coach that is great on paper and just as great up close and personal!
*What amount of money would you recommend to put away per month for maintenance only? I’m not asking you to dig through your records, your best estimate will do fine.
HJ
* Just maintenance; no parks, no depreciation, no feul, no girlfriends etc strictly maintenance!
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HJ
It won’t work out because nothing seems to average out as we plan. But if you want an average my best guess would be about $750 which would cover all the planned expenses such as oil changes and lubes and filters, plus tires and batteries whose cost is divided by their assumed service life in months, then do the same for major fluid changes like coolant or transmission fluids.
What never seems to happen as planned are needed repairs such as wheel alignment, alternator replacement, body rash repairs, etc.
Then you end up spending money you never anticipated because the satellite dish needed replacement or an aux compressor quit. Let’s not forget the new upholstery or a refrigerator replacement.
So the question remains regarding average costs as to how to compensate for the unplanned?
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Thank you Jon,
Your response gave me a big sigh of relief! I can handle the $7500 per month and $15,0000 if I’m driving down the road and the maderflex-onk jams. What I didn’t want is a 1999 motorhome that is a constant nightmare where more and more money goes into it with no relief in sight.
I know there is no absolute and there are bad coaches out there. All we can do is the best we can in our selection and hope the averages work in our favor.
Heck, I’ve read real horror stories about brand new coaches in the shop longer than on the road, so stuff happens.By the way, for those who lack the technical prowess of Jon and me. The maderflex-onk is just below and a little to the right of the kanooder valve!
HJ
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If you’re interrested, i have a 2000 Xl, I would consider selling, it’s in top condition no BS, I have all records,
updates have been done to bring it into the new world.
CELL # 231-920-8957
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HJ,
Let’s eliminate luck from this discussion, both good and bad.
When you buy a coach there are three possible scenarios. The first is to buy from the converter (they do sell used coaches) and have them include a short warranty period, like a month. Then whatever may happen after the close is up to them to take care of until the warranty runs out. They have done this for many buyers, but generally on relatively new coach, like under 10 years of age.
Or you may buy from a dealer. All dealers are different and there is no standard practice that I am aware of, but the dealer may agree to fix anything that turns up in your inspection of the coach.
The third scenario is a private purchase and generally what you see is what you get unless you can negotiate with the seller to pay for something that you find needs to be fixed during your inspection.
But you carry the burden of insuring the coach is in the condition you expect. You either have to do the inspection yourself, or you have to have someone with expertise to do it for you. The inspection is not limited to checking the oil level. Detroit Diesel and Allison dealers can plug into the coach and get a view of the engine and transmission service history, such as overheating events, active codes, etc.
Someone (preferrably you) can review the logs and service records to verify timely maintenance and listed repairs. The coach can be over a pit of raised in the air and a complete inspection of the underside can reveal how things appear, but also be a quick check of what might be needed.
You can look at the tires and batteries for date codes. You can spend a day inside the coach pushing every button and turning every know, not only to educate yourself on how to make stuff work, but to verify stuff does work.
So to avoid having to replace the muffler fluid level sensor for $15,000 you need to plan on a pre-purchase inspection for any coach you plan to buy (at your expense).
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Hi Jon.
I’ve never had a coach and believe I’ll need to hire someone to check the coach for me. They would need to have specific expertise with Prevost and not just a plastic coach right? How difficult are they to find, how would I contact them?
HJ
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H.J. wrote: “So you you can easily track all maintenance and all things done to the coach from the day of purchase. (I also understand that Prevost has much of this information.)”
Unless I misunderstand how Prevost Prevost works … Prevost will have ONLY information done at one its four or five or six North American company owned shops. If a beer distributor owned a Prevost and he took the Prevost to the Freightliner dealer who sold and maintained his fleet of beer trucks, Prevost will NOT know anything about what was done at Freighliner. The coach we bought had had work done on it at Buddy Gregg’s in Knoxville and when I inquired about the coach the service manager was knowledgeable about the coach, had seen it in there from time to time, but couldn’t tell me much because they had had three computer systems in the three years prior to my call and had lost information previous to that period (which I thought was a poor business practice).
