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Bringing my ’04 H3 Vantare Home
Folks,
I flew into Kamloops, BC on Sunday April 13th. Met up with the seller on Monday morning to complete the transaction. I then drove the bus to Vancouver to have a complete chassis service done by Prevost in Richmond. Pretty routine, but they noticed tight bearings on the fan hub, so we put in a new hub, they also spotted dried and cracked suspension control arm bushings on the tag and drive, so they installed 14 new bushings. Other than that, it was routine, fluids, filters, and grease, but instead of one day planned for service it stretched into two. I left at 9:00pm on Wednesday heading to the Blaine Washington border crossing. I had every piece of paperwork imaginable. When I arrived I filled out two additional forms, gave them everything I had, they inspected the coach, they were happy with my 3520-21, and HS-7 forms, my letter from Prevost, and my certification from Detroit Diesel. Ultimately the coach was imported as a re-importation of a US vehicle – simple as pie and only two hours at the border.
From there I took a quick drive to Bellingham Wa for an overnight stay at Walmart. In the morning I made a 200 mile drive to pick up my father at the Portland Or airport. There was no way of driving the bus up to the arrival terminals so I parked at a local Target that had MaxLine tram access to the airport. My dad got on the tram and met me at Target, and we were off to Marathon Coach in Coburg, Or where we spent the night.
At Richmond, BC the mechanics failed to properly tighten one of my drive axle tophats which soon departed from the coach. On Thursday morning I spoke with the parts manager at Marathon, showed him a pic of my tophat, he reached for a tophat off a nearby shelf and said, “like this one”? I said, “yup”, and asked how much. He said, “free of charge”! Yippee! Great folks up there at Marathon in Coburg.
We left Marathon and took a ten minute drive down to Superior Tire in Eugene, Or where I had 8 new tires and 6 Centramatics installed. (I had previously arranged for Centramatic to drop ship my balancers to Superior Tire. After 2 hours, and $5400 later we were on our way. Now we’re were ready to make tracks.
First CG stop was on the Sacramento river in Redding Ca after a beautiful day of viewing Oregon and Mt. Shasta. The next morning I took 44 east to Carson City and picked up 395 south at Reno for a scenic tour down the east side of the Sierra Nevadas. We camped a Lee Vining, Ca just at the base of Mono Lake. Snow capped mountains to the west and desert mountains to the west. I wanted my dad to see Death Valley so at Mount Whitney we descended from 8000 ft to 200 feet below sea level in about 5 miles! Truly spectacular and worth the effort. We then continued on thru the Mojave desert and arrived at a KOA in Needles, Ca for the night.
Now that we were on I-40 we needed to make haste for my dad’s doctor visit. We blasted 700 miles that day and camped in Santa Rosa New Mexico, the next day another great drive with a layover in Sallisaw, Ok. We caught a great country music radio station around Little Rock, Ar and decided to make a few videos! 🙂 I then noticed that my S60 temperature gauge was swinging wildly, 150 deg F to 230 deg F in a 2 second interval and then back to 150. I new the engine wasn’t sourcing and the radiator sinking that quantity of heat power so I called Prevost service in Nashville, Tn to schedule a service. They installed a new temperature sensor and we were on our way home. Arrived in Asheville, NC this past Thursday evening at 10:00pm after covering almost 4000 miles! The bus performed flawlessly. My dad said he’d do it again in a heartbeat!
The next day my wife and kids saw the bus for the first time and loved it! 🙂
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42 Replies
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Congrats on the new coach, sounds like you and your dad had a great trip. Did you find a coach with bunks. Did you do a private sale.
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Beautiful coach, congratulations.
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David Thats a good looking H congratulations also
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Great post David, thanks for taking the time to share your adventure.
Taking your dad on the trip and sharing your excitment is one of those special times.
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Great job David good luck with the coach BC is great
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Great looking bus David…
I’m right behind you, having just went through the import circus today at Port of Entry in Porland, my bus also from BC.. Customs threw a curv at us and we had to get a document faxed from Marathon, but it all worked out and no cost.
Will be heading east in another couple days.
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Ok Tom where are the pics, David did his show it be your time to put the pics when you get home.
Hish
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Congrats to the new bus owners. Fun ahead.
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Congrats…beautiful coach.
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Paul, It was a private sale. No bunks, but two very sturdy and comfortable sleeper couches up front, and two large closets that can be converted to one or two bunks. This, along with a king size bed in Vantare’s bedroom superslide keeps my wife happy!
