[Andre]

Andre,

I believe Prevost allowed buyers to select a solid axle or IFS and only recently (last several years) made all with IFS. I wouldn’t worry about which type axle it has. Some will say the reduced turning radius of the solid axle is a drawback but until I got my current coach I had solid axles and I would easily accept one again due to its simplicity and lack of needed maintainance.

I suspect the change to 365 tires was an early to mid 2000 year around 2003 to 2005 but a lot of owners made the change just like a lot of H3 owners changed the front ends to use the single piece windshields instead of the two piece upper and lower windshields.

I would presume Prevost started installing slides around 2000, but prior to that and after that some converters were installing their own slides (Vantare comes to mind with HWH and Marathon with Valid? slides). Even after Prevost made their own slides some converters continued to install their own, and some coaches had slides installed after conversion such as Excaliber was doing. Regardless of service history I suspect in the long term Prevost will support the slides, but I am not sure long term product support will be available for non-Prevost slides. Others may disagree, but I believe some original slide producers are out of business.

If I were in the market for an H3 I would assemble my list of preferences. Regardless of model year there are some things we insist on and those things tend to narrow the search. OTR is a must. A private toilet is a must. A Prevost slide is a must. Just those requirements narrow the field of choices so what you choose as “must haves” starts to define what you will settle on. Once you have your list complete you are likely to sacrifice some lesser requirements to make sure you get the most important things on your list.

[Andre]

Andre,

You may find that with the giant bay storage, you may not even
need slides if you’re looking at the early H’3’s. A slide would sure
make full timing much better, not sure what type of use your thinking
about. I would stick with a Prevost slide personal y, but there are
many out there with Valid and HWH and you really don’t hear a lot of
problems like the plastic coach world.

As Diane pointed out several times, do not buy an H without OTR
and that’s good advice. As to the IFS, whatever you look at in
the years you stated will likely have the IFS. Check that out really
good, rebuilding the front end on an IFS bus is pricy, just ask me.

In my opinion, the 365’s for tag and steer would also be a plus.

[Archived]

Jon,

Thanks, I am trying to narrow down my choices to what is essential and what I might be able to afford to buy. OTR, 2 slides, privare toliet, room for the wifes bird cage and giant embroidery sewing machine top the list. I really doubt we will replace what we have now, but it is fun to look and dream and sometimes it is even possible to make a dream come true. I would not have this bus if I had not had a dream 10 years ago and started down that road.

[Andre]

Tom,

Thanks for the input. We are thinking about this with full timing in mind. 2 slides is a “would really like to have” from the space stand point and keeping the wife happy. But, the reality is, I am sure we could make do with no slides if everything else we wanted was on the coach. Available bay storage could possibly out weigh the slides, especially taken purchace cost into account.

[Jim/Chris]

Interesting how opinions differ. I have owned 6 H’s over the years. When Prevost changed from a solid axle to IFS I noticed a huge difference in driving especially going into curves. IFS would be a must for me.

The first 3 coaches had over the road air. The last 3 did not. At first I was really concerned about this. We found that the dash air did a great job especially combined with the front cruise air which can be run off the house batteries. For the few times that we needed more we would turn on the generator and run additional curise airs. OTR cost quite a bit and takes a very long time to pay for if paying for out of generator fuel usage. The most important thing though was we gained a full storage bay on the passenger side. I would not want an H with OTR for this reason. What you lose in storage space does not outweigh the benefits of OTR for me. I live in Florida and I defintely understand the need for a/c.

My current oach is a Vantare with HWH slides. I have had only one problem with my slide not coming in. Called Donnie Meyers RV Service and he talked me through how to get slide in. It came in, but would not lock.Drove it home 2200 miles without incident so that Donnie could repair. We replaced all of the Slide motors, etc. as preventitive maintenance while repairing..

[Archived]

Carguy,

Thanks for the differnet view point. I have to admit an opion form someone on thier 6th H is worth a lot. You have made some points that I will diffently take into account. Available storage space is very importenet to us since we would be full timing in the next coach.

[JIM]

As a new slide owner here is a dose of reality.

Slides eat up space. Lots of it. They also add weight. They also increase maintenance costs. Keep in mind however we are not going back to a non-slide coach because the drawbacks do not offset the benefits to us and how we use our coach. But we don’t full time it so if lots of storage is important give serious thought to the importance of slides. The space lost is about 9″ per side in the interior. Two slides and you have lost about 3′ of something along that side of the coach. The space is needed for the mechanism and it may cost a closet, or take a little from each room or maybe the space lost would have been a pantry. But regardless of what is lost space was given up.

On an H the impact on the bays is probably less critical, but in an XLII the slide structure eats up headroom in the affected bays. Because of the slides I lost the ability to carry a pair of bikes in my bay, something easily done on my non slide XL.

OTR is wasted on a coach that spends a lot of time in RV parks. The only time it is of value is when you are driving. But regardless of how you will use the coach the thing to consider is if you can live with the same set up you have in the Royale with driver’s air and limited roof air in the living area (without running the generator) then you know what a non OTR coach will be like. But if you spend a lot of time on the road nothing beats having OTR for whole coach comfort. Personal opinion. The gain in space by eliminating it is the equivalent of a pair of shallow depth bays on each side because the center of the coach between the OTR condenser and evaporator coils is the fuel tank.

As to IFS my seat of the pants is not talented enough to be able to discern the difference between a solid axle and IFS. That’s kind of a moot point anyway because the model year of the coach you select is going to decide what you get. I have IFS now and would rather have the simplicity of the solid axle.

