[Mike, 92 Country Coach]

I really don’t get most of this. Every 10 years or so I have to replace my AGM’s. Sometimes I have to run my generator. No problems, no concerns in cold weather, no huge bucks or big changes. Weight savings in a 40000# coach? Seriously? Just don’t get it!

[Liam]

Bill, sounds like you don’t like to tinker with your bus?

[Jerry]

Bill ! When I was removing those heavy awkward AGM batteries I know it was time for a change, I was dragging my feet on the Lithium change over because of safety price and the whole thing. Lithium Iron batteries are getting better and more affordable and less hassle’s, Lithium Iron are safer, Price they were $4490 x4= $1796 free shipping a day and a half for delivery, They have hi and low voltage protection, hi and low temp protection blue tooth,(BMS) battery management system built in, you can get heaters in them, We don’t get cold enough to have a problem here,If they go dead, does not hurt them, 4000 charge cycles, I know I had to change Magnum settings and I’m going to add a DC to Dc $159 dollar charger for driving down the road, Don has proved to do nothing on his Alternator charging is working just fine, And Johthan Fine set his voltage Regulator higher and that’s working to. Biggest thing Is Dry camping! Wow those batteries can hold a charge and at 50% they are still over 13volts, My AGM batteries at 50% were Low. I’ve been running the crap out of the new batteries throwing everything but the kitchen at them and they keep going, I drove it 25 miles the other day for a diesel run and Victron went from 45% to 57% they charge much quicker, So yes right now it is a learning curve but in the long run it will be worth it.

[Art]

My only worry after conversion was the bus would lean to the driver side as there was no more ballast to counter the weight of the generator and driver (not saying which weighs more). ??

In the Class-B+ community, big trend to go 100% electric, delete the generator, and put the money into a big lithium bank. Liesure Travel Van now wires everything (including roof air) into a 3,000 watt inverter.

[Jon]

FulltimeBill,

We boondock without the gen running at night while we sleep.

Lifepo4 house batteries are to our bus 12v house electrical system what LED lights are to our bus lighting system, a wonderful upgrade/update.

My Lifepo4 batteries provide:

improved safety protection (BMS),

almost 2x more usable battery power without increasing the size or # of batteries,

many times the life expectancy (they’ll outlive me),

2+ x faster charge times,

easy inexpensive install

and all this for less cost initially and a fraction of the cost long term.

The BMS in each battery protects against:

Short Circuit

Battery Overvoltage

Battery Undervoltage

Battery Cell Overvoltage

Battery Cell Undervoltage

Charge High Temperature

Charge Low Temperature

Discharge High Temperature

Discharge Low Temperature

Charge Overcurrent – Primary

Charge Overcurrent – Secondary

Discharge Overcurrent – Primary

Discharge Overcurrent – Secondary

Battery Cell Balancing

And there is still all the protection that Liberty provided in the original build.

Liam,

The Prevost normal travel “ride height valves” always set the ride height to the owners “set height” regardless of weight added or subtracted.

[Jerry]

The front ride height can vary from side to side with significant weight difference since the front only has one height valve.

[DON]

Buses are rigid they won’t twist like a fiberglass RV, Before this Prevost we had a Foretravel U320 a good quality build, but it would twist so HWH air bag level would adjust left to right on front in level mode, Our standard level system only does rear left to right and 1 on front, But you move left or right up or down the front follows, I’ve never had entrance door jam for being twisted. Lots of fiberglass had windshield cracks from twisting, Monaco even went to tripod 1 large jack in front and 2 in rear. when you set ride height you set air bag gaps in rear between steel plates and make it level. It is like 11 to 11.5 inches plus or minus 1/4 ?? I can’t remember

[Roscoeapproved]

nope,

because the frame is so stiff/rigid

that’s why we have 3 point leveling and not 4 point.

---

Jeff and Lindsay

91 Marathon XL

[Clint]

Don! You must have reading my mind

---

Clint & Tammy Summers
2000 XL 45 Country Coach (rivets)
1977 FC31 Bluebird Wanderlodge (more rivets)
Vonore TN

[RIchard]

Hard to believe that the structure is so rigid that there is no twisting movement from front to back given the span of the axles. You fellers have a lot more experience than me here so i will adjust my thinking. Thanks

[George]

I cannot put my finger on it or know the name of the site, but there is a site that provides test results on commercial bus chassis after a significant number of simulated miles. It reports broken welds, chassis deflection, and any other damage relating to thouseands of miles of wear and tear.

There are damages on some chassis like broken welds on tie rod attach points, and some chassis have deflection not present after the testing, but surprisingly a commercial chassis twists so little the amount is in minor fractions of an inch.

[Mike, 92 Country Coach]

Jon, I think this is it: https://www.altoonabustest.psu.edu/bus-list.aspx

How timely this is, recently on another bus forum the topic of body flex was being discussed and a commenter posted this in response to a Newell owner saying his Newell flexed more than his prior bird (i.e., Wanderlodge).

—–
“out of curiosity do you know why Newell flex more than birds. Is it a design flaw or is it designed like that purposely???? Example, Prevost flex more but it’s do to their design. Wondering if Newell is using their strategy. Thanks.”
—–

My question is, does Prevost design for flex?

[Mike, 92 Country Coach]

I hope we can all agree that everything flexes. Some more than others.

[Mike, 92 Country Coach]

sure, but is it by design?

There’s a somewhat famous pic of a 3-slide Prevost at the Tampa RV show with the front driver tire elevated on a ramp – with all three slides out. I’m not a structural engineer but if that level of stiffness was a design goal, then how do they also design to accommodate flex?

I guess it’s possible.

[Art]

We would need a Prevost Engineer to chime in on that question. Think of this, They were designing busses way before we had computers to aid in chassis analysis.