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Engine size upgrade
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Mark, which conversion did you test drive? Was it one here in the desert??
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What an absolute joke. You had a saleman that couldn’t operate the things you mentioned?
Operating your coach to that bus is like going from a Chevy to a Bentley. When you got your Bentley you didn’t know how to operate anything either.
Later
bv
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I’m a car nut so I knew more about the Bentley than the sales girl (sales manager). They are actually simple machines, just very powerful.
You know, I was a little surprised that the salesman didn’t know exactly every button and the operation of every option. But, he was very nice and sometimes things just happen. The fact is, a Prevost is a high quality coach.
Sid, it was the Prevost Marathon that is on show at the MCC.
MM.
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Our Monaco coach is quieter suprisingly.
Gasp, something is really wrong here… If the saleman couldn’t find the Jake Brake switch, he needs to go back to Oregon for training. By the way, it won’t have an exhaust brake, it will be a Jake (compression brake) that will out perform an exhaust brake many times over.
Thanks for the driver report…
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Tom,
I can never get the name right on what they call that brake. We have the two stage brake on our coach that will almost stop the coach completely on it’s own without touching the service brakes.
The Prevost salesguy said that their brake will do the same thing but we couldn’t find the switch.
Correct me if I’m wrong. I never use the ‘economy’ mode on our Allison transmission. The Prevost had the same Allison pad that we have. The ‘mode’ button, when pushed, puts the transmission in ‘economy’ mode from what I always thought.
The salesman had me push the ‘mode’ button and the red light came on just under the word ‘economy’. My understanding is that in ‘ecomomy’ mode, the transmission will try to stay in the highest gear as long as possible.
Well, I tried it on our coach yesterday. When we finished our test drive of the Prevost, we picked up our coach at the storage garage and took a couple of day trip down to Borrego Springs. I hit the ‘mode’ button on our Allison (for the first time) and the red light lit up just like in the Prevost. On a hill, I mashed down on our accelerator and the transmission did not drop down to a lower gear, it stayed in 6th.
So, the best test in the Prevost would have been to keep it in regular mode so that I would have more power going up the I-10 Sciriaco pass as the transmission would have dropped down sooner to a lower gear.
MM.
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Robert,
I don’t think anyone is questioning the beauty of a Prevost. They certainly do age very gracefully, no doubt about it.
I’m not sure of your comment of how many Monaco’s are at a Cummins shop has to do with anything. Did I misread you post?
The simple math of how many Monaco’s were sold vs. how many Prevosts sold would be obvious from the price point alone.
MM.
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Geeze, don’t use the repairs shop comparison! Have you ever driven by a Prevost facility and looked at how many buses are there or how long in advance you need to call to get a service appointment?
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I guess I still don’t get it.
With all due respect I just cannot imagine how a motor home based on a commercial chassis can be compared or even considered next to a conventional RV.
MM accurately points out our coaches have some disadvantages when compared to a Monaco. And that may be true, but I haven’t seen anyone with a million miles on their Monaco either. Entertainer conversions routinely reach that milestone. So to me the bottom line is you buy a Prevost because it will provide exceptional long term service and safety or you buy a Monaco or a Newell because they were designed from the beginning as a motor home and you like 4 slides and are willing to take the risk on durability.
The Marathon salesman did Marathon and MM an injustice because he did not know the product. He obviously did not know how to select the right mode for the transmission, and he did not know how to engage or operate the jake or the retarder. I wonder how much else he did not know and made up as he went along.
But the bottom line is our conversions are what they are. And no matter how a Monaco compares it doesn’t matter because they are two different products. It’s like comparing a Bentley and an Impala. I bet I could find a lot to bitch about regarding a Bentley, but if a guy is considering one or the other you can bet he ain’t going to buy the Bentley.
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To compare a Monaco Dynasty (sheesh….not even a Signature) on any level, from fit and finish to performance to safety to reliability…..the list goes on and on….to a Prevost bus comes pretty close to bordering on the absurd.
If I were that impressed with ANY Monaco product (I’ve owned more than one) you can bet I never would have shelled out a lot of cash for a Prevost.
