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IS Otr/bus air a must have or like to have?
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Ron & Jane,
Plenty of pro OTR comments have been sent so i thought I would weigh in here as someone who doesn’t have it and hasn’t missed OTR.
Not trying to start anything with the PRO OTR crew… just want you to have feedback from both sides.
I have a 2007 Marathong with 4 -13.5 rooftop ACs and prevost Dash air.
We have put 100,000 miles in 5 years, traveled to all 49 states really hot really cold and everything in between.
When we travel we generally run with the Prevost dash air and two roof tops on. Salon and Bed/Bath. With the way my bus is setup we can do this without running the geny with no issues in five years. This keeps things super comfortable for me the driver but everyone else is complaing it’s too cold. But they deal with it.
Most of the time the salon AC doesn’t run unless I turn it down to like 65 as the Prevost Dash air keeps us good up front.
Several times this summer I had to use the wipers to keep the condensation off the windshield.
Good luck with your search!
Bill
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Bill
100000 miles. That’s getting it done. 49 states. I hope to be hitting it like that in 1year and 9 month. Thanks for sharing about your ac. Glad you are staying cool (cold) without OTR. I am looking for something in the mid to late 90’s so I do not know if the tech was as good back then as what it is with what you have.
Be safe out there
Ron
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Ron and Jane: I’ve been reading your questions, posts, and responses with great interest. I’m wondering what kind of motorhome experience you’ve had to date? Our 1999 Liberty is the first motorhome we’ve ever owned; over the years I had two or three trips in a friends 33′ Bluebird and then many trips in his 40′ Liberty Prevost, rented Class C’s a couple of times (once two weeks for a trip from Wisc to the West Coast and back and then again for a weekend at Sebring, FL for the 12 hour race, and in about 2012 a late 80’s Prevost Country coach with an 8V92). So our current coach is really 99.99% of our real M/H experience.
OTR: Was on our “must have short list” (tied with Prevost, Liberty, and private commode in a dead heat). We also have four Cruise-Airs (Elegant Lady, 24 volt coach, with all kinds of technology that Jon Wehrenberg sneers at as unnecessary … but I like it). The way our coach is wired, we cannot run any Cruise-Airs without shore power or the generator running. So to run Cruise-Airs running down the highway we’d have to run the generator. I believe this to a function of the inverters we have on the coach. The Cruise-Airs (like I suspect most roof airs putting out lots of BTUs) have to run on 120volts to have enough power to get those BTUs. Hence to run Cruise-Airs without the generator running (i.e. “off the Detroit Diesel”) you’d have to have enough alternator watts (amps x volts) for the inverters to create enough watts at 120volts to power one or two Cruise-Airs. Since our Liberty is wired to NOT run any Cruise-Airs off the inverters, I suspect our inverters are not large in watts (I think they are only 2500 each) to power a Cruise-Air. I see owners of Prevost coaches with early to mid-2000’s coaches and later talk about running one or maybe two Cruise-Airs without the generator running while going down the road. I suspect those folks have larger inverters (maybe 4,000 watt inverters) that probably allows them to run down the road with a Cruise-Air or two running.
Considering that you’re looking for a Prevost in the same vintage as ours that will probably have similar sized inverters, this is something you need to keep in mind if the coach doesn’t have OTR. I’m sure if any of my assumptions above are inaccurate, we’ll get quick updates from other Forum members.
I saw it mentioned a few times … “Prevost dash air”. Do you understand what that is. Eventhough it was mentioned, not sure anyone explained it. I don’t have it, so I won’t try … although I think I know what it is.
It has taken me a while to completely understand “how” the coach lives and breathes. Why Liberty did some of the things they did (we have coach #405, so ours was not their first rodeo), etc.
I think that Jon’s post above at 3:41:37 PM does a nice job of laying out the pros and cons of OTR vs non-OTR vs roof airs vs Cruise-Airs, etc. A couple of things in favor of OTR that I’ve discovered and/or have come to realiz in the three years we owned the coach:
1. By not having to run the generator to cool the coach while driving down the road, we have extended the time between generator oil changes. If we had to run the generator much of the time while going down the road, we’d have to change oil in the generator more often.
