[Bob]

I’m trying to find the Norgren coils and solenoid valves that are in the steer compartment. The last time I heard Prevost would rather sell the entire manifold and that is expensive, plus there is a lot of work to switch them out.

Norgren’s site is big. If anyone has any tips or shortcuts please post it.

[Bob]

From experience (which we get right after we needed it) I can suggest the following things to consider when building a garage intended to store a coach.

Set up all the utilities where they would be convenient when the bus is in position. Ideally you should have water, sewer, and 50 amp electric.

Put in a pit if at all possible. Whatever it costs it can save you many times over just by having the ability to easily access the underside of the coach.

If it is possible locate doors at each end. Drive in, drive out. Make the doors as big as possible.

Locate electric outlets in large quantities all around the coach for convenience. You will use them for trouble lights, a vacuum, electric hand tools, etc.

Consider lighting placement. The ideal place for lights is outside of the coach perimeter, close to or slightly higher than the coach height, and about 3 or 4 feet from the side of the coach. I have one row of lights partially blocked on one side by storage racks. Not good.

Have a generous size compressor with an upper limit of at least 150, but 175 would be better. If it can have at least a 60 gallon tank then you can run a 1″ impact to remove lug nuts. The higher pressure makes filling tires go faster.

Consider floor drains so you can wash the coach and the water will drain out of the garage.

Even with a 14 foot door, make sure you have no less than 14 feet clear beneath the lowest portion of the door operating mechanism. You want to be able to clear the coach while operating the door, even if the coach is fully raised. Satellite dish domes don’t handle getting hit with the arm that pulls the door open very well.

Insulate the building. A metal building without a spray foam closed cell insulation will literally rain on the coach.

Allow sufficient room along side the coach to be able to open the slides and still walk around the coach and open the hinged doors below the slides.

[Bob]

Ooohh driver, you don’t have to take out the entertainment center to get at the batteries or install a back up water pump.

I remember clearly on a beautiful Montana night last year your better half said, I don’t want no slides. I believed her.

Later

bv

[Bob]

I am very interested in attending this class

[Bob]

This is fantastic. I
will attend and cheerfully help in anyway needed. While others talk about doing something
positive, PC actually does it!

Eric

[Bob]

Greetings, Everyone,

We use DirecTV in our coach. The dish is “in motion”, so not High Def, but we are very satisfied with the picture quality and never hook up to campground TV…we use the same subscription we have at home. On the road, we find we can get local programing out to about 300 miles…beyond that: no local. I guess I might try to use the antenna or park connection, but don’t since we’re not really interested in what’s going on in a place we’re visiting far from home.

Nothing out of the ordinary…but sure works well for us.

Just before this trip began, I ordered an Amazon Fire TV. After some minor challenges, we got it going and it has been a real pleasure. We’re now at Hilton Head Motorcoach Resort where the wifi is very strong and the FireTV works super well. But what I’ve been surprised about is the performance when wifi was weak. When my T-Mobile 4G time ran out, we found we could stream movies on a moderate 2G signal. The device has lots of features including the customizable radio apps like IHeartRadio and Pandora. I use the Amazon Prime film library, but Netflix is one of the many apps included if that’s you.

We watch alot of movies, so for us the Amazon Fire TV has been a nice addition to our evening programming.

[Bob]

This short video captured a 911 towing a camper on the French autobahn.

Towing camper

[Bob]

If you will check out my avatar, you will see that I do not have a Porch on a trailer, I have a Porch on my RV!

Boxcar used to be a house painter, but at his last job he was given a paint brush and a bucket of paint and told to paint the Porch in back. After a couple of hours Boxcar returned and said that he had put two coats of paint on the Porch. After being congratulated for such dedication in his work, Boxcar continued with “But you are wrong, that ain’t no Porche,… it’s a Ferrari!”

[Bob]

The reason aux compressors get a bad rap is because they do not introduce air through a dryer like the engine driven compressor does. So as an attempt to minimize moisture the converters or Prevost use a water trap which has to be drained often. Usually it is not drained and the result is water migrating through the system.

[Bob]

Thanks Busman. I’ver got to wait until Monday to see if parts are available from that vendor. If not I will holler at you.

[Bob]

For what its worth…I have worked with Lithium battery systems in Liberty coaches since they began using them. I find that when talking about our house systems we must be careful what we change so that we can still use our coaches and be able to get parts/service I have seen failures causing your whole coach system to be shut down and then unless you have parts on hand must wait on things to get shipped to you in order to fix the problem So I would be cautious that I wasnt going to get left hanging out there with out the ability to use my coach. Other issues I have seen is that technology changes so quickly that one component or company changes or goes out of buiness….Then you are back at square one.

I see the extended use of dry camping and being able to run air conditioning while doing this. however it comes at a cost. The batteries used on a Liberty are in the 6K range each….these are very smart batteries that have a smart card in them so the history of the battery can be pulled up. Also we can look at each cell of the battery and see temp and voltage per cell…..

So all that said to say that like everything on a coach each person must put their own value on things that are used and how important they are to us….

[Bob]

David – Yes, I have a push button on the outside and a lock cylinder. Works great when there is air in the system. But the air lock is connected with the rest of the air system and after opening and closing the door during the day the air depleats and I have to crank the bus up to refill the air tanks. In normal use, the door air will last about a day and a half.

[Bob]

Congrats; you worked hard to be able to do that. Here in Green Bay Wisc. we are Zero going down to minus 8 tonight. Can only hope next Sunday the temp is below zero for the Dallas Green Bay football game. Enjoy the warmth and the remainder of the winter.

[Bob]

Likely auto or manual front hubs so front wheels don’t turn half shafts & therefore front diff. Most 4×4’s (except Land Rover/Range Rover) aren’t permanent four wheel drive.

[Bob]

I am going to try to put the muscle on a couple of our lawyer members to help us with this topic. If in fact the MT LLC route is not tax evasion, is legal and would benefit our members we need ot know. If the reverse is true we also need to understand that. I just happen to be hanging around a couple this week and if the do pro bono work we may have the definitive answers. I find it interesting that one of them has registered his coach in the state where he resides, and maybe the second does as well.