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Another thank you to Jeff at East TN Luxury Coach
He was kind enough to quickly walk me through trouble
shooting a chassis battery issue and giving me some pointers that only an
experienced technician has picked up over 20 years of dealing with these things
so I could properly replace the batteries.
Made swapping out the 4 chassis batteries go very quickly and very
trouble free!Then he was nice enough to give me confidence on a road side
repair for a rubbed through webasto coolant line. Since we couldn’t get the
exact 25 feet of hose on a Saturday morning while the coach was broken down in
the parking lot of a hotel that the stereotype of seedy motels was based on, he
gave his approval for using a standard heater hose so we were able to get it
repaired and on our way.The Police (who came through the hotel parking lot 4 time)
and the fire department (who came through twice) kept asking us what we were
doing there and advising us to move it if we could (none of their trips through
the place were for us, although the fire fighter did stop by after his shift
ended the next morning to check on us and make sure we were still okay). Couldn’t believe the hard working people that
kept business hours till 6am in the morning at that place! I got a good 30 minutes of sleep keeping an
eye on our coach.
Will be bringing the coach back to Jeff to get all hoses inspected and replaced if needed (plus swap out the temp fix with the proper heavy duty hoses).
Oh and if you are broken down and need service in the ATL area, W.W. Williams (who are DD certified) are great. Wish I had called them first and saved myself the “service fee” for another outfit that left me waiting for four hours while they tried to find a store to get the hose from. They need to explain to their dispatch what the internet is and how to use it. So much stuff out there on the information super highway such as parts stores their locations and hours as well as phone numbers so they could call and confirm they were open, had what they needed and where not a wharehouse. I finally called their dispatch back at 10 PM and told them to come get their jack out from underneath my coach and I wasnt about to pay for them sending their mechanic all over the west side of Atlanta on a Friday evening.
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17 Replies
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Our coaches use a variety of hose types. Some of the hoses are almost bullet proof. Some on the other hand are going ot have a very short life because the selected materials just don’t hold up for the application.
Like Charles I found out the hard way a hose that looked perfect failed while we were on the road, but fortunately I could deal with the problem with the help of a mechanic that was a few hundred feet away. I realized when I went through and changed all that type hose I was lucky because a number of others were in danger of failing.
The hoses are difficult to see in all cases because they are everywhere through the coach. They are at heat exchangers, they are at the engine, they are at bay heaters, the HW tank, etc. My current course of action is when I change coolant I go through and find every hose I can, inspect the hoses, and any that are even questionable I change. That’s one of the reasons I would rather eat bees than change coolant, but it has to be done,.
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Jon,
The hose that had a small hole due to rubbing (probably could
have used a couple tie wraps in certain locations to reduce the rubbing) is a
steel double coil re-enforced hose. Not the easiest to find at your average
auto parts store even when you are in an industrial area surrounded by
trucking, warehouses and a muni airport (and one hotel that seems to do
business by the hour). That is why I went with the standard heater hose
to get me moving 🙂
I will make sure all hoses are checked as best as they can,
replace the ones I have a temporary solution for and replace any that look like
they need replacing. Just one more item to keep on the radar while
“maintaining” a coach like this…
I will say I am happy this failed where it did as we were
basically at the perimeter of Atlanta. Many options for mobile service. Something
we were really pushing to deal with as Tam has a lot of experience with big rig
recovery when she ran tow trucks in Seattle and Santa Cruz. We have come to the
agreement we will do what it takes to get the coach under its own power rather
than deal with a recovery.
We have Coach-Net, Allstate and a couple other “RV”
towing services, but that is just for those events where something can’t be
fixed without being brought to a service center. I did however verify
with Prevost Friday Night what was needed to be done just in case we needed to
tow the thing and we both decided the axels were the best bet rather than the
drive shaft.
I am seeing that year one will be a big investment in terms of
cost of ownership. With the little things going wrong and other maintenance
items I am trying to zero out as I don’t know everything about this coach. But
hopefully once I am done with all this it will be much easier year to year.
Just need to get a couple more items checked out and worked on so we can make
a run up to the Pacific North West, down through the South West and back to the
ATL next month. -
Charles, you are correct in that when you have gone over the coach and know the starting point for all your services and replacement items there is little that will go wrong. The key for me has been to exhaustively go over the coach when I first get it (like Peter does) and make sure I am confident of everything.
