-
Buying a Prevost
-
Beautiful car Les….
Parliament is alive an well. Jon and I visited with Ken and Cliff earlier in the month and were very impressed with the changes made. Their store has made the trip to Camping World unnecessary.
-
I have met with Ken a few times, what a great guy, takes time to answer questions, educate the new guys. I would also say that Ken has a good team, when I was looking at a private sale Parliament the folks at parliament were very helpfull with my questions and concerns with the coach.
I also like Parliaments non proprietary systems, and what seems to be a more simplistic setup than having all the fancy proprietary stuff.
Ken took me through the parliament electrical system while I was at the POG show which was a total question to me prior to the show. I now feel I have some BASIC understanding of the electrical system that just seemed really complex prior to Ken providing me with his overview / knowledge.
based on the coaches I have seen, and like everybody on here says, define then find the floor plan you like and decide what the value is based on condition, see if you can come to an agreement to purchase with the seller.
Value seems to be the tuff one to pin down based on what you see and hear, so we all just have to create a value for ourselves of the coach we like.
-
Hey Tom old buddy I gotta jog your memory on this one. I had a gillig chassis under an American Dream I had and that was definitely a bus chassis. They even had them on real busses. LOL
-
For John and me, switching from our Country Coach to the Marathon is like going to Mac from a PC – we never want to go back. We absolutely love our bus! Having said that, that bus was thoroughly inspected by Signature Coachworks prior to our purchase, deficiencies noted and fixed. Having someone you trust who is very knowledgeable about the bus(es) you’re considering purchasing take a look at it is so important. I don’t know all the ins and outs of the different conversions, but do know that the Marathon was the one for us.
Enjoy the search, and post pics when you settle on one!
-
Cathy,
Thanks for the post, it took the heat off me for my bus comment.:)
-
Hey Cathy, was that Country Coach a Prevost conversion or one of their traditional coaches? If a Prevost Conversion, what didn’t you like?
-
We purchased our Marathon through their consignment program. Inspection done by the people who built it.
Also had a TV installed on the front slide with controls through their Tech Link system. This was standard after 2005. As for follow -up after the sale I can brag big time with their tech service support. Most often just getting the Marathon way of how something works is the answer.
FWIW dept..
I’am going out on a limb with this one….Mr. Mark… I don’t know why you look at anything else here on the West Coast but a Marathon with support available here. Marathon will not disappoint you. I say that from owning one.
BTW …..my wife did like the fireplace.
You have 50 +/- here at MCC..nuff said.
-
It was a Country Coach Intrigue. Otherwise known as The Money Pit. And that was when we were in a good mood!
-
Be careful when talking about Country Coach around Gil……..he is REALLLLLYY touchy.
-
Hi Al,
I toured the new Liberty Coach at the MCC today. The saleman and owner of Liberty coach were there along with an additional salesman. The technical information from the owner was amazing. He told us why and how everything was done and thought-through.
I’ll probably take it for a test drive next week.
Personally, it doesn’t matter which location where the converter is located. Our main home is in TN and our 2nd home is in CA. Actually, Liberty Coach in Chicago is closer to my home in TN vs. Marathon to my CA home (six of one, half a dozen of another as they say).
MM.
-
Jon, I’m not a touchy guy. There are just some that haven’t been able to appreciate a Country Coach :-). No needless automation, well done conversion, electrically sound, right sized OTR air and roof air, unmodified Prevost air system, and SilverLeaf glass dash.
If I was buying a newer coach, which I won’t, it would be a 2010 Parliment XLII. Great conversion without unecessary geewiz systems, past the delam problems, and Detroit powered.
-
Ah Gil ole buddy, you failed to mention your Siverleaf is the 10K replacement for the famed CC glass dash.:)
-
Yep Tom, $10K drop in replacement. I self rationalized the cost just like tires and batteries. Let’s see, 15 years of service with the original glass dash. So, that’s about $650 years. I know it’s a lot, but it does alot. BTW, it’s easy to read in any lighting and you get to pick the gauges and stlye you want.
FWIW, my old PC based glass dash worked as did the PC that controlled it. I did lose the analog to digital converter to present those items on the glass dash not available on the Allison or Detroit data bus. It could have been repaired for far less. I just desided to make the upgrade; one that is far more feature rich than the last and it has a purpose built processor. No more waiting for Windows. It also saved my butt trying to troubleshoot an intermittent problem that the Detroit shop couldn’t figure out. The trouble didn’t raise a check engine light as it was too short, but it was saved in the alarm queue in the SilverLeaf…way cool.
Like many things in our coaches, they fail. The important thing is to have a suitable replacement. Not all systems can easily be replaced. As an example, I’ve seen some of the custom controllers that have been made by little companies now out of business to make a Crestron do everything it does in these coaches. Many of these simply don’t exist and there’s no replacement device. Not good.
BTW, anyone can get a SilverLeaf system, Click Here. If you have a new coach, you already have Prevost’s equivalent, so need for new coach owners to migrate
Admin fixed the link..
-
Gil, I was lucky enough to buy a CC that already had the Silverleaf installed and have really enjoyed it. Although I can’t compete with the history or knowledge you veteran bus guys have my experience parallels yours . CC coach air has my wife under blankets in 105 Texas temperatures (to start my defense in advance : NO it does NOT compare to Prevost OTR and if I had it I would brag about it 🙂 ), systems seem very dependable, CC has spent significant time by phone with me to educate me and while I wish CC was still converting these things they certainly don’t make me feel like an orphan. My experience has also been even a beginner can easily find accessible expertise if information is needed. Keep up the CC defense they are great coaches.
P.S. One other thought. When I started searching for a coach and doing my due diligence I was dead set on a Liberty or Marathon for various reasons. Both great coaches. Ultimately I was able to purchase my coach and remodel front to back including all new and additional electronics and appliances with the help of PC sponsors for less than I was able to locate a comparable Liberty or Marathon without any updates.
-
My Monaco Exec is the third coach in my life and came after a lot of research and endless conversation with owners of many brands. Those talking about Monaco as their favorite RV maker spoke first of the ride and stability before talking about interior design.
Several years ago Monaco brought a Roadmaster chassis to the Hershey, PA RV show. Just a chassis, with its red Cummins engine, ten air bags and all the rest. It was actually driveable but for legal reasons had to be transported to the show, a very expensive cost for Monaco.
Being able to actually see where the ten air bags were mounted outside the frame and how this would affect stability sold me on the coach.
After driving a Parliament XL recently I could not feel much difference between it and my Monaco. (This Parliament was older and the cabinetry was rattling rather badly)
Nevertheless, I’m bound for a Prevost.
Les Stallings has been a stalwart on the Monaco owner’s group on Yahoo and has been a huge help with owners there in dealing with many of the same issues that affect Prevost drivers. I agree with his remark about not liking being lumped into the “plastic coach” group.
Incidentally, present and former Monaco owners may be grieving at the news that the Roadmaster “S” chassis is about to get a makeover…something in my opinion that is totally unneccessary. The company is modifying the chassis to have Freighliner chassis parts in the front and rear of the coach. I haven’t heard all the technical details, but it doesn’t sound good to me.
Today at the Volusia County Fairgrounds Alliance Coach was trying desparately to unload a 2014 Monaco Dynasty. The bad news was that Cummins was not represented in the engine compartment. The new owners of Monaco switched to Dynamax with less hp than the 515 normally in this coach. The “show price” on this rig was over two hundred thousand bucks less than MSRP.
Tom Gauger
2001 Monaco Exec 43DSS (Now all-electric!)
Air Force One brake air
Chevy Colorado Toad
Log in to reply.