[JIM]

The Girard awnings are generally pretty reliable. The air/electric Zip Dee awnings tend to be problematic, and require a fair amount of maintence. The Zip Dee New Century awnings ( a cantalevered design like the Girards) are also reliable, but the early versions had trouble with water intrusion into the motors causing many early failures.

[AL]

Steve nailed it.

Bottom line seems to be do you want OTR (which the Marathon is unlikely to have) worse than you want a reliable set of awnings?

For us we use our awnings far less than we use the OTR so it would not be a difficult choice.

[Archived]

We had the zip dee auto awning on our previous coach for 8 years. The final straw was when the awning on retract pulled the front arm off the coach. We had it removed and installed a manual zip dee and all was good in the household!

When we started the hunt for our Prevost, i would not consider a coach with one. Yep Jon, it trumped OTR. Our dealing with Zip Dee’s president sealed that decision. Never again will Zip Dee take any of my money.

The design if the auto awning is flawed. Water can flow into the arms that house air and electrical lines. The motor is on the roller arm and water can penatrate it. Plus when it fails, notice the when, you either have a jumper wire to retract it OR you have to totally disconnect the arms ans struts.

At least with the Girard, you can manually retract it with an extension tool.

just my experience.

[Archived]

I would not ever agin use the Zip Dee Auto awning, the air and electric one.

I have had my coach for 7 years and maintain it to the condition of a new one. (Just the way I like to keep my stuff) The wire going down the arm to power the motor has failed twice. To take that arm off and ship to Zip Dee is a major pain and takes a couple of people to do it.

Stay clear.

[Jerry]

Doublr K, I would still take the Liberty with OTR and the air/electric awning. As soon as I had more trouble than worth, Iwould up grade the awning or replace with a manual one, but I would still have the bus air.

[Bob]

Have had our bus for a year. Zipdee auto awning cost me approximately $2,000 to fix after purchase. Hopefully with the proper maintenance it will continue to work well as we use it all the time. We also have 4 roof air units and OTR. Would take the OTR over the awning issue in a heart beat!

[Peter]

This is just an observation about awnings from my perspective only.

There are times when they are nice. There are times when they aren’t worth it. The typical awning is valuable for keeping the side of the coach in the shade. If the coach is oriented just right relative to the sun the awning might even provide shade when sitting outside in the lawn chairs but not always.

Relative to other items on the coach awnings are maintenance hogs. Anyone with the middle version of the ZipDee awnings will tell you they need to be maintained properly or they will not work. The manual awnings that look like the air / electric ones were pretty reliable and probably offer more real shade than any other awning because you can adjust them to be very low when extended. The latest model awnings appear to be reliable (except for moisture in the ZipDee motors) but they are mounted so high they are mostly ineffective in providing shade unless the sun is coming from the driver’s side of the coach. Then it is the coach that offers the shade.

If I had a coach with the air / electric I would change them out to the original mechanical awnings.

I now have the latest model ZipDee awnings and they are OK, but in the 2 1/2 years I have owned the coach I don’t think I have extended them more than 5 or 6 times. It is not practical to consider upgrading a coach that has awnings with arms to the latest version of awnings. There is a lot of structural work required and the cost is substantial.

[Peter]

Awnings would NOT be something that would influence my decision in buying a bus all other things being equal that’s for sure.

If a bus feels right to you when you go inside and you really like it I wouldn’t let awnings of any description stand in the way of a purchase… we love awnings and use them all the time… they are a BIG deal to me but they are also replaceable … best to figure out the $$$$ value to change to the ones you want and get the bus your heart really desires !!! We all have our likes and dislikes I haven’t owned a bus without OTR so I can’t comment on not having it… just saying though that I do love the OTR especially in an H.

Buy the bus you want and make allowances for replacing some of things to don’t love… you will be replacing things you don’t want to replace too at some point and time…. just something we all have to do.

Cheers, Diane

[Andy]

I much prefer Girard awnings. Mine have performed flawlessly since new. I especially like the looks of no awning arms plus the arms were something else I would run into. Sitting in my lawn chair under the Girard awning typing this in Marin county outside San Francisco. Life is good.

Regarding the OTR air I have had coaches with and without it. The only passengers in our coach is the wife and I plus Wilbur our dog who thinks he is a person. We have had zero need for OTR air and have not missed it. We turn the rear cruise air on an hour before we stop and we are good. Running the dash air plus the front cruise air has kept us very comfortable even at hundred plus degree temps. If we need more a/c all you have to do is turn the generator on and run as many a/c’s as you want. Most importantly I would hate to lose a bay to OTR.

