[Archived]

I missed this too. Excellent article Boys! Especially since I did most of this (and more) over the last few months

[Ted]

Thanks for the comment guys. There is another article in the works. We are always looking for ideas so if anyone has some on what articles would be helpful let us know.

[Joe]

Great article and brings up a couple areas I would like to ask for comments/thoughts on.

I was in the situation of getting a coach with very little documentation. I went into it with eye open. However, this article would have made it very clear what I was to expect on the chassis side. Would it have changes my purchase decision? Probably not. The “bones” of the coach we bought was what we purchased. The age we were looking at limited us to the availability certain pallets used for design (interior and exterior). We wanted something that was a little more subtle in colors and in the late 90’s it seemed there were limited options for something a little more “earthy” in tones.

With that being said, we had the chassis inspected and Prevost did a good job pointing out what was needed now, what was needed at some point in the future and what was good. The list for “now” was simple. A leaking drive hub seal. The list for some point in the future was basically all service items since they could only go off visual inspection (since I didn’t own the coach, they couldn’t provide me with records). Overall we decided to roll the dice and go with it.

I didn’t go the route of “zeroing” out the entire coach on day one. Luckily Jeff opened his shop pretty much at the same time we purchased out coach and even better, he was 2 hours north of us up 411, which is really a nice drive through North Georgia and Eastern Tennessee.

I never came out and said I didn’t want to afford a $20K + shop bill with jeff on my first visit, but rather worked with jeff to identify items that needed attention now, soon and down the road based on visual inspections and his knowledge. We have worked through the now and soon list and are on the down the road items. Nothing has “failed” at this point and hopefully one more visit will conclude that zeroing out list (remaining airbags and brake chambers)

However, the list of maintenance is much more extensive then what has been outlined in this article. There are hoses, fittings, gaskets, etc. that will start to go bad as the coach ages. Spending some time under the coach by a good tech like Jeff as well as an untrained individual like myself will help identify those areas. Some times you get to find them by surprise (and get to visit a crack/whore hotel in the not so good part of town for a night will you wait for a road side service guy to come help you out). This is what Jon was talking about getting under/in your coach with the technician and ask questions if you see something that you dont understand and think it right. I even found the mechanic at Prevost was willing to talk with me while they worked on my hub seal. I just needed to uderstand a very Canadian French accent to have that conversation 🙂

The list is manageable over time if you can’t do it all at once. Work with your service provider and make a plan/budget. And remember, there is always more to do no matter if you already went through the list in the article 🙂 But not keeping up on the service/maintenance is much more expensive then doing it. Failure while driving can get not only expensive but dangerous. And then those items that didnt fail but need maintenance will only reduce the resale value when you go to sell.