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Looking to purchase, in need of experienced input
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We use Passport America when we can….We use our Coast to Coast when we can ,which seems to be getting less and less, but home park is a great feature for us. The Allstays App is GREAT and seems to be pretty much kept up to date. I have used it a lot the last year and it is handy. I like Jim’ thought, Drive the Red Roads….
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We have been happy with Passport America. Not every one of their participating campgrounds will accommodate a bus, but enough do to more than pay for the cost of membership. Only complaint is that they are constantly adding/dropping participating campgrounds, so you really need to keep up to date to successfully use the program.
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if you always stay in a commercial campground your generator will never get exercised. We opt for a truckstop or other parking situations to avoid entering an rv park after sunset.
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Great feedback, I received my Big Rigs book, great info source. Based on the available inventory that I see on the used market it looks like the XL II are the most popular built / available coach in the early past but now if you look at the new market it looks like there are significantly more H3-45 on the market, am I correct in seeing that.
Is a 14′ x 48′ bay with a12′ x 14′ door a reasonable size garage bay for coach storage. I have a place in the north but I want to create the same in the south.
Is the XLII level floor plan with the driver & passenger seats recognized by owners to be a good addition to the living use of the coach. Are those seats found to be integrated in daily living use.
With the water leak issue’s that I see and recognize as possible concerns with coaches, is there any recognized thought on the difference between XLII & H3-45 and which might perform better.
In reference to awnings, the H3-45 awning seems to be more integrated into the side/roof of the coach, where the XLII is mounted to the side and more exposed. Is that a fair conclusion.
I would recognize Millenium, Vantare, Liberty, and Marathon to be the current builders of coaches. Are there any others I should be looking into.
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If you’re going to work on your coach I would make it 20’x60′ and make sure the the 14′ dimension on the door is the height.
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Paul,
How you use your coach is going to pretty much define if an H3 or XLII is best for you. Assuming you opt for slides an H3 might be better because slides eat up space, expecially headroom in the bays, but this is only important if you plan on full timing and need space for your personal stuff. If you do not plan on full timing or extended use then either will work.
We prefer the XL flat floor because it greatly simplifies loading. It is bad enough carting stuff up the steps into the coach, but adding the turn and extra few steps of the H3 it just becomes more cumbersome. I know we don’t spend a lot of time loading, but we do go in and out of the coach and if we are eating outside or just going to get another snack it is a minor irritation. An H3 gives up living space. Our XL passenger seat can turn and become part of the living room when we are parked. Not so with the two front seats of the H3. If you travel with family or friends the front seats of the H3 are isolated from the conversation in the living room. In the XL the driver is on the same level with everyone else. If you have slides the driver is sitting in a “box” but is still able to be a part of the crew.
The extra height of the H3 is either a blessing or a curse. The view is great sitting a foot higher in the living room. The added height in the bays is valuable. But the downside is the H3 is going to hit branches my XL will not.
Both are excellent and the choice comes down to personal preference. If I had two coaches to choose from, I know now that the important considerations are what floor plan and systems work best for us. Performance on the road is less important than having a coach with the features we feel we need. I expect the H3 and XLII are going to perform similarly, but the higher H3 may be affected somewhat more from crosswinds and its greater frontal area might affect mileage. All coaches are going to perform better if they are lighter so if drag races from the traffic light and high speed hill climbs are on your list of needs, look for the lightest weight.
There is one factor not often discussed but also may influence your choice. Cosmetically the XLII is quickly and easily identified as a Prevost. The entire RV marketplace see the stainless and knows it is a Prevost. Most will also recognize the H3 as a Prevost also, but in the more recent past there has been a number of copycats whose plastic RVs look very similar to a Prevost H3. So far nobody has copied the stainless look, so the XLII and the XL that preceded it still is unique.
