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Approach/Departure Angle for 40′ XL
Does anyone know the approach/departure angles for a 40′ XL at normal ride height? Or, how steep of a grade can I climb before the front or the rear hangs up? How much do you gain if you are at full height front and rear? I’m looking to stay at a friends house who has a house set about 30 feet above street level and the driveway climbs that in about 100 feet. I’m trying to figure out if I can make it up without hanging up (obviously without driving several hundred miles to find out!!) – Thanks Steve
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9 Replies
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My driveway rises 80 feet in about 285 feet of length. It is not the steepness of the driveway, but how gradual the transition is from the street to the upslope, and from the up slope to the level area at the top.
The only way to find out it your bus will do it is to try it. Do not be afraid to use every bit of the suspension travel and don’t forget you not only can drag at the front or rear you can drag in the center if the top transition is too sharp.
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Steve , On my 91 XL I’ve drug back hitch once and thought it would drag when I seen angle. Mine wasn’t bad scape , just enough to get my attention. I have all manuels from original owner and haven’t seen anything on subject. Just be careful, and if it looks bad go stay up the road.
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Jon,
i have a crown at the top of my drive also and will be getting home on Thursday. I can approach at a slight angle but should I stop and air up the ride before attempting? This will be the first time pulling in so can you explain what I should do? I assume I move the level switch to front, rear (left / right) and air it up. Leave the switch in what position as I’m going over.
Jim
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Jim,
I cannot tell anyone how to position their suspension switches or how and when to raise or lower their coach for specific driveway transitions. Not all of our suspension controls are the same and I know for sure my Liberty suspension control switches are totally unlike yours which is likely to be an unmodified Prevost Level low set up.
However I can tell you the gyrations I have had to go through to navigate my driveway and get into the garage.
At the bottom, coming off the road I transition from somewhat level to the upslope of the driveway. If I leave the coach in the driving height my rear flap begins to drag and exhaust pipes are extremely close to the pavement. The hitch barely clears.
I know this because I have gotten out and observed clearances or lack of clearances.
Once the coach is on the slope there are no clearance issues.
Where the upslope transitions to the level floor of the garage becomes the second clearance issue. I have learned if I leave the rear at the driving height, but raise the front to its maximum the belly of the bus will not drag. I learned this by observing the coach as it crosses the transition by laying on my belly and watching the open space beneath the coach go down to zero. If I do not raise the front of the bus the clearance is less than zero and the end result is damage under the belly of the bus, specifically on my coach the generator baffle is crushed and other baffles and the generator exhaust drag and scrape.
Because my driveway is never level at the apron to the garage the nose is still down on the driveway while the tail is pointing up in the air, so immediately prior to the rear entering the garage I have to drop the rear to its lowest height while leaving the front fully raised. I layed on my belly to make sure when the coach hitch is at the entry to the garage that lowering the rear would not crush anything. Since the coach is mostly past the transition at that point the belly has zero clearance, but nothing is being damaged.
Then I had to get up on a ladder to verify with the front up and the tail down the top of the coach clears the door opening. I have 1/2″ of clearance so I can continue to enter the garage. Just so you can get a mental picture, the driveway slopes downhill so much when the coach is about to enter the garage, the bumper at the rear is as high as my hips. As the coach enters the garage the front continues to come up the driveway. I stop with the coach about 3/4 of the way into the garage to lower the front so the satellite dish doesn’t hit the top of the door opening.
In the phot above the coach is backed up to the other door, but you can see how close the belly is to the concrete. The front of the coach is fully raised.
As the coach is about to enter the garage the tail is sticking way up in the air because the nose is so low. The bumper height is at my hip. The only level concrete on my property is the garage floor.
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Jim: As I recall (legal disclaimer here) from my 1989, the std Prevost LL switch had a drive position (automatic) and then a ft, rr and lr. When placed in any of these 3 positions, you could manually raise/lower that position and the others were locked. So, yes, simply select each manual position individually and air each up without returning to drive position, then drive over obstacle (probably need to insert another legal disclaimer here!!). It won’t hurt to drive the coach that limited distance (I do similar on my coach at some truck stop drives, for instance) but bear in mind you should go very slowly because of the obstruction and the fact that your suspension is very rigid transferring flex stresses into the bus shell.
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wow Jon that is incredible…..what a chore. I don’t think I will have an issue but just thinking ahead. All of my prior coaches got in and out with no scraping. I do have a 4 position switch. Drive height, front, left rear, right rear. I just didn’t know if it would hold the added air when I switched from one to the other….. I’ll take if really slow and have the wife watch. I think it will help going in on an angle also.
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Jim, if you have the unaltered Prevost level low system which your description seems to suggest, as Joel says you can select any position, LH, RH, and front and selectively raise or lower that position. Until you press the up/down switch again, or until you return to the driving or road position the coach should remain at the height you set it at.
Before you take on the challenge of nasty driveways however go to a flat spot and work the system to verify it functions as we describe, and that it remains in the selected position until you go to the road position with the four way rotary switch or press the up/down button.
Navigating my driveway takes longer to describe than it takes to actually negotiate it.
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No problem at all getting in from the road and down the driveway….it ended up the challenging part was going around the circle to back into the pole barn. Not going to try that again……I would rather back it in all the way from the road. The drive back from Nashville was wonderful. The coach averaged 6.2 mpg towing the jeep staying between 65-70. I’ve got a few new punch list items to fix in the next few weeks to get everything just right.
I love my new (to me) coach and can’t wait till Christmas Eve when we hit the road for 4 months.
BTW, it looks like Branson is going to be a no go for me. Everyone pitched in with my dad but things are really shaky right now for he and my mother. Maybe next time though.
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We are going to miss you. Glad to hear the coach is working out very well.
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