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Looking for XL40 with Series 60
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Jackson,
Thanks for the encouragement on the private toilet. We are in our RV over 80 nights a year and frequently have guests over for dinner/cocktails or several kids hanging around with our son Andy. Plenty of traffic in the rig and I can’t imagine not having the private toilet.
Don,
Your coach looks wonderful and it is very evident to me you take great care of your toys – exactly the kind of person I try to buy from and sell to! I’m afraid to call you though because your rig is SO CLOSE to what I want that you’ll talk me into a walk through bath 🙂
George,
You could make this easy on me and make your wife happy by selling me yours and getting that 45 with two slides that you’ve secretly been lusting after! Don’t try to deny it – you owe it to yourself and family 🙂
I’ve got a couple brokers watching for me and I called Rick M from Marathon and he is watching as well. One will turn up. In the mean time, I’m not sleeping in a tent…
Thank you all!
Kurt
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Kurt,
Hah you must have me mixed up with Tom, everyone knows Nancy wants slides. They are the most likely to own slides in their next coach. I understand he is in Canada now searching for just the right coach. At the Maintenence seminar Tom had been the prior owner of the majority of coaches present, but it was limited to 20 coaches.Tom can give us the exact percentage. To me no slides is a plus because it works for us, less complications and expense. My second couch is wide enough and long enough for most adults to sleep on without opening it up.Somewhere in PC an experienced member wrote that when you walk in the coach for you, you will know it. That has to be tempered with due diligence and a heathy maintenance budget but that is exactly how we felt. Your coach is out there and I always enjoy the hunt whether for just the right widget or bus. If you would like to see our remodel email me and I will send some pictures. If you google 40′ 2002 Country Coach Prevost my coach comes up most of the time and shows the exterior ( and floor plan of all 5 2002’s ) and before interior pictures. The images come up in the old for sale pictures on Prevost Stuff for sale at Panterra. It’s the dark red and tan coach, the gray paint job has had an aftermarket slide added. Happy Hunting ! -
Kurt, keep in mind George provides most of the necessary fertilizer for Jon’s garden, this is my last bus.
I’ve had 3 – 40’s and 3 – 45’s and can tell you there is a big difference with 5′. One thing to think about, is an early vintage 40 (prior to late 96 chassis) has about the same turning radius as a 45′ with IFS. So don’t discount a 45 because of maneuverability.
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I have to agree fully with Tom.
Out of the six buses he has owned, his current one is the last of the six.
What Tom has never said however is that he will never buy another bus.
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My dad has a 95 CC with series 60 , 3 roof airs, and 4 large solar panels , its amazing how much power those four panels put out. he has been very happen with his coach.
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Yes, solar panels, a good charging system, and nice batteries can do wonders! I hate to admit it though, but it mostly just buys you quiet. You can buy a lot of diesel fuel for the initial cost and recurring battery costs…
I’m finding significant differences is tank sizes and “stock” battery banks. Of course between converters, but also year-to-year within converter. With the fiberglass ones, I’ve found those things pretty much stay the same unitl the chassis and/or house made a significant change.
Kurt
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Each converter builds what I call a do-all coach. No one builds a coach that does any one specific thing well, but every conversion can be used with limited success for any application.
To consider a Prevost conversion without owner modifications acceptable for off the grid or dry camping is fruitless. The buyers of a Prevost (first time anyway) are far more likely to use their coach hooked to a power pole than any other setting. As a result our coaches have all kinds of lights, devices, appliances, and phantom loads that suck the electric from the batteries or pole.
To live almost solely on energy from the sun is going to mandate a lot of the features never get used or rarely get used, imposing a great deal of energy management and restraint on the owners.
I think a home built would be the way to go for those who prefer dry camping. A lot of the features or devices we now have can be eliminated and replaced with low energy consumption alternatives. Just to provide an example, if I want to dump my tank I have to have compressed air so my aux compressor needs to have been run, and I need electric so the control valves will open the dump valve. My original coach had a T handle and I just manually pulled the dump valve open.
