[Greg]

Denise, We want 20 lobsters, looking forward to this! Gary

[Greg]

Jeremy,

Welcome
to PC, you found the right place for information and you might even
get a few good answers.

Angola
did a good job and the late 90’s was just about as good as you could
get with the XL’s. The systems are simple and easily maintained and
operated. I’m on my 5th bus and will offer a few comments and
hopefully won’t discourage you on this Angola, but 13K miles is scary
no matter what the history. In aviation, we call them hanger queens.
I would much rather have a bus with 150K rather than 13K. The
inactivity is what causes systems and components to fail.

Your
big ticket items are going to be tires, batteries, air bags, norgren
valves, shocks, wheel seals, brake components and a whole host of
other items that fail or deteriorate over time due to lack of use,
especially rubber components. You will have an engine and
transmission that could have issues from sitting and condensation
causes rust. Starting it once a month and running the engine thinking
it’s doing good is false. Driving and getting everything up to
temperature is what’s needed and not for just a few miles, but a good
50 or 100 mile run.

Others
may disagree in all this negative, but that’s the way I see it. If
you move forward, you need a really good PDI and the place for that
is Prevost. Keep us posted and ask lots of questions, the folks on
this forum have a wealth of knowledge.

[Greg]

Thanks for posting this guide Alvie, it makes it nice and simple.

[Greg]

My search, I hope, is nearing an end. In a week, the buyer of my current coach will be here to pick it up and transfer funds. I’ve continued to read and search forums for information but trying to get people to even talk about thier prevost is like walking thru a mine field. The earlier comment about “asking someone about which converter is best is like asking what child is best” sure holds true. There is no denying that an ’06 Liberty and ’06 Marathon and an ’06 Royale all have HUGE price differences and if the “chassis” is all the same then the challenge is asking what are the differences and are they worth the difference.

Liberty is at the top of my list but anything over the ’05 model years are just out of my budget. (even the ’05 will stretch my budget to the upper ends)

Marathon is second and Royale is third.

Actually, any of these three converters would work for the wife and I. We’ve found floorplans with each converter that we like. I have noticed that all 3 of the ’06 Royales that have been listed for sale in the last 2 months are now sold. That is the one coach that every broker, salesperson, mechanic that I have talked to said it is a user friendly coach, not alot of frills but was put together very well. All of them also said they love getting them in because they are quick sales.

I’ve researched the basement air, roof air, bus air systems, electrical, plumbing ect….. I’ve got spreadsheets comparing side by side features of the coaches we have been looking at. We’ve set our budget between $450-550K. The one thing that has shocked me is the “list” prices and “sell” prices have HUGE disparity. For example, I looked at a 2005 Marathon (beautiful) that listed for $599K…..sold for $465K. It’s not uncommon to see the list and sell prices $100K apart but I’m getting most of the information from the sellers…so is it really more?

I’ve made contact with the folks at Liberty in Stuart Fl, some private owners and even one owner we met at a resort who will be selling his coach in November. It’s a very nice ’06 marathon, and at least 3 brokers who are looking for me. Any last minute purchase advice would be welcomed. My wife is going to travel from Michigan to Florida on the 12th to look at a few coaches…..sure wish there where some owners staying at resorts in Michigan that would be willing to let us look at thier coaches and discuss first hand their experience.

[Greg]

All you other folks out there are missing a great show! Where else can you see and talk to a guy who flies formation with jet fighters by mounting a small wing with four tiny jet engines on his back or a car that unfolds its wings and takes to the air? And, hey, the vendors demonstrate aluminum and stainless polishing methods with magic liquids while the fly-market has a wide variety of polishing cloths.

On a sad note, our leaders in Washington nearly caused the show to be cancelled by suddenly demanding payment of $450,0000 or they’d stop the air traffic controllers who compete with each other to get here from working the show. Faced with the show being held for randsom, the Experimental Aircraft Association paid the bill under protest. That 450K amounts to each private puddle-jumper pilot paying more for a landing here than the commercial guys pay for an instrument approach to landing! There has never been a government charge since the beginning of this prestegious event because it generates so much revenue for American vendors by drawing visitors from all over the world and serves to ensure the dominance of American technology in aviation. Another first is the absence of any U.S. military flying demonstrations or static displays for the important task of motivating the young aviation enthusiasts here to volunteer for military service. It will be interesting to see how the long term economics of failed recruiting quotas play out against sequester savings from withholding a few military airplanes from the world’s largest gathering of aviators. Enough ranting from my soapbox, I’m staying out of politics and going back to the show.

