[Archived]

when I say park the bus, I am meaning not in use.

I leveled, turned off the hot water heaters, water pumps, most AV components, lights. Drained black and gray tanks.

i left the inverters and fridge on.

what is your normal routine, for non use for a few weeks at a time?

[Corey]

For that short period we plug in, shut water pump off and enough AC to keep humidity down. Geo.

[Archived]

Same as Geo says. I turn off the breakers to the stuff I don’t want running.

I see you’re in an enclosed building. My comments are presuming the coach is outside. Obviously if you’re in an enclosed building, you MUST turn the generator and any generator Auto-Start feature OFF.

Some owners (and at least one premier Prevost maintenance shop) recommend turning off the 12 and 24 volt chassis master switches that are just inside the engine bay door. Probably NOT a bad idea as there could be a little parasitic drawn and you don’t want to come back to a dead chassis batteries.

We have a WatchDog system on our house batteries so that if the shore power is lost for some reason, the WatchDog will automatically start the generator and recharge the house batteries when they get down to a certain level. I have made a conscious decision to have the generator Auto-Start engaged ALL the time to protect the house batteries from being drained down too far … been there, done that, once is enough for me. I expect that a well known poster to this forum who is a multi-Prevost coach owner will likely provide a different point of view about use of the generator Auto-Start feature on our coaches.

If you were going to park the coach, plug it into 50amp, and not return for three weeks, I would make sure that there was more than ample fuel in it so that if the generator needed to run (which is very, very unlikely if you have reliable shore power).

If it were in the summer time, I would probably leave the fresh water tank full and empty the waste tank(s). If you’re going to park the coach for three weeks in the winter, that is a different story.

If the coach is a “new to you coach” and any of the previous owners futzed with the electrical system its possible that either the chassis batteries and/or the coach batteries could have “things” hooked to them that (1) you don’t know about, (2) aren’t on easily discovered switches/breakers for you to turn them off, and (3) could draw power that you’re not aware of. Until you’ve had the coach long enough to “know your coach”, I would be reluctant to walk away from it for three weeks. I’m not trying to scare you, only trying to make you aware of a situation that may impact your coach.

This isn’t like parking your Buick or your Dad’s Oldmobile in the garage for three weeks and not worrying about it. Good luck. Keep us posted.

[Larry & Diane]

I cut off all TV/Video, Satelite power, Gen auto start off if I’m at home, I don’t turn off any other breakers, leave 1 Cruise air on set at 80 as Geo says to keep humidity down, and keep from melting Vitracor in 100+ days. Cut off master light switch and panel lighting.

If I’m going to be away from home, only difference is, I leave Gen auto start on, and make sure I have my exhaust vented outside the garage.

Normal stuff off, such as, Aqua Hot, water pump, any other appliances, off, other than Fridge.

Bay fans always left on in hot weather.

My alarm system tells me if there is a power loss while we are gone, if so, for more than a few hours, I will send someone to check on it.

[Archived]

Better answers would be available if you would add some specifics regarding the coach to your signature line.

I generally don’t use or even move my coach during the 4 summer months, but I work on it doing maintenance, use it as back up if there is a power outage in our area (twice this summer), and depending on circumstances may use the refrigerator. It is in storage, but still available if needed. I even have the generator buddy plug available if an extended power outage occurs so I can feed electric to the house or garage.

It is plugged into 50 amps. The generator auto-start and shore power disconnect generator start features are tunred off so the generator will not start without manual intervention.

The inverters are left on to maintain the charge on the house batteries. I do nothing regarding the chassis batteries. I leave the master on at all times. Usually I raise the bus, put supports under the chassis support points because I may want to do some work beneath the bus so it sits on stands, but it can be supported by the tires just as easily as long as I don’t get under it. If that is the case I lower it all the way down. That makes it easier to get in and out.

The water pump and all other switches are off in the main panel, but the battery powered circuits such as the lights are still able to work. Only if I am doing serious work on the house battery system will I turn off the house battery master switches because there is a specific procedure on my coach to power it down.

I do not start the engine or otherwise exercise anything such as the generator. Prior to using the coach again I will service the water system with chlorine and refill with fresh water as well as powering everything back up to do a pre-trip check of everything.

If we use the coach during power outages we just turn on the breakers for everything we are going to use, I connect the generator exhaust to the outside vent, start it up and use the bus as if we were in an RV park until power is restored and we can return to the house. We decided there is no sense living in a dark house with flashlights and no air conditioning when we have our second home across the driveway.

[Michael]

updated my sig as suggested.

we have an enclosed building for the bus and it is heated. Our home is at 7600 feet elevation so air condition is not necessary. Our high temps are normally around 80. I did cut the power switch to the generator. Your input has been helpful , I may install a large floor fan just to circulate air,,,,,,any thoughts there?

[Archived]

I currently have our coach in a huge rental storage garage (houses about 100+ RV’s, boats, 5th wheels and trailers). It’s in a huge enclosed building with a 50 amp hook-up. It will be sitting for about 4 or 5 weeks.

Probably in a couple of weeks I’ll pull it out of the garage to wash it and may take it for a 20 mile spin to exercise everything.

I have one roof air set to 76, I leave the aux. compressor on to keep the seals ‘full’, fridge on, everything is off including the water pump.

I do have the generator set to come on in case the power is cut off. The coach will run on our 3 Lithium Ion battery power-bank until it reaches a preset level which I think is 30% then the generator will kick to recharge.

[IMPORTANT]…. Empty the ice maker and turn it off. That way, you won’t end up with unfresh ice that may be affected by the defrosting cycle.

Otherwise, I leave everything else in the ‘on’ mode ready to roll.

Safe travels,

Mark

[Dan]

I would suggest the following:

a. Turn off auto start on generator. On my previous coach I forgot to do so. Building lost power and I did not discover until 2 weeks later. You cannot imagine how much damage the soot from the generator caused to the interior of the coach.

B. Turn off ice maker and empty ice maker. Again I did not do so and something happened that caused ice to melt, seep out of refrigerator, and sit on my hardwood floor. Water caused finish on floor where wet come off. Had to replace floor. You can bet I replaced hardwood with tile. I would never have hardwood floors in a coach again.

C. Leave 1 air on.

D. Turn off water pump and aux air compressor.

[Archived]

NEVER NEVER NEVER have your generator auto start turned on if you are INSIDE a garage or some other type of building.

You will not believe the mess it will cause.

[Archived]

I agree Mark, one of the 1rst on my list is to cut power to the gen.