-
Officially checking in!
Hi Everone,
I have made two threads so far on PC, but wanted to formally introduce myself now that I actually own a Prevost and have started my own Prevost lifestyle.
Back in November I bought a no-slide 40′ ’98 XL Marathon. This 40′-er has IFS which I thought would be a good matchfor the tight parking confines around my home.
The primary impetus for buying the coach was to use it as my home away from home during the work weeks. I started a new job in November that is not commutable distance from my permanent residence. Rather than staying in a hotel or finding another home/apartment, I decided I’d try the Prevost lifestyle! The job is in Long Island, so I am living in the bus during the week during the Northeast winter (low teens last night…). I am also an avid amateur sports car racer so rather than sleeping in my car trailer on a futon mattress, I look forward to more luxurious accommodations via my new tow vehicle when I’m at the track. I have also thought about frequent trips to my daughter’s university for football tailgating or similar and otherwise exploring North America from the comfort of my “home”.
I have now driven the bus in just about every form of traffic and environment I can think of, save for extreme weather. Having survived Washington, D.C. traffic and NYC traffic crossing the George Washington and Throgs Neck bridges, including driving the bus through La Guardia airport during its renovation and construction, I’m feeling somewhat confident, though far from relaxed, driving it just about anywhere. Lots more experience to be gained. For sure when I first started driving it during my 14 hours home from pickup, I was, frankly, scared. This despite having a lot of driving experience, including towing.
There are some niggling things that have come up with the coach that I am trying to have repaired. I write this to you all now from the Prevost center in New Jersey (only 45 minutes from my home, which is super convenient!). Some might recall the diesel fuel leak that I posted in the emergency thread over Thanksgiving weekend. Prevost cannot/will not fix it because it involved removing “customization” parts (the Marathon water system). So that’s becoming a big deal…
Here’s a pic of my coach parked in my home-away-from-home campground out on Long Island. I thank the community for existing and providing invaluable advice already. I have 1,000 questions yet to ask…
-
5 Replies
-
Congratulations on your coach. Sounds like an excellent plan to have an apartment that can serve multiple duties.
As to the Marathon systems getting the Prevost folks upset, I cannot believe they are unwilling to help you. I say that because you are in one of the service centers that gets its share of entertainer coaches and I cannot believe that from time to time Prevost has to work around conversion devices or systems.
I would recommend you contact the area service manager to see if they can accomodate you. Another alternative is to see if you can find an area RV shop that can remove the offending parts, allow Prevost to deal with the problem, and then re-install them when the fuel leak is fixed.
-
Yes, judging from one picture with signatures clad wall here, I do believe this place sees a fair numer of entertainer coaches (Whoopi Goldberg’s was here when I was here two weeks ago). I probably should have pushed them a little harder on working around the Marathon water system. I have an appointment later this afternoon (if I can get there, running out of time waiting on this service to be done) at Risco RV in Farmingdale, NJ. Risco is who Prevost recommended to work on the diesel leak issue. Prevost did track the leak to the float mechanism, they just can’t access it, they claim, without removing the water system. They don’t want to remove the water system…
-
Welcome to Prevost I am sure you will find answers for the 1000’s of questions you have. These guys are the experts.
I have a question for you. What are the details on the park on Long Island?
Davy
-
Battle Row Campground in Old Bethpage. Open all year round. Water was shut off around 12/1 at the sites, but freshwater still available in one location, you just now need to drive over to it… The place seems cheap if you’re a Nassau County resident (which I’m not), otherwise it ran me $56/night for 50 amp.
I don’t have a lot of experience, but the place seems small to me. It is a surprising oasis in the middle of suburbia. It is very close off the LIE and not too far from the Hicksville LIRR station if one were inclined to go to NYC.
The staff have been super friendly and very accommodating.
-
Charlie,
Sorry to hear about your “Parkway” experience. I lived on Long Island for seven years back in the 1980’s. In 2009 we stayed at Battle Row since it was close to Bethpage Black, where the USGA Men’s Open was being held. So much rain that week. I was wondering how it would be getting out of the camping area. The stay was acceptable since I was working traffic and Transportation for the event. So much rain we actually shut down all the unpaved lots and sent eveyone to Jones Beach. Man do I have some stories about Saturday evenings drenching rain. We had the ocean to the south and the bay to the north with the moon at its closest to earth with the bus loop built over top of a storm drain. Well with all those factors in play, the water level rose to the point the storm drain tranformed from a drain to a fountain. We had to close the bus loop, make that I had to close the bus loop. The only other person on site had to deal with telling the bus operators whet the revised operation had to be. A NYS Park Police officer was nice enough to position his vehicle with flashing blue lights across the entrance to the bus loop to prevent the steering wheel holders from entering. OK, so I heard a diesel approaching from where we staged the buses overnight and fed them into the loop teh next morning as needed to keep the arriving guests flowing. I turned around and got that one stopped. When I turned back the Park Police had ducked out on me and a bus was now beginning a turn into the loop. I got that one stopped and before I could deal with the first one a second one tried to pull around the other bus. I got both stopped and fortunately there was insufficient width for a third bus to attempt an entry. So now I have to get both of them backed up onto Ocean Parkway to let the passengers get off the bus. Got it all worked out and the steering wheel holders got the message and the rest of the buses stopped at three of the four driveways. Of course we were successful with our approach since not much traffic is generated by a beach with heavy rains and it being dark.
The next morning I was summoned to the USGA office to meet with the USGA and several NYS Police. The led trooper called me out for not having called the JOC (it was raining so bad and with what I had to manage there was NO opportunity to get out my cell phone). So I listened to him for maybe 20 minutes. I then asked him had I been able to call just how long would it have taken for a Trooper to arrive and determine what his solution would have been. I was told they only had one Trooper available and he was assigned to patroling the Parkways. I asked if that included the Ocean Parkway, the Bay Parkway, the Meadowbrook Parkway, the Wantagh Parkway, the Southern State Parkway and maybe one or two more that escape my memory right now. The answer I got was yes that was right. Now he knew I had detailed information on the infrastructure on Long Island. I then told him two things. First, no one was injured, no property was damaged, and everyone was equally wet. I considered that a win-win-win solution. Second, IF the USGA ever comes back to Bethpage, and IF I am still working for them, and IF we have another severe rain event, I’m running to my car and calling the JOC and staying dry until someone shows up to handle the situation better than it was handled that night. I got no response to my statements.
Discussion over.
That is the short story of that situation.
Log in to reply.