You can buy the coach without having it inspected, but that is putting a pile of cash on the table and rolling the dice … not for the faint of heart. Finding someone to inspect a Prevost will depend on where the coach is located. If you find a late model Liberty within two hours of my house, I’d be willing to make the drive and help you go through it (especially if lunch and dinner is included). But my skills and experience is somewhat limited. I certainly don’t have the expertise of someone like Jeff Rowe from ETLC or Jon Wehrenberg or Tom Chilcote or the late Peter Campbell or Buddy Brown. Someone like me can help you deal with the big things, the things I’ve already dealt with, etc. but not the little subtle stuff much more experienced guys can help you with.
Good luck with your search!
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I’m not sure anyone can give you a comprehensive annual cost. It will depend too much on the coach you buy, how it has been maintained, and whether you want to go through a “zero-out” procedure as many here propose. Unless you uy a coach from some of the guys here that are sticklers for maintenance, such as Jon, Peter, Al and some others, chances are the previous owner wasn’t all that careful about maintenance. I have seen a coach with 12-year old tires for sale, with extensive delamination (not cheap to fix!), stinky coaches, and I have talked to PC members who don’t believe in regular maintenance. If you buy a zero’ed out coach, or you decide to do that yourself, you can still run into unexpected things, like our leaking radiator that we had not planned on. I believe our Prevost will cost us more than if we had bought a production coach, simply because it is more complex. The air system is much more complex than the production coaches we were considering, you have the 12/24 volt system, and significantly more complex electrical systems for the house in upscale coaches like Marathon, Liberty, Featherlite etc. Admittedly, electrical systems in coaches like Country Coach, American, and Royal are less complicated. Of course, the coaches we were considering would also would have had slides, which would have added expense.
As far as shop rates go, we spent about the same on our last coach as we do at Prevost and Marathon (Although Marathon has a 10% discount if you join their club, so that’s a break). Caterpiller actually had a premium rate for motorhomes, although we got a military discount.
Bottom line: IMHO, you’ll spend more in maintenance on a Prevost, but it’s worth it!
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HJ,
We have a lot of members from all over the country. They own all kinds of conversions and models of Prevost shells.
What we have seen often is a potential buyer gets serious about a coach that is a long way from where he lives. It is not uncommon to see a request for a nearby owner of a similar coach and conversion to do a preliminary inspection. This inspection is not one intended to do anything more than to make sure the coach is worth looking at by the buyer. We literally search the entire naton when we look for a coach to buy. But the internet has limits. Photos do not show the subtle signs of a well maintained coach or those of one that has been abused. The internet cannot reveal the inside of the coach smells like an old cigar or has the odor of mold and mildew.
An experienced owner who lives near where a coach is for sale can spend an hour or so opening cabinet doors, looking for wet spots, sniffing the interior, and seeing the small scratches that show nobody cared.
If you need to go further, and a member is willing, someone with expertise in a specific model and conversion may also be willing to meet with you to walk with you to do a more detailed inspection and to show you how things work (or don’t work).
But keep in mind there are certain things that are important. You need to have the codes checked. You should get under the coach or at least know enough to be able to determine how things are working. A member is not going to bear responsibility if something is missed.
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HJ I think Jon gave you a real close figure of $750 per month, for the question you ask him. We all know there can always be things that need replacing before we expect them to be replaced. That being said Im on my 3rd prevost and I agree with Jon’s reply for what is worth.
Bill S.
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Thank you Bill,
Jon’s advice has always been a little suspect to me but I’ve tried to give him a fare hearing! After that kind of statement I need a bunch of smiley faces. 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 Jon has been a tremendous help to me! I’m a new guy here on the forum and his patience with my questions in combination with his ability to say things in a way that even I can understand makes him truly worthy of the word “wordsmith”! Thank you Jon… Hey Jon, weren’t you the guy who said in another post “we make stuff up”!
I like that $7500 number as well because its an educated estimate and bespeaks the quality of a truly well built machine even after 20 years of service!
My thanks to all,
HJ
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OMG…someone actually agrees with Jon. Hell has froze over, again.
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I have fed HJ so much manure he is raising prize veggies in his garden.
I found out with the folks on this forum we never have to tell the truth as long as we tell people what they want to hear. (My aplogies to all politicians if I have revealed your secret by accident)
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