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Jon, Jon, Jon…..
We don’t dump our tanks when dry camping!
Ok, I get your point about convenience features. I know you like to be on the cutting edge.
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Do you dry campers and the bears really go to the woods?
That’s me………cutting edge Jon.
What we all need is one of the converters to really make the ideal coach and that would have a small nuclear powered engine and electric generating system.
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Kurt, we dry camp a lot and it is totally doable with some daily generator run time unless you want a/c. Our American Coach conversion is similar to Vantare configuration with 6 size 8-D AGM batteries and two inverters. We usually run the generator for an hour or so around mid-morning and then for another hour or two at dinner time. While the generator is running we heat up the water in the water heater, run the dishwasher and do laundry, use the stove and microwave and run the air conditioners if needed. The rest of the time the batteries are sufficient, but they do get pretty low if we need to run the Aqua-Hot for heat overnight. Solar might not be a good option for a Prevost. Friends we often camp with have a big BlueBird with the roof covered with solar panels. They need to run their generator almost as much as I do because big draws like the electric stove, microwave or dishwasher will drain the batteries faster than the solar can replenish it, no matter how many panels you have on the roof. However, if you can live without the dishwasher and you cook outside on your grill or on a propane stove, you can probably get by without any generator use if have enough panels on the roof.
You may still be able to find an early to mid 90s Country Coach that has a gas fridge and cooktop, which is even better for dry camping as you know from your current coach. I had a 90 Country Coach XL with gas fridge and stove. Even with old school flooded cell batteries we could go at least 2 days without running the generator. I believe the Series 60 that you want started being phased in by Country Coach around 92. The gas appliance option was phased out around ’96 or ’98.
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Thank you Bryan – good to hear! Finally someone who actually “camps” with one 🙂
Kurt
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Glad you put it in quotes, cuz there is no way any of us are “camping” when we are in our buses, even if we parked in the middle of nowhere. For three people we travel with 4 tvs with satelite access, 3 or 4 laptops, 2 tablets, several ipods, multiple stereos… It’s quite ridicuous, actually, but I love it.
Just to keep it real, we also try to do a couple of weekend backpacking excursions every year. However, I must admit that as much as I was a wilderness geek in my younger days, as I get older the pack seems to get heavier with each trip even as the equipment gets lighter, and I do seem to prefer my soft bed, warm shower and ice cold beer.
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Keep in mind that every incandescent light in your coach is both an energy hog and a little heater. Replacing all interior lighting with LEDs is one of the things on my short list. Non-incandescent lighting will use less energy from your batteries and will run much cooler, leaving your more comfortable in the coach.
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We use our coach a couple two three times a year where we have nothing but a place to park, requiring us to “dry camp”. We have gone 6 days at a time. Fresh/Black holding tanks get VERY close to the limit, but as others have stated, the batteries (if good) will handle basic usage with a couple generator runs through the day (useally morning and evening for an hour or so).
Outside of those couple times a year, it may be an overnight stop over in a rest area during long travel days. That’s obviously not an issue. But outside that, I wouldn’t expect to spend weeks at a time in the hot southwest summer dry camping. These things are by no means green/energy efficient. Heck, just sitting there trying to charge chassis, generator, house batteries and keeping the refer on takes up enough power to trip most standard house outlets (when batteries are charging at full charge rate).
Water usage is another consideration. The toilets use much more then your standard RV toilet per flush (you can control how much water is used in your standard RV toilet). The water pressure is run at a much higher rate, so even running the kitchen or bathroom faucets use more water per minute.
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Thank you Charles. Our usage sounds very similar to yours. Five days with comoforatable outside temps for dry camping would be max for us.
On the subject of toilets, two of the places we frequent have electricity and water, but only a dump station. A friend with a newer Country Coach Allure has the electric toilet with non-adjustable water. They have to be very careful with their black tank because of it. Are certain models in the late 90’s – early 2000’s (the ones I’m looking for) known water hogs and is there “fix” to better manage water usage with them?
Thanks again!
Kurt
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