Then I can literally go miles and years with little more than routine maintenance. The big advantage I have is I am able to get under the coach every 5000 miles and I spend more time looking at things looking for exactly the kind of issue you experienced.
I think when you and Jeff are beneath it you will find all is OK and if you do encounter anything it is unlikely to be a big problem. There is one set of hoses you should take a very hard look at on your coach. You have a pair of copper pipes running over the tag and drive axles up tight to the underside of the floor on the driver’s side. They go to the bulkhead in front of the drive axle. At that point there is a short section of rubber tubing just before the tubes go through the bulkhead. Those sections of tubing are overlooked and if they get too old they will fail. I caught mine just before they started to be an issue and I really dodged a bullet. I think they go to the HW tank to heat it while driving. Check them over.
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Thanks Jon, will do.
I am thinking this time when I bring it to Jeff, I will plan to spend a day (or two) shadowing him and checking more things out for myself with it up on the lift (that is if he doesn’t kick me out 🙂 ).
The past couple trips have been dropping it off with a list of things needing addressing. I figure if I can get up under there I can see more things to add to the list and spend money on (hey, I dont race GP250 bikes anymore, I would piss more money away on those things twice a month like it was going out of style!).
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So Charles, my battery quote was not competitive?
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not competitive as in now one can compete with your lower prices? sorry, didnt make it to the coach today and check on the batteries or get in touch with jeff to see if he rembers what style battery i have. tomorrow i will know, i promise 🙂
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Charles: I think we stayed in one of those motels you were parked near. We had flown into ATL and drove to Birmingham to spend the weekend crewing for a Wisconsin based ARCA stock car team racing at Talladega. We were flying out of ATL early Monday morning, needed to stay close to the airport, and we made reservations (late of course) there weren’t many options as there were lots of people leaving Talladega after the race and flying out MOnday morning.
We have to 2x the compliments you paid Jeff Rowe. He is an asset to anyone who owns a Prevost or is thinking of buying one. We heartily recommend his services.
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He was kind enough to quickly walk me through trouble shooting a chassis battery issue and giving me some pointers that only an experienced technician has picked up over 20 years of dealing with these things so I could properly replace the batteries. Made swapping out the 4 chassis batteries go very quickly and very trouble free!
How many beers did you have Charles, looks like the job is done!:)
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Tom,
Those were the four batteries in the engine bay that I swapped out on Friday. The house batteries we know are at the end of their life and need new ones. Those are the ones I need to get to the bus today and figure out what the connection types are to order the 3 replacements from you (should be 3 for the classic).
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OK, got it… I think you’ll find auto post, but could be blade. My 01 only had 3 which is marginal at best for overnight dry camping. I could make it 10 hrs, but had to be very stingy on the juice usage.
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If there is space on the rack adding a fourth 8D will make a big difference in the number of hours before you need to start the generator when dry camping. Mine were behind the passenger side tag axle and I had 4 8Ds on my 97 Elegant Lady.
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Tom, Does the shipping charges include delivery and sitting behind me explaining what to do? 🙂 I’ll supply the beer of course! Actually is the shipping to your place or mine? Either works for me, I can come get them from you if that’s easier for you/lifeline.
Found a couple threads on swapping batteries our (one was a Vantare and I think the other was a Liberty). Looks like it’s pretty simple outside the lifting heavy batteries out and back in the battery bay. Think the floor jack is the way to go with that task.
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Charles, I horsed my 165 pound batteries in and out myself. I used anything I could to minimize or avoid lifting. I made a ramp to slide them in and out of my Gator. I now have a motorcycle lift and that will be how I get them in and out when I change them again. I think someone that is very strong can lift them into position, but that is a risk I am not going to take.
The key to a successful changeout is not the physical effort to do the swap, but to prevent sparks when moving the cables. On your vintage coach you have an air hookup point and a regulator only accessible with the batteries out. When the are out check that pneumatic assembly for leaks and repair or replace before putting in the batteries. I believe the air to the retarder, belt tensioner and maybe something else is what that pneumatic assembly is for.
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ABout 15 years ago I helped a friend with a 48 foot Ocean Alexander yacht wrestle the old batteries out and the new batteries into the engine compartment (?) of his boat. Are the batteries in our buses the same as what would have been in a yacht like my friends?
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Charles is smart, he surrendered to Jeff..
Dick – Yep, some stuff, 8D’s….
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