No matter how big you make your storage building it will not be big enough. 48 is woefully inadequate because you won’t even be able to even access your engine. I am jamming a 45 foot coach in my 50 foot garage that was built for a 40 foot coach. Even if I have the nose of the coach tight to the end of the garage I still cannot fully open my engine doors. I have 16 feet for the width and that is adequate but not overly spacious. The heights you list are OK if they are clear heights. An H3 with a satellite will be close to 13’6″.
The awnings are apt to be selected by the converter based on what was available when the coach was built. If your budget is $XXX,XXX it might put you in a range of model years in which the fully integrated awnings were the only type available, and conversely if your budget is less an older coach may have the air / electric awnings or even the manual awnings, both of which are not integrated into the lines of the coach. If you buy a coach with surface mounted awnings and intend to convert to the cantilevered flush awnings plan on opening your wallet very wide. Because the integrated awnings have to have a structural mounting conversion to that style involves a lot of very expensive modifications.
Your budget is going to dictate what converters are going to be ones you look at. The converters you name have probably built more than others, but Country Coach may also be a consideration. Your wants and needs are going to define the converter you focus on. If you insist on OTR you are going to be looking at Liberty coaches almost exclusively. If you do not need OTR it opens up the market to almost everyone, unless you specifically do not want OTR (because you feel 1/2 bay more space is more important) in which case you will look at everyone except Liberty.
If you want service and support you need to focus on the converters that are convenient to you or on those who have a proven record of customer service. I expect everyone here will post how they have no problems getting service on their coach, regardless of who the converter was, but for a new owner who has not developed the knowledge of the coach or the support that is available ownership is going to be very scary. Go off the public side of things and rely on emails or private conversations over the phone to get the real information on just how well their coach is supported. There have been heaps of praise, but there has also been horror stories. Do a little on-line research on the forums and be sure to read between the lines. Your purchase price is just the beginning of the needed cash flow.
I can tell you this. I have bought 3 coaches, one a private sale, the second from a dealer, and the third from the converter. Every single purchase turned out very well with all three coaches being excellent trouble free coaches that we enjoyed a lot. But despite my ability to deal with issues and 23 years of ownership knowledge I learned the complexity of today’s coaches and the knowledge required to enjoy one fully made my decision to buy the last one from the converter to be the way I would go. As a newbie your greatest vulnerability is you do not know what you do not know and without support after the sale you are in trouble. Others may disagree, but knowing I got 2 full days of intense training from the converter and access to information anytime I needed it was more valuable than words can express.
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Paul,
Go bigger with the barn. Mine is 50′ X 30′ X 18′. I thought I was good even with a 45′, but not so. Like Jon said, being 50′ you can’t open the engine doors and because of the passenger side mirror, I can just barely walk around the bus ducking each time under the mirror. I made my doors 12′ W X 14′ H.
As for the conversion of choice, the folks still in business are Liberty, Marathon, Amadas/Featherlite and Millennium.
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Paul, Jon was typing while I was editing, but he probably covered it better anyway. I will add this however. Given your stated budget of 350K at the topmost, you will most likely get more coach in an XL11 than an H. In the model years you would be talking about, there are a lot more XL’s than H’s. Also, given the de-lam issue, prices are softer. It still comes down to personal preference. We prefer the XL11, but unless we find one that has the current Prevost fix, would probably get an H(unless the price on a XL11 reflected the anticipated repair).
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My garage is 38’x80′ and just right. Room all around and room for storing tools and stuff with a place to work on things, even park my trailer or toad if I wish. There would also be room for a bathroom, kitchenette and laundry. J
If you make the building too small it will have the wrong proportions visually to look appealing.
The door height will dictate the height of the sidewalls and it should be 14′ minimum height under the door’s bottom edge when open. Remember a 14’x14′ overhead door will not yield a 14′ high opening.
A sliding door will yield a full height opening. An exterior rollup door will yield full opening height.
I suggest a building sidewall height of 16′ min.
I suggest a door size of 16’x16′, which for a standard overhead door would dictate higher walls than 16′.
