[Peter]

Welcome Tim & Cindy, you’ve found the right place for help in your first Prevost purchase. In your price range you will find a very nice coach. Suggest you narrow down your likes and dislikes, then choose either an H or XLII. None of the orphan coaches made a bad one, so if you end up looking at one of those, you won’t be disappointed. You already know the converters that are alive and well, so it’s just a matter of finding the right coach for your tastes and needs.

Fire away with any questions, that’s what we’re here for and we were all first time buyers at some point. We also love helping you spend your money…

[Glenn]

Welcome Tim and Cindy enjoy the search!!!!

[Archived]

Tim and Cindy:

Welcome aboard. We bought a Liberty Prevost XLV in April of last year. Having access to this site coupled with the assistance of Jeff Rowe (Eastern Tennessee Luxury Coach) made our purchase much easier and with less anxiety than it could have been. You’ll find most everyone on the Forum to be very nice.

You should take a very serious look at Tom and Nancys coach. He doesn’t like to use his position with the Forum as an advantage and flaunt his coach on the Forum. Its likely in your age/price range, available, and for sale so Tom can buy another coach.

[Tim]

Welcome to the asylum Tim and Cindy. As Tom points out your budget will provide you with the opportunity to get a very nice coach.

With your budget established define how you want to use the coach. Then from that you can work on developing you wants and needs because different uses of the coach help to define the things that will be important. Since this assemblage of Prevost enthusiasts rarely lacks an opinion don’t hesitate to ask a lot of questions.

One of the best ways to do your research is to look at a lot of coaches in person. Often the photos on the internet will not make complete sense until you actually know how coaches are set up and you have a sense of scale. While you are going to be drawn to coaches whose colors or decor may be very favorable to you most of us have determined it is the floor plan or features or the model of coach that is more important than cosmetics.

Have fun.

[Ted]

Tim & Cindy,

Welcome aboard. The search for the right bus can be an intersting time. Read as much of the forum post as you can, that will give you a good start on what you need to know.

As far as this comment ” You should take a very serious look at Tom and Nancys coach. He doesn’t like to use his position with the Forum as an advantage and flaunt his coach on the Forum. Its likely in your age/price range, available, and for sale so Tom can buy another coach.”

Forget it, my wife says Nancy promised we had right of first refusual on Tom’s current coach when he gets his next “last coach”

If at all posible come to the rally no rally at Bella Terra, there will be a lot of coaches to look at and a chance to get a ton of information in a short period of time.

[Archived]

Thanks for the Replies,

I’ve really enjoyed reading a number of the articles in the “Articles” section the last day or so. A lot of knowledge of there. I haven’t read about Tom & Nancy’s coach, but I’m still nine months away so no problems there.

Regarding how we plan to use our coach – My wife & I plan to full-time for the first 3-5 years. She is already retired and I retire in Dec. ’15. We plan to travel our beautiful country, working (volunteers) for Habitat for Humanity along the way. With this schedule, we will most likely be in one place 2-3 weeks at a time when doing a build, otherwise, we could be in one place for a couple days to explore before moving on. Any thoughts on those who use their coaches full-time?

I believe the challenge will be finding a coach which is approximately 15 years old, but has been well maintained. I suspect a “one-owner” coach will be difficult to find. But reading on multiple forums, I still think a 15-year old Prevost beats a 3-5 year old plastic coach.

I do have a question for forum members: Did you purchase your Prevost from an Individual (I suspect saving some money but would have to verify maintenance records) or from a reputable Dealer (more cost but most likely would bring the coach up to date)? If from a Dealer, any suggestions on a good reputable Prevost Dealer?

Tim

[Archived]

Tim,

Don’t listen to that cheese guy in WI, he’s trying to spend your money and my Marathon is not for sale.:)

[Fred F.]

So Tom,

How much are you asking?

Ha!

LOL!

Mark

[Fred F.]

T&C,

You have already made a major step towards defining your coach but may not realize it. Here is what I read into your post……..

Sitting in one spot, maybe 2 or three weeks at a time suggests you may want to get a slide. I say that because you are planning to full time and that little bit of extra room makes a huge difference in liveability. If you were in a different spot every night a slide would not be as beneficial.

Full timing it suggests to me an H might be most favorable because of the added bay space.

The way you worded the “sitting in one spot” could lead someone to believe that spot may be at the building site, but maybe you did not mean it that way. But if that is what you meant then I would focus on a coach more favorable for dry camping. A coach with a lot of battery power would get my attention if that was the case. That suggests maybe a Vantare or some CC models, but they are not likely to have an H in your year range.

The fact you will sit for extended periods suggests your use of the coach is less for driving, and more as a home. That means full bus heat and air (over the road air or OTR) is not going to be important.

You can see from the above how your use starts to define the coach. There are many things to consider but it is the use of the coach that will help you make choices.

If you haven’t noticed we all share the joy in helping potential buyers spend their money.