Al, It was an incredible time for my Dad and me. He loves motorhomes, but an earlier purchase of a class C (Coachhouse) along with it’s less than satisfactory road manners ruined it for my parents – my Mother simply refused to go. On this trip he said he’s absolutely convinced that a bus is the only way to travel. He’s looking forward to our next adventure!
Peter, Bringing the coach home from Kamloops was pure pleasure. We took many scenic routes to keep things interesting, but the drive from Kamloops to Vancouver was stunning!
Tom, I wish I had known that you too are importing a bus from CN. We could have compared notes. Good luck on your journey and I’m looking forward to pics!
Thanks everyone for the congrats and wellwishes! 🙂 The coach is simply a magic carpet ride; it absorbs everything the road throws at it. I can hardly believe the level of sophistication as compared to my 2002 Wanderlodge LXi. Everything works! This is the first time I took a multi-thousand mile trip and didn’t arrive home with a laundry list of items to fix. I may need to buy a hobby Wanderlodge just to keep busy! LOL
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David, haven’t we been trying to convince folks of what you said?
All kidding aside we are beneficiaries of the extensive real world experience Prevost has on the commercial side of things and while I am sure other coaches are very nice, there is no substitute for a chassis that has evolved over millions and millions of miles.
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Jon, it has a ‘one-piece’ feel to it. There are no chassis squeaks, growns, rattles, or pops. It feels like it has a yard of suspension travel. I weighed it on a Cat scale and it came in at 51,800 lbs, with a GAWR of 54,500 lbs. My weight distribution is:
steer: 16,740; drive: 21,500, and tag: 13,580, and my axle capacities are 18,000, 22,500, and 14,000 respectively, weighed with full fuel and water and two on board with all belongings. According to the Michelin load tables I can run 100 psi on my steers, and 85 on my drives and tags. It’s hard to imagine a 52K lb canyon carver, but that’s what it is.
After 4K miles my prodriver tells me I got 7.1 mpg, and I corroborated this with paper and pencil (miles driven/gallons pumped).
Eight hours of labor plus parts got me a completely new set of suspension bushings on the drive and tag axles; try that on a Wanderlodge. The disc brakes are a model of simplicity, powerful, safe, and a huge reduction in moving parts and grease points.
The house doesn’t shake. In my bird, if I threw it into a turn I could feel the roof and walls deflect to the outside. Not so on my p-bus. Of course, anything this big will deflect, but it’s not measurable from the driver’s seat!
Then there’s the network of service centers, a parts department, a dedicated company backing me up and wanting to keep my bus on the road. When I purchased my Wanderlodge I had these things too; sadly, we lost these items in the 2008 crash. It feels wonderful to have this support again. The vehicle is simply stunning. Okay, I’ll stop gushing now… LOL! 🙂
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You are hooked. The Wanderlodge group might drum you out now that you made that post.
As far as frame deflection, I am sure there is some, but I often have my coach on stands. Occasionally I will use rigid stands at the rear, but a pair of Harbor Freight air over hydraulic jacks under the front supports. When I do that I can jack up one side of the front and the opposite side lifts off its jack by the same amount. I am sure there is some twist, but I cannot see any evidence of it. When the frame is rigid like that the suspension is always going to work significantly better than with a chassis that twists or sways.
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To be fair, I am comparing my (2003 chassis) H3 to my previously owned 2002 single slide LXi. The LXi production run ran from 1998 thru 2003. It was designed in 1997 but carried with it many of the design elements of earlier Wanderodges including the centrally located c-channel backbone and the Ridewell steer, drive, and tag axle suspension systems; it was very much an evolutionary design. These design elements date to the earliest of Wanderlodges built in the 70’s and 80’s. Wanderlodge knew they had to bring their motorhomes into the 21st century; hence, the M450 which debuted in 2005. I’m sure the M450 compares more favorably in ride and chassis stiffness to the Prevost, but BlueBird only built 56 of them and never developed them to their full potential. The M450 used Arvin Meritor suspension systems including an IFS steer axle and air disc brakes, it still had a c-channel backbone, but of much smaller dimension, and the body was built of stainless steel square section tubing in more of a Prevost fashion. I guess I just got tired of making own parts and sourcing suppliers and service centers willing to work on my ‘bird. Life is good again with factory backing, parts, and service centers lending a helpful hand. It’s important that we take care of our factory and recognize their importance and where we would be without them. Ask me… I know… as I’m sure many of you do too! 🙂
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