[Bob]

Tom,

Im going to have to bow out on this till after the hollidays. Flying back to LA in the morning, back in 2 weeks. Still plan to be on line but won’t have the coach to play with. Hope you can solve it so I can fix my amp meter when I get back.

Photo is close to home 50 miles from LA @ 6500 ft in the Angeles National Forest. No the coach can’t get there.

[Bob]

Michael and I are friends and Michael knows I don’t cut him any slack. He was good enough to post this and he got a lot of responses. So let me start making comments here beginning with the service call.

Michael and other owners need to develop an understanding of the coach. There is more to ownership than being able to find the key. Bob made some great observations and I will go a little further. A blowout means a tire is going to be replaced. Unlike trucks which have ground clearance our coaches have little clearance, but as owners we can help uninformed service providers.

What Michael or Vita should have done is put the level low system to work. First raise the coach as high as it will go. If not the whole coach, at least the RH rear. This gives access to the underside. If the tag axle was too low because the tire wasn’t supporting it, lift the tag. Every coach starts life equipped with a 12 ton jack located behind a panel behind the passenger side steer axle in the first bay. Use that jack as necessary to help raise the rear portion of the coach if necessary. As Bob suggests, lifting the tag can allow the coach to be driven, but only with caution.

As to some other comments. Here’s a question: Michael, did you check tire pressures before you rolled a wheel? If not you may have contributed. I don’t care how tire pressures are checked as long as that is part of a pre-trip inspection. If there was any doubt about the accuracy of the monitoring system then the tires needed to be checked manually.

As to valve stem extensions and rubber grommets. You use them and you are at risk.

That valve stem extension went through a rubber Alcoa grommet and the flat spot worn into it is a few thousandths away from failure. Dirt and road grit get between the extension and the grommet and the wear all takes place on the stem, not the rubber.

IN case you don’t understand how much they flex, here is the result of how one that lost its grommet has flexed enough to wear into the outer aluminum wheel. The point here is even with the grommet the valve stem at the wheel will fail where it bends due to stresses from centrifugal force.

So here is the bottom line. Check tire pressures at every opportunity. Eliminate valve stem extensions and use tools that will reach the inner valve stem. To aid tire service people raise the bus and the tag if required. And if you have tires that were ever run with 20% less than their pressure according to the charts, or if they are showing signs of sidewall cracking, or if they are ten years old, get rid of them.

[Bob]

Hi Michael,

Sorry you had a long repair process.

Looking back is there anything you would have done different? When I live through an ordeal like yours I usually can think of a couple things I’d do different next time around.

For example, we were on our boat in Key West and one of our engines wouldn’t start. After three days and $2,000 of parts and labor they partially fixed it. When we returned to Fort Myers, our local mechanic checked the wires on the back of the alternator. A $20 connector was loose. I now check all wiring before I start replacing parts whenever I have an issue.

Could you have told CoachNet who you wanted to call? Are there other things that seem obvious to you now?

Thanks,

Terry

[Bob]

Michael,

Please don’t take this the wrong way, I’m not picking on you. For the benefit of others, I thought this was important to discuss a little further. Vita could have easily run over something in the road, but unless Michael heeded my advice back in June of this year, this probably caused the failure:

This was Michaels right tag tire and I strongly urged him to change out all his valve stems and get rid of the extensions. If you did that Michael, that’s great and your unfortunate incident was just bad luck, but if you didn’t change them out, this was likely the cause.

Either way, the most important thing is you and Vita are OK, she did a fantastic job getting that thing to the side of the road.

[Bob]

If Jon was yanking my chain, so be it. I already dropped an email to the lady. We’ll see what she says.

FWIW, I’ll go to a field if the people are good. I don’t see a problem in accomodating everyone’s preferences and checkbook.

[Bob]

I totally agree with Jon. The knowledge that we have all acquired
over the years allows us to collectively solve almost any problem. No matter what your background is everyone
has something to offer.

The training Jon and I received at Prevost Nashville was
great. Not only were we allowed to attend the seminars, we were allowed to park
our coaches on site complete with 50 amp service. One of the things we learned was just how fantastic
the multiplexed controls and diagnostic are on the new coaches. We also had the
chance interface with some real bus technicians and converters.

I believe Jon is figuring out if he can add the multiplex
system to his Liberty.

[Bob]

Bob,

You can be assured this site will not
turn into one of those were the most important thing is comparing
balance sheets. I think Jon was pulling Karl’s chain about Disney. If
we end up at some point with a 200 bus rally, we’ll probably be in a
fair ground or something similar.

Invite me to your next 2000 rally and
I’ll be there!

[Bob]

Hoping like previous owners groups : $ won’t leave us poor prevost guys out. $1000 weekends are average for some –deal breakers for others. I and many of my friends I have refered to this community are hopeful this group will not go the way of POG. Just attended a rally of 40 coaches with 3 meals (sit down ) and entertainment. seminars etc 3 days. $200. My name is Bob Glines Home Builder 98 Xle 3 slides Retired Heavy equipment operator/former RV Dealer. SW Indiana.

[Bob]

Karl, if you don’t mind please see if a place like Fort Wilderness can accomodate a 200 plus coach rally. We need everything from catering to meeting rooms and it is likely converters or Prevost may be wanting a spot to service coaches nearby.

Thanks

[Bob]

Tom,

I thought the current transformers might be in there. Just lazy and didn’t take the
breaker cover off. I disagree that the 14 gauge wire is the problem unless it’s
been damaged on the run to the front. The current to the meters should be a
maximum of 5 amps. That’s 1/3 of the current a 14 gauge wire is rated for. Suggest
you take one of the meters and connect it to the transformer with a foot of
wire in the bedroom. That should verify or eliminate the wire as a problem. I believe
you said you had an Amprobe type clamp on current meter. You should be able to
use it to measure the current to the meters.

[Bob]

Jon,

We replaced our old 20″ CRT TV with a 32″ Samsung LED. While the new TV will except several types of inputs, the old coaxial cable screws right on and works just fine.

[Bob]

Clicking on “View posts since your last visit” does take me to prevostcommunity.com/forum/newPosts.asp, but the search results show no threads. I’ll look again after Monday. I’m sure you guys are staying plenty busy getting the bugs all ironed out. Thanks for doing all the work for us.

[Bob]

Bob,

Saw your post with your bus as a triple slide. I for one can’t wait to see the pixs on that conversion. After spending close to 2 years on Prevost sites here is the example of new guys bringing something special, something new, something of interest,. a major remodel and it’s a hobby.

Looking forward to seeing what you have updated on your bus. Thanks for joining

AL

[Bob]

Adding to what Tom has said, he and I have been looking for things that need to be corrected, improved or changed on this forum. So if anyone has suggestions or comments post them anywhere you want as soon as they come to mind. We read every post and right now we are trying to fix anything that needs fixing.

[Bob]

I can’t fault you there.

For lack of another place to post this (should probably be a forum just for the site) I don’t understand the icons next to the threads and forums that say “New”. There have been a couple where there was nothing new since I was on this morning, some where I was the last post (so I don’t care if the thread is “New”) and if there WAS something new I had to scroll through the entire thread to get to it.