[Paul]

Bill that’s a scary bearing, good catch! Crap in hub, hmmmm. My guess: pin hole breather in rubber plug becomes blocked (say with crap), hub makes a new breather such as the inner seal, but hub needs more breather volume so it blows out the rubber plug and is happy, crap enters the plug hole, you see the wet inner wheel triggering a look, and discover that the crap was trying to eat a bearing.

Was that the inner or the outer?

Wrong axle, never mind, thanks Peter.

[Paul]

Tim,

Here is my cynical answer. Some sellers never take the time to learn their coach. They do not fully appreciate what it takes to properly maintain a coach. Some have access to employees who are charged with the responsibility to care for the coach, and a lot of the time those employees do not fully appreciate or understand the detail required to maintain and track the service of a coach. Others will rely on a local mechanic. The same holds true unless that mechanic digs into what is required and can set up an organized way to do all the required tasks. So the bottom line is a lot of sellers really don’t know the coach as well as they should, and they certainly do not understand maintenance is more than an oil change.

So when a buyer comes along and starts asking questions the answers “I don’t know”, or “My mechanic takes care of all of that” start to come out of the seller’s mouth. If the person who cares for the coach and the seller do not keep detailed written records it is unlikely all maintenance has been done in a timely manner. There are just too many small tasks to track, and although a very detailed service can be performed in about 3 hours, and a few more hours can be dedicated to a comprehensive inspection plus log book entry it is likely that is not happening. I wonder if folks who take their coaches for the “Level XXX” service at Prevost get reminders when off schedule tasks are required such as transmission service or coolant changes. Do the techs check the suspensions for tightness? Do they spend the time inspecting for chafing hoses or cracked hoses? Do they look for leaks? Do they review the codes. Do they pull up the service records to see if there are any recalls or service bulletins. My point is if you find a seller that answers those questions he is on top of things and that coach is one that needs to be on your list.

But keep in mind if an owner is sloppy with respect to maintenance or record keeping it does not mean the coach is not acceptable. The vast majority of us own coaches that we bought without ever talking to previous owners or without the benefit of logs. To buy such coaches we just had to do the best we could as far as inspections prior to the purchase and then we had to hope for the best.

[Paul]

Tommy,

The Pulse is plug and play using your existing sensors and repeater.

[Paul]

I looked at this bus and the upside is that us older folk don’t have to step over the tub plus, the large footprint already there makes for a very nice size shower. Geo.

[Paul]

T&C, as usual Jon is spot on. Comparing converters year to year, Liberty, Vantare, Marathon and Millenium are probably all on equal footing. They each do some things a little different, but each bring something to the table. At that point it comes down to what someone wants or requires for how they are going to use their bus. After ’09 you can probably leave Vantare out of that discussion as it’s kind of a hybrid between an Entertainer and a MH. Within the budget you have expressed, I wouldn’t think any converter should be overlooked. What some consider “orphans” are really not. The reasons for this have been talked about in other threads in the past. Geo.

[Paul]

I cannot think of any part of that process that is fun. The guys doing it need to get hazardous duty pay.

[Paul]

Happy Thanksgiving to all.

Bring the kids. Might as well start them young learning how to eat oysters. Tom never learned so he calls them snotballs.

[Paul]

OK…First of all I need to admit I am SO anal about fuel prices..sometimes doing contortions worthy of a slalom skier just to get to a cheap diesel pump. It’s bad, I’ll admit!

With that said, my two favorite items when it comes to buying fuel are GAS BUDDY app on my phone…and, even better, is the Sam’s club Mastercharge card….5% off on fuel purchases.

If anyone knows something better, I’d love to hear about it

[Paul]

Jon, good advice & suggestions as always. Still kean to build a list of ‘go-to guys’ though. Maybe need to be a little more proactive around the time of purchase when the likely bus converter will be a known quantity. Also more than happy to get down & dirty with a grease monkey to show them where to point their grease gun! Thanks for reminding me about Prevost coach operators as well. Will add them to my mental list together with Detroit shops.

[Paul]

use caution putting the top bolt in as you can go too long and damage the minibag…..if you can get one to start in there.

[Paul]

My agent said she called them and that it’s my choice of where to take the bus if something happens. Also, I am going to use a value from Liberty to increase my value and have an agreed value for the insurance, which is new to me from having an actual cash value. As you know, that is problematic if something were to happen.

[Paul]

Peter, we talked on the phone late afternoon and you were near Fargo ND….what happened after that?

[Paul]

I had a similar event and it was the voltage regulator was failing,anytime there was a reduction in voltage the OTR air would drop off line.

[Paul]

Thanks.. didn’t know about the color clue. that will help me a lot in following the wires.

[Paul]

Make sure you have a CDL. No one will likely say anything about your license unless you’re in an accident. In that event a lawyer could argue your coach is commercial given it is owned by a business, regardless of how it might be registered.

I looked into as well and the risk wasn’t worth it to me.