[Chris]

Dave & Jill,

I have to ask you this?? Does your Cruisair work really well for hours on end on a boiling hot highway ??I hear that most don’t..I am quite surprised if yours does … and happy for you too.!! ??

Just really curious?

Cheers, Diane

[needtocamp]

My cruise air works great. We leave Florida every June and travel to California for the summer taking 10 all the way. Have had no problems going through Texas, Arizona, etc where temps are 100 plus. Matter of fact wife will normally put a sweater on after a while because she gets cold.

Please keep in mind the only area we cool is the front seat area. We have no need to drop temp to where you could hang meat in the bedroom while traveling. My coach does have a fixed tv over the drivers area as opposed to a swing down tv. I had the swing down tv on other H’s and found I really fried in the cockpit area due to extra expanse of windshield. Further it was one more thing to go wrong. Much prefer the fixed tv.

[Tom]

We all have to recognize that one size does not fit all.

All coaches would be equipped with OTR if that was the case. All coaches would have slides. All coaches would have the same floor plan. The point being we can debate awnings and air conditioning until the bovines return to the barn, but while there will be no concensus we will all be correct in our opinion.

I have stated before I like cold. I am not kidding when I say I know the temps are right inside my coach when the windows have condensation on them on the outside. When it starts to get above 70 degrees inside the coach I am too warm. My aunt and uncle who had lived for years in the middle east and then retired to Florida were wearing a sweat shirt if temps got below 85. The point being the need for OTR varies with the individual.

As to Diane’s question regarding the Cruiseairs shutting down when running on a hot highway that is possible. Our OTR had quit on a return home and I started the generator in our first Liberty and in a short time all three Cruiseair units had shut down because there was an insufficient amount of cooling air passing through the condensers. But we had the OTR shut down on our 97 Liberty so I again ran the generator and all Cruiseairs. Not only did that work, I found out when we got home that I had forgotten to open the forward shutters. I never realized that because the two Cruiseairs located behind the bumper kept running the entire way home. If I recall the temps were in the low 90’s that day. I believe the refrigerant change needs to be just right, and the condenser coils need to be clean.

[Archived]

Thank you all for the insightful comments.

When I started looking for a bus, several members gave me a version of the same advice. Paraphrased, that advice was “All of the converters did some things well, and other things not so well. When choosing a bus, be prepared to compromise, and be sure to prioritize the features, systems, etc. that are important to you.”

I did not really understand that then, but I do now.

My girlfriend is participating in the bus selection process. Despite my efforts (sorry, Jon), and even though she is reluctant to admit it, she is very partial to Liberty XL II’s. Every now and then she will say nice things about a particular Marathon, but eventually she returns to the virtues of the Liberty. I complain about the lack of basement storage, the Cruise Airs (I prefer roof airs), and now I can add complaints about the Zip Dee awnings to my list of concerns about the Liberty conversions. For her, it’s simple. She loves the interiors (colors, floor plan, etc.) of just about every one of the ten or so Liberty XLII’s we have seen. She doesn’t care about the HVAC systems, and ignores concerns about basement storage. I thought I had her thinking otherwise when she learned about the Zip Dee awning problems, because she really likes using an awning. I think her final analysis will be that if the Zip Dee doesn’t work, she can just stay inside and admire the beautiful interior of the Liberty.

I suppose I should just surrender. Why prolong the inevitable?

[needtocamp]

If we all like the same thing things would be pretty boring and we wouldn’t heave endless debates about features and conversions.

Even if we found the perfect coach, we would have to recognize it might meet our idea of perfection, but it would not be perfect to the next person because that person’s idea of perfection will be different.

One thing we learned early on in our ownership of a Prevost is waaay too much emphasis is placed on colors or decor. We lucked out on our first coach because we liked it because of its appearance and decor. After we had it for a while we realized it was the systems and how they were set up was really why we liked the coach. The marketplace is loaded with really nice looking coaches, but most of them are not for us because they do not have the systems set up the way we have learned we want them.

And even if we get a coach that has most of what we want, we still cannot get all we want. We have come real close, but we still have a wish list we won’t be able to fill. It does help that we like our coach’s colors and decor. Some are not for us, but we still place the higher priority in getting systems and features we want before we worry about the color of the coach.

Does that help with your girlfriend? If not, you are on your own.

[Corey]

Carguy touched on an issue in a very polite way about the arms hanging on the side of the bus with the zip dee.

Look down the side of a bus with the storm shutters (zip dee) hanging on the side and look down the side of a bus with the Girards on the roof and clean lines. End of story.

If you like that your in a Marathon, I don’t know exactly what year Liberty went on the roof (maybe 2006) but the Godfather can tell you that.

Later

bv