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Bringing my ’04 H3 Vantare Home
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Good call on new tires and complete set (6) Centramatics. An amazing product that preforms as they advertise.
I can also remember our Country Coach days with the laundry list of things needing fixing , adjustment or replacement after every trip.
Centramatic advertises on PC and if you go to web site they have a short video which explains what a Centramatic does.
The best thing about there product is it works.
The balance weight was discovered lodged in the tag axle back splash. Mary Ellen says the lamp shades
no longer shake in the bedroom. with Centramatics installed.
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David,
Nice looking ride! We have certainly enjoyed our H3. We are only 60 miles from you down the mountain in Forest City. also work with lots of folks in Asheville at Baxter Healthcare in Marion.
Tom Hamrick
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David
Congratulations on your new ride. I know you have been looking for years. Very exciting to have a trip with no list at the end. I hope your ongoing experience is as good.
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David,
As another previous Wanderlodge owner, let me say welcome to the dark side:) Great looking bus! Enjoy.
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just want to say what a Beautiful Bus and congratulations to a new Prevost owner.
We travel I 26 through Asheville often and when I see a big grin on the guy driving that bus I will know who it is.
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A bus owner secretly dreams of making a trip. JUST ONE TRIP Where everything goes just swell. Nothing goes wrong, that mythical journey down life’s highway that is for the most part relaxing and uneventful. Where every turn is a left turn and the passing lane is never shut down in fifteen hundred feet.
Who hasn’t dreamed over a cup of coffee at Denny’s late into the night of forty-five feet of luxury, lined with Maui Wowie Teaky Wood from Hawaii and every electronic gizmo there ever was, at the flip of a rocker. A shop big enough to hold a Goodyear blimp and a little room left over for the John Deere lawn tractor.
Bus guys in the quiet moment of the day dream of .. Miles and miles of highway and no cops or D.O.T., a cold start that is smokeless on a chilly morning, an air buzzer that never goes off, or if it does, it runs a minute or two and then quits, a grandchild who doesn’t slam the front door.
Bus guys pine for 79.9 diesel and no line at the fuel desk, a wide expanse of open ground, an occasional uninhabited parking area for a U-turn when he is lost, and plenty of room at the back of the lot, when the day is over and he is tired. Hot, black coffee, two sugars, and no conversation at the beginning of the day. Here is the reality of it all:
Any trip that you make it home is a good one.
Any trip that you make it home on time is a great one.
Any trip that you make it home on time & can reuse the bus is an EXCELLENT ADVENTURE!Not long ago … Limping home on New Mexico State #390 ( a great little two lane by the way, if you have a throttle) I looked at the wife and said to her, “I would like to make one trip, just ONE LOUSY TRIP where I didn’t have to work on this monster.” But my bride, bless her heart, she has heard it all before.
Many, many times before.
She just smiled that smile that she has, nodded her head, and went back to her I-touch and video poker. Women do not share the same dreams as men. I have conclusive proof that I will gladly share around the truck-rim campfire some night at a bus meet to be named later. Hmmmmmm? … One trouble free trip. It is a nice thought, perhaps if I may take it one step further … A nice dream.
See you in the fast lane. Watch those right-handers.
<>DS<>
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Every trip I have ever made in my COUNTRY COACH for the last six years has been just as you described !!!!!!!
REALLY ?????????
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Budy, Buddy, Buddy……….
The reason you don’t have to fix anything after trips in you CC is because you can’t get the parts.
Wait for it………..
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Buddy, I and our fellow pre Crestron Country Coach owners love the fact that we rarely need replacement parts.
Feeling sympathy for those that seem to always be working on their bus, I broke down and replaced a couple Sunmulon switch LEDs the other day.
Sure, there’s the occassional loose hose or maybe a failed sensor, but really this old 99 with over 100K miles on it has been far more reliable than our 08 plastic coach with less than 20K miles. We drove from Florida to Alaska and spent the better part of a year on the road. We upgrades our PC glass dash to the SilverLeaf dash, had an irratic TPS, lost a fan belt, had one leaking hose clamp in a tough place to find, had a very minor drip from one of the Webasto pumps, and replaced the front shocks (because we wanted to). That doesn’t seem too bad to me. Never were we stranded by any of these.
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I was lucky enough to read all of David’s blogs from his trip bringing the bus home with his Dad and I was really touched watching he and his dad’s videos… they were having a blast…..memories they will always treasure forever!!
I know you will enjoy your Vantare David… it’s perfect for you and your family…our kids spent every weekend in Bluebirds and Newells growing up and they had a blast …. the memories go on forever !!
Enjoy !!
Cheers, Diane
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Thanks everyone for the kind comments and wellwishes. You’ve made me feel very much at home. Thanks to Prevost, the Richmond BC and Nashville TN service centers, and the overall motorcoaching experience, My dad and I had the time of our lives. I love the bus and being an engineer I tend to get wrapped up in the mechanicals, but it’s the memories that these fine machines and this lifestyle afford that are what it’s all about. To spend the quality one-on-one time that I did with my Father will always be with me. We both hope we can do it again soon, but we both know opportunities are rare… but when they appear, we must sieze ’em! Safe travels! 🙂
Thanks!
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Thought I’d mention the last time my Father was on the road to this extent in a bus was in 1953 when he was a boy scout. He saved for a year and a half for a national club meet in New Mexico. We talked about it on the way. I imagine the bus they were in was a 1950’s GM Silverside, maybe a 4103, 35′ in length with a normally aspirated 6V71 Detroit Diesel. Top speed 62 mph, but traveling Route 66 from town to town it’s doubtful they averaged more than 40 mph. He was a hipster on Highway 66 before traveling on 66 was hip! LOL! 🙂
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David,
You are going to have A LOT of Prevost memories. Please keep the bad ones out and try to remember the few special moments when you were not getting something fixed, waiting to get something fixed or returning to Prevost to have them fix the correct thing. It usually takes Prevost at least 2 visits to get the fix right but you will still pay for the wrong fix and the right fix.
I’m not making this up, I now see this on a fairly regular basis and it’s just been detailed out in a recent post about overheating issues. It seems to have become the norm and you just have to accept that the techs aren’t tech’s any longer but just parts replacers who hope to get it right without the background to know if they are doing the right thing or not.
Unfortunately, this is not exclusive to Prevost. It seems to be a problem in the entire industry and you just have to hold tight onto your checkbook, supervise every thing everyone does, tell them when you thing they are mistaken and then, in the end, just hope you don’t get stranded in the desert.
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Bill as for your negative comments about Prevost , I have had lots of work done there and they do a great job , only, once did they have to redo a job they did and it was not there fault , and I am anal as any one, but I watch everything they do when the tech goes for coffee, or lunch that’s when I go to bathroom or get coffee , If you are that unhappy about there service don’t go back , do it your self , not every time you have work done should you be unhappy , that sounds like you are never happy , please be real , We are all tired of hearing about all the poor service you have got , please post something that was good or great , It can not always be that poor , something good came of it some how…. The Problem is not the problem . The problem is your attitude about the problem.
Do you understand ????
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Bill
Why are you raining on the man’s parade?
Later
bv
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