2. As Jon said at 3:41:37 PM (I think), the back of the coach gets really, really heat sinked after more than a few hours of driving when its warm or hot out. Even after stopping the engine, many gallons of coolant and oil/transfluid, the transmission, and the differential are leaching lots and lots of heat into the coach structure and bedroom. So, if I remember, about 30 minutes before stopping after a driving a while, I’ll crank the coach thermostat (there are two, one for driver and one for “the coach”) as cold as it will get and turn that fan on HIGH to try to cool down the back of the coach. The first couple of times we drove into the night when it was warm out, stopped, and immediately went to bed … about an hour later I woke up and had to turn on the generator and run the bedroom Cruise-Air to get things comfortable.
Li-Ion: I don’t think I’ve commented on this subject before on the PC Forum. I too got awfully excited about Li-Ion technology for all the reasons you’ve mentioned. That was three or four years ago and I realized that the technology as well as the cost/benefit equasion has probably changed quite a bit over that time. I concluded it wasn’t a “plug and play” deal like I might have thought it was and what I was looking for. But once we bought our coach and had Jeff Rowe put in brand new LifeLines from Tom, I realized that I was likely committed to AGM LifeLine technology for at least five years (or until I decide to get new batteries). Then I’ll revisit the subject. I’ve been on this Prevost web site for probably 4 1/2 years, the other one for a year or two before that. So far, to the best of my knowledge no one has converted their existiing Prevost coach to Li-Ion technology. If asked, I would not recommend to anyone to be a pioneer on this subject, unless they really want to be and heavily supported by whoever provides the technology. If I get a call from Liberty telling me that they have a plug and play Li-Ion solution for what I consider to be a reasonable price that they can install 90 miles from house in North Chicago (and its been working on “a number of coaches”) or Jeff Rowe at ETLC tells me that Buddy Brown and three or four other guys have been running his Li-Ion solution for six to nine months (and Jon Wehrenberg’s coach is in his shop right now getting the Li-Ion sex change operation) or Ben Cummings from Parliament announces he has four or five Li-Ion conversations running flawlessly … I’m sticking with what has been working for what … two or three decades. Besides … I’m having enough trouble converting all my lights inside and outside to LEDs, getting my TVs converted to flat panels, and the in-dash stereo/navitation system quit working late last fall. Oh … in another current post I have going I think I might have an invertor that went TU too.
Running fuel down: How many of you Prevost owners know that if your fuel gets low enough, a red “low fuel” warning light comes on. Handy little device I’m glad Liberty and Prevost put on the coach. Really scares the fecal matter out of my wife when it comes on as she can’t see the fuel level when she’s in the passenger seat … but she sure can see that light! Comes on with little warning when climbing a hill, and the goes out at the top … at least for a while. I checked and the generator still runs when the light comes on.
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Dick, we do have one member who has converted an older coach to LI, he was in Driggs. Cheeeef converted his 95 American, I believe he has written articles about it.
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Dick
Thanks for your post this morning. A good way to get the morning started. You are quite humorous. Good thoughts.
My experience with RV is zero. That is why I am on this site to learn as much as I can from all you guys and gals about Prevost. For the last 2 years we thought we wanted a Dutch Star.(Not even considering Prevost because we thought they were totally out of finacial range) We were planning on putting full solar/with li batteries. We did much study on the subject. Late spring I was introduced with the idea that it may be possible to find a vintage Prevost that would be in our price range. That is when I found this very helpful and knowlegeble site.
We have been looking and getting on and studying the Prevost. Prevost is much more complicated machine that a Dutch Star. We do not want to jump to quickly and regret a purchase because did not know about this or that. We have a lot to learn in a short period of time. We want to have one by this time next year so when we retire we will have a full year learning and up grading before we hit the road. But if a nice one that is in our price range comes along we are ready to jump.
The folks on this site are so helpful. Willing to go with me or meet me at a location to check out potential buses. Or check out a bus for me that is 1500 miles from me. Even inviting me to come see their personal coach.