There is a world of difference between the two!
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MM…..Jumped on my 6 speed bike with analog brakes to solve the jake-brake question.
Checked the Marathon you drove yesterday finding the bus is equipped with a Jake brake, 2 speed. Switch has been moved onto steering wheel right side. Very easy access at this location.
With the Allision trans question I usually drive in the performance mode.
When on long cruises without major hill climbs… I’ll push the econ. button
That way with slight hills it will stay in gear longer before a down shift. Another thing and I’am guessing most drivers stay in the performance mode (with-out red light). I prefer to drive watching RPM manually dropping a gear before RPM’s lug the engine.
AL
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Al,
Thank you very much for checking that out for me. I saw two buttons on each side of the steering wheel but had no clue as to what they were for as they are not labeled. Darnit, I wish I knew that while taking the test drive. Last night, I tried googling Volvo dashboards but didn’t have any luck yet. I want to see a full view so I can study it.
And to all…. I absolutely don’t want to compare my Monaco to a Prevost. The only thing I compared was the noise/rattle that was behind me while I was driving. I’m sure it could have been easliy fixed as something must have come loose or a person set somthing in a cabinet unsecured.
There is no way my coach compares to the quaility of a Prevost. I certainly can see the quaility in the Prevost chassis in every area of the coach and was very pleased with what I saw. It’s the few quirks with the seat and engine brake that I wish my salesman knew about. I bounced up and down like a jack-in-the-box in that air seat until towards the end it was secured.
The amount of space in the storage bays could make a nice small apt! In one bay, I would want double joey beds and maybe just one joey bed in the other bay. The built-in grill sounds interesting too and I do want an outside TV.
Mark
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I wonder if a Liberty salesperson would have been more knowledgeable?
MM … are you looking at Liberty too?
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Dick,
I have certainly looked at Liberty Coach’s website and have investigated their process. Liberty coach uses one holding tank and use Lithium batteries.
They are older than Marathon but have produced about 800 coaches whereas Marathon has produced a little over 1,200….. Millennium has produced a little over 200 coaches.
Anything I’ve ever bought, I know more than the salesperson…. so far, I’ve not been wrong.
MM.
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MM,
I cannot understand why the Marathon salesman couldn’t answer your questions or lacked some knowledge. I can assure you that is not the norm.
You will not know more than most coach salesman, especially the three you mention. You are fretting over features and details that in the overall scheme of things don’t amount to much, specifically your observation about batteries or the number of holding tanks plus other details you have mentioned. The three converters mentioned have their own way of doing things and while there are things each could do better, the bottom line is all use the Prevost chassis, with Prevost slides, they have similar floor plans, and owners select one over another based on personal tastes or a sense of what they prefer. You are not going to get a coach built exactly how you think you want it because the way each has designed their coach is based on years of development and engineering and they are not going to start your coach with a clean sheet of paper.
Where you are going to be in for a big surprise is if you think you know more than the salesman on any of them. They are complex, they have features it takes a long time to learn, and despite having owned a comparable motor home there is so much to learn when you take possession it is like drinking from a fire hose. I have owned 3 Liberty coaches, and for about 20 years I have done virtually all my onw repairs and service. I like to think I know and understand my coach as well as anyone. But despite my knowledge and understanding of Liberty coaches and the Prevost chassis, when I bought my present coach 2 years ago the amount of new features and details I had ot learn was overwhelming. Yes I could ask the salesman a question he had trouble answering, but for the most part I was in awe.
You may be able to tell a salesman which conversion has two tanks or uses a Jake instead of a retarder, but for the most part your salesman is going to be able to walk you through all the intricate details relating to owning and living with a Prevost conversion.
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You would not experience the lack of understanding with a Liberty sales person, they know their product.
On another note, I prefer the single holding tank. I think grey water mixed with black water using one drain is way better than two seperate tanks. With Liberty’s using the Headhunter toilet, there is nothing but liquid in the holding tank. One tank sensor for fresh water, one for holding tank. Less to go wrong comparted to 3 sets of tank senors and 3 dump valves.
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