Thinking about a Bus/RV

Yes, the pronunciation doesn't line up with American reading of the letters.

But the way we pronounce "Michelin" here is not the way the French pronounce it, and it's a French company. Interesting, Michelin US seems to have just given up (or not cared) and adopted the American pronunciation.

Oh, and then there's my name. Yeah, just call me Ted.
 
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There we go, got it loaded. See tahrs above. If anyone else wants to adopt super singles, I've got a few extra wheels. The tires aren't any good tough, I'm keeping the decent ones.
 
Also kind of interesting that I stumbled across a channel of someone who drives for Peoria Charter Coach. Guy has probably driven by my house (I live about 1000' from I-57) 500 times. The internet is weird.
 
Ted said:
My wife and I went and did some tire kicking at a local RV dealer to see some newer 42' diesel pushers and see what we thought, more than anything just for a point of reference. Honestly, what we thought was not a whole lot.

In recent years it seems that, for reasons I don't really understand, 42' has become the new standard for big class As even though 45' is technically the limit in most states (and 40' in other states). There may be some regulation that I'm not aware of that makes the 42'ers more desirable.

The common theme with these all, across multiple brands, was a bath-and-a-half setup, with a half bath between the bedroom and living area, and then the main bathroom and closet in the way back. This really doesn't do much for functionality. For a couple it's nice enough, and the bedrooms did have sliding doors to section them off from the living area (unlike ours where the sliding door goes between the kitchen and the bathroom - the bedroom just has a curtain to separate it from the bathroom), but in the end it mostly feels like a lot of wasted space.

The bigger wasted space comes up front, where the theme is to have a fake electric fireplace with a TV above it in the living room across from a couch, and a 2-person dinette. The whole thing makes it essentially impossible to make anything resembling a good sleeping arrangement with the kids, and with the quad slides that are ubiquitous in today's RVs, the interiors look to be very non-functional if you can't get the slides out - another negative.

Although the bottom bays we saw swung forward instead of swinging up (an issue with our current ones that we'd like to improve upon in any replacement), the bay storage areas seemed much worse overall. Less total storage, a lot of them taken up by other systems.

There was also a 40' Monaco Diplomat - which is basically the same thing we have - but in a newer year with quad slides. Again, less functional than what we have now. Amazingly, despite being something like 15 years newer than ours, it maintained some of the same dated parts bin engineered features. An 80s GM ignition switch and 80s GM door lock on the main door. Oh, and that front door that swings open, with a poorly designed screen door that rattles when you open it.

As soon as we got into the car to leave I said to my wife "I didn't like any of those" and she said she didn't either, without any hesitation.

That has me somewhat going back and forth about what makes the most sense. In the end this bus has a lots of good things about it, and we really did luck out. The only thing I really did find I liked about the newer ones was more comfortable seating when we sat down on the couches or the driver's seat. That's all stuff that can be more easily fixed, although there are some definite difficult (not impossible - but difficult) things to change about ours.
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I'm late to the thread and not about to go read though so many pages of back posts, so apologies if this is a rehash or off track....

I found this post a little interesting. We've been family with kids weekend/occasional warriors in a 32ft class C on an E-450 chassis. It's been great but this type of RV clearly fills a niche for families, not a great long term or over the road machine... We daydream form time to time of upgrading to something in retirement for longer jaunts out when we get more time in retirement.

Anyway It's been a while since I've window shopped them, but but I do recall the tremendous waste of space in those large Class A's, with the fireplace and such. The perhaps more strikingly negative thing to my taste is the style...Seems like they are all going for the super high end glossy contemporary style, and I find it all very impractical looking and not at all comfortable....

I've been convinced for the 15 years or so since not long after we bought our first RV, a small pop-up tent trailer, that most of the folks that design RV's have rarely if ever actually used an RV.
 
Jim K said:
Also kind of interesting that I stumbled across a channel of someone who drives for Peoria Charter Coach. Guy has probably driven by my house (I live about 1000' from I-57) 500 times. The internet is weird.
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Maybe that should be my next job.
 
Brad W said:
I'm late to the thread and not about to go read though so many pages of back posts, so apologies if this is a rehash or off track....

