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Paul, let’s get the biggie out of the way first. Prevost installed over the road heat and air uses a 6 cylinder Carrier AC compressor and it has a condensing unit that is cooled via large fans in the curb side third bay back. It has in the vintage coach you are looking at 90,000 BTU capacity or thereabouts. The evaporator uses the opposite half bay and it co-joins an engine coolant heat exchanger to temper the cool air if necessary or to provide whole coach heat if needed.

Folks with converter installed systems insist on calling their systems over the road air, but that is the same as comparing a diesel Ford pickup to a Kenworth. Let the flaming begin.

XL and XLII are the coaches with the stainless steel panels that run from beneath the windows to the bottom of the bay doors. The XL is often referred to as a rivet coach because the panels were riveted to the frame structure. The XLII uses a bonded construction. Their appearance is slightly different with the XLII having much larger windshields, frameless side windows and more car-like dash, and depending on the model year some significant improvements such as all disc brakes and on much later model XLII coaches multiplex wiring systems.

Some converters used only Prevost slides. Prevost slides actually followed slides installed by some converters. There are a number of manufacturers of slides other than Prevost, but as Prevost ramped up slide production most were Prevost slides. The Prevost slides went through a range of design changes and upgrades to the final version commonly called the pinless slides. Early models had issues but they have all apparently been resolved because we rarely hear of anyone with slide issues.

The only concern I would have is if I found a coach with non-Prevost slides I would investigate to see if the slide manufacturer is still in business and still supports the slide. Unless you learn the differences between slides you cannot tell one from another. Prevost slides do not open flush with the interior floor, early models had pins which engaged in the slide to make it a part of the frame structure when the slide was in (early models only) and had gear driven mechanisms with racks top and bottom. I cannot describe all the other slide models. If you do some investigation you will learn the differences between the various slide manufacturers and most importantly you will learn what slides the various converters used.. I know Liberty used nothing but Prevost slides, I know some Vantare coaches used HWH. I believe some Marathon used Rogue or Valid slides. If I have misspoken I hope someone will correct me.

I am not aware of Prevost options that were converter installed, although OTR might be cited as an example. Some converters bought primed shells and had their own paint work done.