[Larry]

Retract the slides when you drive.

[Larry]

Congratulations on buying a new to you Prevost. There is no better ride.

I carry a couple, maybe three digital meat thermometers in the coach. One is always in the OTR vent by the driver on the left side of the dash. We don’t have any digital readout on the temps inside the coach (or outside for that matter) that the driver can see, so this is my way of knowing what is coming out of the vents.

This thermometer is what led me to have Jeff Rowe look deeply into the OTR air conditioning. For almost a year and half after buying the coach we for some reason didn’t drive in really warm weather where we needed the OTR A/C running on “high”. What little maintenance documentation we did find on the coach was a trip to Liberty in North Chicago where the OTR was worked on (I can’t remember what they did, Jeff got the documentation from Liberty). Jeff worked on the OTR during the initial zero out (I think replacing a valve on a freon line) and again while we were at his shop for the first Prevost Maintenance seminar. Before leaving Jeff’s I had the OTR A/C on wide open and the temp coming from the driver’s vent just didn’t seem cold enough for me, or Jeff either. He put his gauges back on, checked the electrical connections (did you know there are three pairs of cylinders in the Carrier compressor that come on and drop out based on demand?), and finally reached the conclusion that there was an obscure technical problem with the compressor … “it is shot”. So a reman was ordered and installed. Somewhere I have a picture Jeff sent me after pulling the original compressor out and removing the heads. A number of the reed valves were broken which then resulted in the compressor being as Jeff ascertained … “shot”.

For me, when diagnosing anything its important to have accurate information … rather than anechdotal information. From my experience “it feels cold” or “doesn’t feel cold enough” or “isn’t warm or hot enough” just isn’t enough information. Using the digital meat thermometer to know A/C and heating temps is a perfect example of having accurate information.

My recommendation: Every Prevost owner should have a digital infrared (IFR) temperature gun and a handful of digital meat thermometers.

Further comment on effectiveness of Cruise-Air heat pumps in heat mode: The day before Christmas Eve we drove the coach to Green Bay in a snow storm to park at the Onieda Casino by the airport and attended the Packer game on Christmas Eve. The casino has an interesting RV parking area with 50amp service (you park on the left side of an access road around the back of the casino for which they charge only $15 a night). It got to 30 degrees that night. I didn’t run the Webasto, I turned all the Cruise-Airs to heat mode. At 30 degrees outside air temp and 28 degrees the following night in La Crosse (with the generator running) the Cruise-Airs were pumping out very warm air (I now realize I should have practiced what I preach and checked on the air temps at the discharge!).

We spent a night in Virgina a few years ago when it was 19 overnight and windy. Ran the Webasto that night. Getting up in the morning and walking to the enclosed commode made me very clearly understand why many coaches a spec’d with heated floors. The floors over the driveline (trans, driveshaft, and axles) can get awfully cold!

Good luck in figuring out your problem.