[Archived]

Andre,

As you know from when we were at TGO for the shuttle no launch, we had our Marathon H3-45. Of all the coaches we have had labeled Prevost, the XL45 w/2 Hwh slides, the XLII 45 single Prevost slide, the H3-45 no slide, and now the XL40 slide-free and the only one we have owned with a solid front axle, the H3-45 Marathon was the nicest riding, the driver sits lower than the other coaches, which does put you in the line of site of oncoming Hibeams more so than the stainless coaches, tho.

The H gives you some goodies earlier that you had to wait for in the XLII.

It gives you disc brakes all the way around unlike the XL’s that had drum on the drive as you know with yours

The side windows are dual pane which aids in heating, and cooling and noise reduction from outside.

The side windows are 60inches by 42, so finding a coach with the most side windows beside the trapezoid is tough for max brightness for natural light. Marathon seems to use 3 large side windows, but they have a tendency to cover one up with cabinets or frig, If we had kept ours a future idea was to open up the 3rd curbside window to see out.

Also, the 4 panes up front gives you much visual exposure as well, that changed out to larger 2 sectional windshield at least in Marathon in 2005, shell date 2004. The swingdown TV maximizes front window viewing with no fixed forhead cabinets or TV, but we didn’t like them, personal preference.

You also get the air activated push button for tilt telescoping steering wheel like the XLII

The rear engine hood opens to expose lots of engine bay, and in case you want to do the DDEC topend tune with valve lash, you need not tear the bedroom apart to gain acces to top of motor, There is that much room over the engine to take off the valve cover. There is no floor access in the bedroom.

Also , the floor is flat from salon area stairs rearward.

Fuel tank capaicity is 235 gallons, Marathon used HWH slides which when extended are flat floors until Prevost installed slide in the 2004 model year. Problem with HWH, is the slideroom needs to be removed to replace the airbladder at least in the front slide, unlike Prevost slide.s The bedroom slide can be teased to recess into the coach like Prevost does for both.

365 tires came with the 2005 Marathon’s, for both tag and steer, Some have upgraded to them, but we didn’t feel the need on ours. We wenen’t at max weight on the front or our H and we didn’t need to run 130 psi either, If you want, there is no reason other than being able to bring a tag 365 up front for a flat since they are not as come on the road for replacement like a 315, but you could get by on a 315 until you found a 365,. so for 4 grand you can update an H that didn’t have 365’s, the tag IMHO is a waste of money if your want the upgrade on the steer.

Remember, the H3-45 is 12ft 5 center roof without considering antennas, roof vents, etc a full foot taller than the you coach.

Looking at an H, we have found the sikaflexed in trapezoid windows are known for leaking. Should pay atteneion to the window sill “V’ at the window bottom for water staining. Earlier than 2005 model H3-45 the side windows are hung a track and then bolted in at the bottom sill with a full window frame, The newer H’s havve glued iin windows for that flush mounted clean slippery look.

House batteries are normally in marathon located over the drive and tag tire curbside, and the whole fender comes of with several lever clips, they are heavy using two people,

Pay attention to bay door struts, when worn, the huge bay door can be a hazard, I got trapped in one of the bays for several hours until Chris found me,,-)))

Performance-wise, our 2000 H3-45 on 1999 shell, was similar to 2000 Country Coach Affinity with the 455 hp Cat motor,The aerodynamics of the H we think is best overall for slipping thru the air,

If you look at the front profile from th side, you will see the windshield has much more of a rake than the stainless coaches, Also, if you look down the side you will see the sidewalls taper in towards to the top much sooner than the stainless coaches as well, then there is the step-up on the roof which I am sure does something for mileage as well,. With 110,000 miles on our H when we sold it, the DDEC info screen was telling out highway mileage was close to 8,, Steve Bennett told me when he was delivering the coach to Las Vegas the Into screen was telling him 8.2 mpg, Once we closed in on the 100,000 mile mark, it was like a switch was thrown and the mileage went up.

We will have another H3-45 and probably with slides, but that time we will spend more than a few days at any location.

Hope this helps,.

[Archived]

Jim,

I sure appreaciate your detailed answers. You and Chris have owned a wide varity of coaches and your experience with so many types sure makes your comparsions between coaches a valuable resource. I am hoping with enough research and the answers I am getting on this thread that I will be able to make a decsion that we won’t regreat later.

Thanks again, I think you actually answered all my questions and more.

[Ed]

Hmmm,..

Andre, what do you think you would regret in buying an H over your XL, other than the obvious, money??? I really don’t think you would go wrong. When we traded CC 60449, for the Marathon XLII we did only because we werent sure if an H would fit in the garage, we were wanting an H. While we had the XLII I put 10 inches of styrofoam on the XLII’s roof edge to mimic a Girard to see how much clearance we had and the H was a few inches taller so with a compressed suspension we got an H to fit with only an inch clearance between coach’s rear roof and the ceiling. So to fit in the garage we will have to do another H without Girards.

[Andre]

Height was an issue for me where I live and couldn’t deal with the 13’6″ tall.

[Gerald]

Jim,

I did not make myself very clear. It is not an issue of having regrets of getting an H over an XL. It is more of an issue of; do we do it all all, if we do change coaches did we do our homework so we don’t make a mistake, do we really want to spend the money? That type of regrets. If we get another coach it will most likely be the one we retire in and keep until I can no longer drive. We have had the current coach for 8 years come this October, and I see us keeping the next one even longer. So, I am trying to get as informed as possible. I am actually going to look at a 2 slide XLII on Thursday to get a feel for what it looks like, especially the bays. We are very much just in the info gathering stage, and will not actually do anything until after October, or maybe just keep what we have.

I really appreciate all the information everyone is passing on. Hopefully others will benafit from this thread.

[JIM]

Sounds like a plan . Right now our Beaver XL with the solid walnut interior suits us. I look forward to the day when get to your point again researching the next coach. Good luck. Any more questions list them and we will all help answer