The buses we have been on that have OTR air do cool well. As a matter of fact they are the only ones we have considered so far. That is the reason for this post. To see if those without OTR air had any regrets. When have seen some nice looking buses on the internet but did not consider them because they did not have OTR air and I wanted to know if we were missing an opportunity.
Ron
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Ron,
Dick brought up a really good point about the ability to run one or 2 roof airs going down the road without having the generator on. Most of the coaches Ive seen that have the inverter size and capability to run multiple roof airs w/o the generator are later models.
Unless a 94-00 model you seek has been updated or retro fitted, you will not have the ablility to run roof airs while traveling unless the gen is on. Without OTR (or CC version of OTR), you will be down to dash air only or alot of oil changes on your gen.
I know there are much bigger inverters out there today but (2) 2500 watts were the standard in that era from what I could tell.
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I drive a lot in 95 degree heat with Dash air and one roof air and stay plenty cool without any problem without using generator!!!!!!!!
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Not correct about no inverter AC’s in the 94 – 00 range, Marathon has done it for years, my 97 had the same capability as my 2002 with Trace 4000’s. Maybe the Featherlite guys can jump in here as well.
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I stand corrected about the inverter ability. I have only had experience with the way Country Coach had set up theirs up in the late 90s and Liberty’s set up like Dick had mentioned. Generally speaking, just because a coach does not have OTR, doesn’t always mean you automatically have the ability to run multiple a/c units via the inverters.
I would think it would would be pretty taxing on an inverter to run an a/c all the time. Anyone know if it can or will cut the life of an inverter short?
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I can run two units on inverters but choose to turn on generator if needed so not to tax the inverters and also exercise the generator
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Our coach may be a little different in that it only sleeps two people and a dog that thinks he is a people very well. When driving I am in the drivers seat and the wife is in the passenger seat with the people dog close by. Our dash air and the front cruise air keeps us very comfortable. If we need more we turn on a second mid cruise air on the opposite leg of the front cruise air. We have no need or care about having the bedroom or bath maintained at 68 degrees while going down the road.
Typically if it is hot out I will turn off the second mid air about an hour before we are going to stop and turn the bedroom cruise air on. If I feel I need more air I turn the generator on and turn all 4 cruise airs on.
We are reverse snowbirds spending our summers on the California coast. This means we drive through the hottest areas in the country going and coming back from Florida. Never once have we been uncomfortable inside the coach while traveling.
What I really like is the extra space in the bay gained from not having over the road air. I utilized this space with a built in grille which I enjoy much more than the over the road air I had on several previous coaches.
For me losing bay space with over the road air would be a deal killer. Everyone has an opinion on this based on their own personal experience
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Ron,
Did you catch the thread in the Upgrade section Titles “Electrical Upgrades”
Check it out if you haven’t already.
Thank.
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Ben
I have not read anything in upgrades. I will head there now.
Thanks
Ron
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Ben
Thanks for sending me to that thread. I had no idea. That is a quite spirited discussion. When I asked the question of how many ah that Mark had with his battery bank, I had no idea. I was wondering why such angst was directed to that question. Glad to see others know that Li can and does work well in buses.(As well as solar). I just got a new smart phone last week as did Jane. For two days she went on and on and on how she wished she had not got the new phone. Three days later she did a 180. How glad she is she got the new phone. I think the same is true with any new tech. While Li is not perfect yet, In 5 years, maybe less it will be the norm.
I have made my mind up as to where I stand on Li as I have studied it for almost 2 years, what I really need to learn about is the 4 way ac system in the Prevost, and how well they work, and what everyone’s experience has been.
Again, thanks Ben and everyone who has helped thus far.
Ron
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I read with amazement the posts relating to the satisfactory use of cruise-airs in the desert southwest (maybe the H’s are better insulated). I have owned 2 coaches, both XL’s, one a 40 with 3 cruise airs and dash air, one a 45 with 4 cruise airs and OTR. I have found the cruise airs in either coach incapable of proper cooling under extreme conditions. Can’t address the ability to cooling with roof a/c’s. I would NEVER again own a coach with cruise airs without OTR.
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