[Archived]

Andrew:

It appears you have special wants or needs that aren’t being met with the layouts of the existing coaches in the vintage that you’re looking at.

What are you looking for in a coach that you’re not finding out there?

I think that will help us understand where you’re trying to get so we can give you good advice and counsel.

I strongly second what Jon said about the layouts being well thought out and executed by the time you get into mid to late 90’s coaches from the converters who have done more than a handful of conversions. A Prevost conversion is the classic example of trying to put 38 pounds of “stuff” in a 10 pound … and a 10 pound bag that is made of welded stainless steel and will NOT expand no matter how much pressure it put on.

[Archived]

thanks everyone – all advice is appreciated.

two comments –

1) we were hoping to find a coach with bunks for our two kids. Not sure who does this, I know liberty nearly never does. In terms of layout, I think we could use an existing floorplan if they are already road proven. I may have meant to say we want to ‘remodel’ because …

2) existing finishes 92′-Now are way too gaudy for our tastes. Looking through existing coaches for sale we essentially see the same ultra glossy cabinets, fancy wall sconces, Leather ceilings and pop up TVs everywhere. Is this just the stuff the typical retiree wants and thinks is impressive? We would be happy with simple flat cream finishes, dark wood floor, wifi and an iPad Pro for media.

Based on everyone’s comments here it seems the best idea might be to get a layout we want and remodel the interior and upgrade the systems as needed…

[Andy]

Andrew has further enlightened us!

“we were hoping to find a coach with bunks for our two kids. Not sure who does this, I know liberty nearly never does. In terms of layout, I think we could use an existing floorplan if they are already road proven. I may have meant to say we want to ‘remodel’ because …” This makes lotrs of sense. I suspected this is where you were trying to go. In our search we saw a bunk coach every now and then. They are out there, but aren’t very plentiful. You might think an entertainer coach would work, but I think you’ll find that enteratiner coaches are built for a really unique purpose that makes it difficult for us regular people to happily use.

“existing finishes 92′-Now are way too gaudy for our tastes. Looking through existing coaches for sale we essentially see the same ultra glossy cabinets, fancy wall sconces, Leather ceilings and pop up TVs everywhere. Is this just the stuff the typical retiree wants and thinks is impressive? We would be happy with simple flat cream finishes, dark wood floor, wifi and an iPad Pro for media. ” No offense to those folks who spec’d coaches out like Andrew identifies, but went you’re buying a 15 to 20 year old coach, you get what’s there. You’ll find that some of the interior finishes can be easily changed with breaking the bank that can change the entire character of the coach. There is stuff and finishes and features in our coach that I probably wouldn’t spec if I was buying a brand new coach … what I tell people we show the to is that we benefited from the original owners who spent over five times to buy the coach new that we spent to buy it gently used.

“Based on everyone’s comments here it seems the best idea might be to get a layout we want and remodel the interior and upgrade the systems as needed…” Absolutely. Now you’re on the right track. Once you start talking to the shops that regularly do the remodels they will likely enlighten you of certain floor plans what aren’t conductive to retrofitting bunks … and if you’re lucky you’ll end up with a great coach and one that spends the rest of its life as a bunk coach or can easily be converted to a more “conventional” floor plan down the road.

You’ve already had a response in this thread from a great shop to consider for remodeling a coach.

[Kim]

Andrew, like you I shopped for a bunk coach and spent quite a bit of time looking at various models, manufacturers and converters. With bunks there will be trade offs as the space needs to come from somewhere. In most cases I found that closet and drawer spaces were the casualties of a bunk floorplan.

Marathon has done an impressive job with its bunk floorplan in its newer coaches and that was a strong factor when selecting my coach. The floorplan in my coach delivers more than ample storage space and the casualty is the half bath. While some cannot live without the extra toilet, it was a compromise I was willing to make.

I’m going one step further and will be doing the Marathon bunk mod where the top bunk will be on a track at the head and foot that will allow it to lower with a press of a button. This way, when only one bunk is needed, it will have quite a bit more headroom and be more of a compartment than a bunk. When two bunks are needed, a press of a button places it back into the standard configuration. A closet rod can be installed in the ceiling that allows the space to become a huge closet and it can be folded out of the way when used as a bunk. Its an interesting design. The drawback of this mod is that 5″ of length will be lost for the mechanisms…so I simply won’t bring tall people on the bus! In a pinch, they can sleep on the jack knife sofa.

[Harry]

Andrew,

You might want to take a look at this DIY’er video of a two story passenger bus conversion.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xeMT1d_L-hw

Mark

[Archived]

You need to come by either my shop, walk around and see what you can have done. Also I could get a feel for what you are after and give you a idea on what is cost effective to update vs total remodel…..

[Archived]

Carole and I shopped for a coach for a little over 2 years. We went to Florida, South Carolina, of course North Carolina too, Tennessee, Michigan and Kansas. No Toto did not have a coach for sale! Some would say we were picky. We liked a layout without slides and were limited by available storage space to a 40′ coach. We found a 1990 Country Coach with around 130,000 miles on the clock. We liked the real wood interior, the wooden window surrounds. Some interior items we did not like were the living room sconces, the gray carpeting (covered in plastic ala 1950’s cars), the lavender tile in the bathroom, the gray carpet in the bedroom, and lastly the wallpaper in the bedroom. We still odn’t like nor seldom use the sconce between the bedroom closet doors. I have not found one to replace it but I also have not been doing any research to find one either.

So we bought it in January 2007 and still have it. I replaced the sconces in the living room, thanks to the feds I also had to replace the old analog TV’s in front and in the bedroom with digital ones (this I did myself), for the “heavy lifting” I took the coach to Jeff’s place last fall and had the sofa and front seats recovered with fabric to match the new Villa recliner, replace the carpet and tile from front to back, installed an Inside/Outside Thermometer (wife always wants to know how hot it is outside, now all she has to do is look at the gauge). There was an old rectangular clock over the back-up TV that I removed and used the space for the new gauges. Of course using that space I had to get a whole new panel (Mac McNeill, Custom Instrument Panels, cipdash@sbcglobal.net, 28585 Valley Drive, Albemarle, NC 28001(704) 985-0171). One problem I ran into, yes there is always at least one problem in doing these projects, was the existing Back-Up TV was only held in place by some black mastic material between the TV and the old panel. There were four screws holding it all in place and when the last one was removed the TV fell out and I had to let it hit my chest to keep it from hitting the floor and doing who knows what to the cabling. Major dark purple/blue bruise. I fabricated two wooden angle brackets to securely fasten the TV in place during the reinstall. I had Jeff do the wiring for both gauges about six week ago while doing other maintenance work.

Jeff also has an interior design person to advise on color selections and fabric choices. She is very talented at her work.

So if you buy a gently used coach with a floor plan you like, you have an opportunity to do some of the light lifting yourself while leaving the heavy lifting to the experts. We are about a seven hours drive from Jeff’s place. It is a scenic drive from home to Jeff’s and we have taken it many times. We are very pleased with how the interior renovations done at Jeff’s came out. Jon visited Jeff’s while the work was in progress and commented what a change for the positive the renovation made. It has a much lighter feel than before. You can do the same thing, your wife will be happy since she now gets to make the coach her own fitting her tastes. If I recall, we left the coach at Jeff”s place for about six weeks. Well worth the effort and expense. The wife is happy so I am too.

[AL]

I install engineered wood here in Texas.