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I spent Friday with Jeff
and his crew starting on shocks, air bags and host of other items.
I don’t know why you folks on here keep harping about shocks. these take off’s look like they have plenty of life left.
I can assure you these moved freely with less resistance than a single rubber band.
Before starting Jeff insisteded on changing out the curb side tag air bag first. The pic is not very clear but that date code says 1-8-93. Just a little outside of Jon’s comfort range and Jeff about jerked the ultasonic headphones off when he got near it. Reported it as “blown”. And we found other evidence of an air compressor working way too hard.
Needless to say Jeff has a few air bags left, the leaking hub seal and a few more items. They should go faster as I won’t be there to ask a lot of pesky questions.
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4 Replies
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Joe: What is the history of your coach? How long have you owned it? How many miles on it? Do you know if it sat largely unused for any length of time?
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As owners one of our problems compared to commercial operators is we have to manage our own maintenance programs. But since we don’t necessarily all do hands on maintenance we don’t always see things that need to be done. Then to add to that dilemma there are some things that are not on the Prevost schedule of maintenance items so they understandibly are over looked until problems occur.
We are seeing a couple of examples here and Joe is very wise in now including these items in his to-do list.
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After taking delivery of our new to us 2000 HS-45 in Sept. 2014 our trip was OKC for a PC rally then directly on to Jeff”s for complete air bag change. As part of the warranty attached to our bus Marathon fixed/repaired/replaced lots of items. One of the cut offs explained was repair items and maintenance items. We discussed air bags and unless it has failed or leaking they fall into maintenance catagory.Total air bag failure is determined a repair.
As Jon & Tom point out about 10 years is the life of an air bag and should probably be replaced as maintenance. I choose to have all air bags replaced on our then 14 year old bus.
You have to ask is this necessary as everything is fine air bags they hold air no leaks with sniff test. Why spend the money ?
Pictures need no explanation……
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Dick,
I have owned the coach since July of 2012 so lets say 3 years. The previous owner had it for 10 years. I’m not sure how much it was used by the previous owner but I don’t beleive much in the last 2 years of his ownership. The coach had 96,000 miles on it when I bought it.
When I purchased it I asked the previous owner if he had changed brake chambers. Answer no. Air bags? answer no. I put those items in the price along with aged out tires. I got a reasonable maintenance history after reconstructing it from a file drawer of receipts. I did not get any usage history.
But as I’ve said in posts before, I bought it with the intent to get it back up to par before my retirement. I intentionally planned 3 years to zero it out. I’m on track with that plan. I immediately hit the fluids and filters, oil, coolant, fuel, differential, lube, air dryer desicant, genny oil, start batteries – all immediate needs. Followed last year by house batteries, brake chambers and flexible air lines, norgrens, steer and tag tires. In 2015 I’m back around to oil, fuel, tranny fluid and fliters, plus shocks and airbags. The last major item are the drive tires which are still in date (by michelin stds but not everyones).
That tag bag has not been blown out for the 3 years I’ve had the coach. I have been fighting the leans on that side for 3 years and did have the middle bag changed. But the coach would drop down over night not in a minute. The aux tank pressure gauge (I installed in 2013) cycled with the compressor so you can see the load and unload cycles. The last 2 times I drove the coach both 30 mile warm-up runs, It would lean immediately when stopping. It was leaning when I pulled in at Jeff’s. This was the only run where I noticed the aux gauge not always reaching 120psig. The compressr did not run the entire 335 miles but it sure looks like it ran a very high percentage. Since it cut off infrequently it made a lot of water.
I have only had the means (ramps and stands) to get under the coach myself since June 2014. I’m doing more of own work but the air bags and shocks were a bit much for me. I changed the oil and tranny fluid/filters and when I did the lube I found the hub seal leak. At the same time I drained the primary and secondary air tanks. No oil or water. I did not drain the wet tank. When Jeff did it was wet. Leason learned always drain all tanks. There was also an emulsion of oil/water in the base of the air dryer when Jeff changed the desicant. I know the tanks were dry 900 miles ago, I should have known they were dry 300 miles ago.
Having the ability to get under the coach is invaluable. But you still have to do everything you know to do – drain all tanks.
Was the 3 year plan a little too long – well that bag was “blown”.
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