[Harry]

I do performance testing, but our testing is conducted with trucks fully payloaded. I’d imagine that seated-coach crash testing is conducted at GVWR as well, so it should be pretty comparable. Do the converted coaches have higher GVWR’s than seated coaches?

[Archived]

They are approximately the same gross weight ratings. There are ratings for standard wheel configurations of seated coaches of 53,000 and with super singles of a little less. The weight rating is the same as my XLII.

[Tim]

That’s a good question question on whether the coaches are tested at gross weight. Being nosy, I looked up the NHTSA information. Found out the video of the 1991 Prevost rollover referenced above was loaded with four test dummies (150 pounds each). No mention of any other added weight. There was some discussion on whether test dummies should be added at all seating positions in a bus for future tests, since CG would be raised and mass increased. Considering an empty Prevost shell is about 32,000 pounds, and converters add from 20-25,000 pounds, including several thousand pounds in the baggage areas, there is a huge difference between the testing we have seen so far and our coaches.

So, please don’t roll your coach! For those we haven’t met as well as those we have met, we hope to see you safe and sound down the road!

[Dick]

Per, I don’t think this discussion was ever intended to suggest to anyone that the Prevost structure is going to keep people alive in the event of a bus upset.

But I do think we can all agree a fully welded frame structure surrounding the coach is going to tend to keep an upper structure from separating from a chassis and leaving the occupants out in the open. My sense of well being is greatly influenced from watching a very expensive motor home being assembled with the entire upper walls just bolted to a platform floor. Combine that with the accidents I drove past seeing the chassis at rest in one spot and the upper portion elsewhere and I feel more secure. Not bullet proof, but certainly safer.

I don’t think anything we drive or ride in offers 100% protection, but every well designed vehicle today makes an attempt to keep the structure around the occupants relatively intact and I think we can agree it may bend, flex and lose windows, but when everything comes to rest most of it still remains together in one piece.

[Archived]

I have seen tests with a seated coach with weights in every seat….

[John]

So Jeff, how are you doing on the estimate?

If that isn’t hijacking a thread!