If you have the room have a door at both ends for a drive through. Also if you have room have a second overhead door in the side for a place to park the car/truck and work on things. Don’t forget the people door.
Insulate the whole thing if it is in the budget. Insulate the roof is a must to prevent condensation dripping.
This goes on and on depending on what you are trying to accomplish.
This is all just my opinion.
JIM
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I will be creating the 14′ x 48′ space as a “storage only, no touch coach only designated area”, I also have a 40′ x 220′ space which I can use for maintenance / other needs. This will be the northern Vt. base. I hope to create a southern base in the Palatka Florida area that gets me close to Jacksonville. I have to stay country setting, I am not a city / congestion type of guy. I just want to have a no touch spot.
I sent a note to Ken at Millenium last week about how Millenium might be handling the delam issue on the listings they have on XLII’s. I haven’t heard anything back yet.
I hope to land in the 03 to 05 model year when I am at the point of purchase of November 2014 +-. I suspect OTR will be decided to be important to us and I plan on visiting Liberty & Marathon this coming November. Based on my limited exposure and the limited knowledge I have gained so far, I think I will lean towards H3. Hopefully the extra step might help get rid of the spare tire I seem to carry right above buy belt Bickel.
I lean towards buying from builders for the access to experience aspect being my first purchase, but would not totally disregard other options as long as I could get 2nd party oversight appraisal. The multiple systems and complexity is overwhelming to say the least but I will have to take the newbie ride.
Is it an option to participate in any rally events before purchase. Is that something that anyone has done in the past. I suspect there are rallies that are very informative.
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Paul, attending rallies is a great way to get info. You can put faces to all the names you met on line. You can see many different coaches and learn from their owners what they have experienced and their buying process. PC Community and POG are both having their respective annual rallies this fall in Branson and Nashville. We will be attending both and think a lot of others will do the same. A capital idea son !
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Paul, You may think the garage is storage only but don’t kid yourself. Seriously. Even if you never intend to learn which is the business end of the screwdriver every single one of us with a garage takes advantage and uses it to wax the coach, clean the windows, put air in the tires and the gazillion other things we tend to do when we putter around.
If you have any desire to branch out beyond just parking the coach and want to get into doing even basic stuff allow plenty of room to at least open the rear doors and walk all around the coach, even with a tall ladder in the way.
Trust me on this.
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As to rallies go to every one you can. Let folks know you are coming and ask if you can see their coaches and ask questions. There are so many things to consider when deciding what works for you there is no substitute for talking to owners who have had multiple coaches and are not afraid to tell the good and the bad.
You will not only begin to understand what works for you, you will also be adept at looking at coach pictures on the internet and understanding the floor plan just from a few photos. Without the experience of looking at a lot of coaches, most photos do not reveal what the coach is really like.
If you have a motorhome of any kind that is great, but if you do not find a nearby hotel and participate in all the activities.
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Paul,
Even if just for storage 48 feet is too short, even if this is the distance inside between the front door and rear wall. If you leave your tow bar attached and don’t want to fold in your mirrors, 48 feet will make for a tight fit. If it’s already built, fine it can work. If it’s not built, add two feet.
It’s great to have the support of an existing converter. Keep in mind that anyone of the current converters could shut their doors tomorrow. No one wants that to happen, but it is an unfortunate sign of the times. So, you may want to consider other orphaned coaches. Even though their parent company is gone, there seems to be a fair support network often made up of former employees. I would let floor plan, features, and looks drive my decision more than whether the converter is still in business. My last plastic coach was a Beaver made by the former Monaco and my Prevost is a Country Coach. Even without the parent companies, I’ve not had any support issues others could help with; to include the experts on this site.
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My building is 60 wide by 155 long 14 foot side walls with scissor truss with over head doors one on each end can drive bus and trailer in hooked up total length 67 feet from bumper to bumper lots of room make it bigger than u think my doors are 12wide by 14 tall
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