[Corey]

Thanks J&D,

By the way you spell “Jon” can I assume you are the same Jon who wrote many of the articles in this site? If so, you’re a world of knowledge on these machines.

To clarify, “building” means staying at a Campground when doing a “build” for Habitat for Humanity. They are usually two weeks in length. However, we may end up doing 6-8 builds a year and traveling the rest of the time.

Yes, I believe we want 2 slides and “OTR” does seem like an option we would enjoy. We spent 14 years in Tucson and I can imagine traveling the SW anytime in the summer would be brutal without adequate AC. Of course, we may avoid the SW in the summer as well.

Can you get a CC or Vantare with OTR? I know it’s standard on Liberty.

I would look at an H, but my initial research has been on the XLII.

Regarding a thorough PDI, do you suggest an owner doing a PDI by himself or hiring an outside technician to do an independent inspection?

Thanks again

Tim

[Tim]

T&C, The suggestion of going to Bella Terra in April is a sound one. Even though you are 9 mos. away, that really is not a long time to find what you want given the current market conditions for these busses. you would save yourselves a huge amount of time and travel by seeing a great number of busses and talking to their owners. You would most likely leave knowing exactly what to look for and have time to find the right bus over the next 5-7 mos. Geo.

[Corey]

C&G, I’m assuming there’s a Rally at Bella Terra? Is there a Thread regarding this get together for me to explore?

[Chas]

T&C, go to rallies and click on OysterFest. Apr 16-20 at Bella Terra in Foley, Al. No cost to you other than travel and a nearby motel. Geo.

[Tim]

Tim,

OTR is a hot button for discussions, but the use of the coach pretty much dictates if it is practical. If you run in the summer, especially if you will be where it is hot there is nothing that can match its ability to keep you comfortable. It has about twice the BTUs of 3 house air conditioning units so you are going to be comfortable no matter how hot it is outside. I cannot speak for others, but I bought my coaches to be comfortable and I not only like OTR for that purpose, but because my entire coach is the temperature I want it to be. Expect other opinions to be offered on this topic.

Slides are going to cost you money. The reason I mentioned Vantare is because they had a lot of coaches with slides before Prevost started installing slides so you trade a newer non slide coach for a slightly older slide coach for the same dollars. Prevost slides hit the market in 2001 I think.

As to a pre-purchase inspection I have some strong opinions on that. First, I would want a Detroit / Allison dealer to run the codes and provide an opinion on the health of the engine and transmission. Those are the big ticket items and while problems with either are rare it is worth the investment for piece of mind. An XLII I would insure it had the skin inspected unless it has the “rivet” repair which is identified with vertical trim strips over the panel joints. They are almost invisible unless you look for them. The inspection will identify if there is a problem or not. Not all XLII coaches have an issue with the skins, but if there is one the buyer or seller need to know if Prevost will help with repair costs or if the owner will have to cover the whole cost out of pocket. This forum has a lot of good threads and posts about that issue.

The rest of the inspection process I feel the buyer should do. It involves operating everything on the coach. It is a lot of work and it takes a lot of time, but it serves two purposes. First, by systematically operating every switch, knob and lever the operation of whatever it controls is verified. It doesn’t take any skills or training to do that and the seller should be right there to tell you what is going to happen as you operate everything. If something does not work as planned then you and the seller have an opportunity to discuss if that affects the sale or the price.

The second benefit is by doing the above you are learning the entire coach. If you are thorough you will know how to do everything from turning on the TV to putting out the slides to operating the heaters. And if the owner or seller does not know how things work you have a clue that maybe you might need to look further.

Doing your own inspection / training is absolutely required if dealing with an individual seller. If dealing with a dealer you have some leeway if the dealer is offering some form of warranty. If you deal with the converter who built the bus you have less pressure to check the coach 100% because they typically stand behind the coach for a while. If you miss something they almost always take care of it.

Any time I have provided a little help for buyers I start looking at the big expensive stuff first. Tires and batteries and their date codes are near the top of my list. If you buy a coach and they all have to be replaced it is not unusual to see the cost of doing that run $10,000 or more. Then I look at the AC systems. If a unit has to be replaced the cost can be substantial. The generator is a big ticket item that must work. Inverters are not cheap so they need to function as expected. The refrigerator is vital and replacing one is expensive so I want to be sure that works.

All the above are repairs that involve just money. But there are some things even money cannot take care of. A coach that has leaked and has mold or mildew issues can cost more to repair than the coach is worth. I have been in coaches owned by smokers and that odor will not go away.

So there is no substitute for doing the detailed inspections and with regard to the house portion you likely are the best to do that, as long as you prepare for doing it.

[Larry & Diane]

T&C, Late 90’s to early 2000’s Vantares are not a bad choice. the H’s all had Prevo bus air and their slides are pretty much trouble free and inexpensive to re-seal. Lot’s of battery power for dry camping and certainly one of the better inverter systems. A late ’99 and up shell is the XLII chassis (you can tell right away by the dash) or X in the Vin #. Geo.