[Greg]

Wow, this is so informative. It never occured to me that I might not be able to run all 4 cruiseairs from campground power. All the more reason to make sure that the ones that are running are cooling efficiently. Tom, since we both have 45 footers with no slides, do you find that you can adequately cool the bus with just 3 Cruiseairs running? We don’t have a lot of 120v needs that can’t be deferred until after dark when things cool down, but we do need the fridge. Maybe running a 15amp cord from the pedestal directly to the fridge in super hot weather will allow running all four.

Jerry, mine also draws about 15 amps from each leg to the chargers on bulk.

[Greg]

Glad that last pic is 2 years old. Will get on new pictures soon as this board is not the only one that I owe them to. Interior is 90% finished and new siding is awaiting install.(temporary siding is on) New is last in case I need to make any changes. Will go back same color for now. Will change next year as I don’t like color. New drive train is in just need to finish cooling system. Prob road test Sept. No hurry here. We do it all. The floor will go down last. Haven’t decided yet. I have cherry ,hard maple,oak-red and white ,pecan and walnut all stacked and dried. Just need to plane and T&G then finish. The maple we have here is sort of a golden tone when clear coated and would look good with the cherry cabinets and rust color couch. What ever the wife says! Bob

[Greg]

I recieved an email but no phone #. Am I missing something ?

[Greg]

doesn’t sound like they even change tires for a business.

[Greg]

Thanks, I reviewed the website and it looks like a good system. The storage looks much better than what I have seen and priced better too.

[Greg]

Was this the Speedco boys in Aurora?

[Greg]

Ran your question by co-pilot Mary Ellen,

Has experienced the same thing with her 5′ 5′ frame. Uses the calf rest most of the time, as the foot rest places her lower legs at non comfort angle.

On long haul interstate travel just piling on the miles …. I have noticed some co-pilot naping.

Enjoy your Marathon..

[Greg]

Gil is right about some converters not sharing design information. But some coaches which have no formal drawings available really need owners to create some type of drawing or schematic. If owner shared this it would be helpful.

Even if the information an owner develops lists the components and any model or part numbers the help that would provide would be significant.

[Greg]

Wow, interesting thread. I especially enjoyed the photo’s, of particular note was the use of water on this type of fire. Personally I carry a 20 lb bottle of Halon 1211 and a 30 lb Ansul Dry Chem in the belly. Topside I have a three small dry chem and a small water fire extinguisher.

Probably not a half bad idea for folks to review the appropriate extinguisher to select for a fire, cloth, upholstry use the water bottle. Galley fires use the dry chem. Should the engine area be ablaze I would dump the Halon into it followed by a brisk jog in the opposite direction, followed by a call to the fire department and my insurance carrier!

Now as to fire detection/protection…..been around these systems for years on airplanes where both can be super critical. The downside to these is I do not know of any that are maintenance free and most require action by the operator (pilot’s). Nearly every airliner is protected either by a continous loop (thermo couple) around each engine, inside the cowling (under the hood) or a sensor-responder. All that those systems do is to ring a bell or tone (very loud) and to illuminate a lite as to the location of the fire, once again triggered by a heat sensitive loop that will complete the circuit at a predetermined temp. The operator then makes the decision as to whether to fire the appropriate bottle. The wheel wells are also somewhat protected better said they have fire detection, not protection. While not common brake fires do happen and one of the items accomplished by the ground crew on departure is rotation of all wheels, probably not a bad idea with the bus as well, just verify that all tires are truning before jumping onto the interstate. There is a plethora of engineering in these systems yet false warning still remain a common problem Fire detection is often ac powered while protection is always powered right off the ships battery.

Back to the bus, there are so many potential areas for fire it would be nearly impossible to isolate them all. I would be willing to be that a large percentage of fires are caused by either faulty or lack of maintenance. The circuit breaker systems should take care of nearly every electrical issue long before it procedes to fire if they are operating correctly. Unprotected circuits should either be protected by breaker or fuse or removed. I could go on……………………….

[Greg]

Fred,

The water filters now installed are a pair of whole house filters with elements you choose. I used a pair of charcoal filters on the last coach because they would remove the taste and odor of chlorine I used when I santized the water tank. But if you used something like that to replace the large filter you backflush you could select whatever type element you chose.

I had the Groco Paragon in the sister ship to yours, and now have the Mach 5. They both did a great job of delivering both the flow and pressure. You are correct in that the Mach 5 is quieter, but my only concern about trying to retrofit the coach with that pump is you likely will have to grab the 120 volts from the bay heater outlet which could pose a problem if you wanted to spend time in cold weather. You could run another circuit such as pulling from the entertainment center wiring or even running a complete new line but that is a lot of work.