I found this post a little interesting. We've been family with kids weekend/occasional warriors in a 32ft class C on an E-450 chassis. It's been great but this type of RV clearly fills a niche for families, not a great long term or over the road machine... We daydream form time to time of upgrading to something in retirement for longer jaunts out when we get more time in retirement.

Anyway It's been a while since I've window shopped them, but but I do recall the tremendous waste of space in those large Class A's, with the fireplace and such. The perhaps more strikingly negative thing to my taste is the style...Seems like they are all going for the super high end glossy contemporary style, and I find it all very impractical looking and not at all comfortable....

I've been convinced for the 15 years or so since not long after we bought our first RV, a small pop-up tent trailer, that most of the folks that design RV's have rarely if ever actually used an RV.
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I agree with your observations. The thing for us is that we do two things in our RVs - drive and sleep. Driving (and we do a lot of that) lends itself well to larger living spaces and a diesel/heavier duty chassis that can handle that better and more comfortably than an E450. We do longer trips than the vast majority of RVers. And most diesel pushers are diesel pushers not because it meets the travel needs of the owners, but because it's what they need to support the size that the owners want.

Ours is a 2000, and it seems to have one of the best layouts for our needs on the whole when we look at the compromises that others have. But really, the tour busses are the ones that are really meant for driving and sleeping, like we do. Hence that seeming like the right direction if we can find the right rig.

One channel I enjoy watching is "Bus Grease Monkey" on YouTube. I've been watching him for years since they were still doing traveling bus repair in their vintage GM silversides bus with an old 6-71 and a 4-speed on the column. In those older days it seemed like they were mostly going and getting engines running again (those old 2-strokes are pretty easy to free up and get going) and then some air leaks and maybe brakes. Nowadays they do all their work in their shop they built in Tennessee and the busses mostly drive to them with varying degrees of problems. And it's pretty sobering to see how bad the suspensions are on most of these. But, they never (or at least rarely) discuss the mileage and I'm sure it's in that higher-ish 6 figures up into 7 figures range when these things are that bad.
 
We drove the RV up to 6Y9 for Labor Day weekend, which is a lot of miles in a short time (about 1500 miles round trip over the course of 5 days total). My grandfather would've called it a "long run for a short slide" but it's worth it.

Unfortunately I didn't get the new tires on the bus before going, which would've been nice to have (assuming they improve the ride over rough roads as I hope/expect they should). But otherwise, the bus continued to perform very well on the whole. As always, a few minor nits to look at, and the house batteries are in need of replacement - something I knew already.

We do think we're leaning more in the direction of a bus, though. Trips like this really show how we use an RV - we drive and sleep. My wife spent most of the drive home looking at Prevost listings. The RV market has already been going down this year, and while the Prevost market is lagging a bit, it's starting to show signs of going down as well. So, we'll probably look for the right one and see what comes up.
 
The wife and I recently began converting this little fella into an RV. 39 feet of blank canvas. It was a college campus transit before we bought it a few weeks ago.
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Rich Holt said:
The wife and I recently began converting this little fella into an RV. 39 feet of blank canvas. It was a college campus transit before we bought it a few weeks ago.
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Nice! Good luck with the experience.

We honestly keep on going back and forth on a DIY conversion vs previously completed. I talked to a gentleman today about a Prevost that we liked on paper and like a lot of its features, but it has sad outside for the past 5 years which is a significant negative if the windows leak and water’s gotten in the walls.
 
charheep said:
I kinda want to hear about the Prevost saga
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I now have a second one, and both stories should make the folks who follow this thread laugh and/or shake their heads. I'll start with the first Prevost we almost bought. These stories read like a lot of airplane sales.

I follow several Prevost groups on Facebook. I have for some time, although I unfollowed them for a bit after buying our first RV three years ago. However in recent months I've re-followed the groups because our interest in a Prevost has been reignited and I've wanted to follow patterns, as my expectation is the market is going to drop (and is starting to), much like airplanes.

One group member posted her and her husband's bus for sale, on paper it looked about perfect for us. 45', Detroit Series 60 (no interest in the older 2-strokes), indoor stored, really liked the paint job. They'd sent it out for an interior remodel and after 2 years the shop had managed to get the interior gutted and done some start on the remodel, but it was nowhere near completed. It was at the shop and they needed to get it out of there, but the shop was a ways away and they just wanted it gone. For us, that's all pretty ideal. What they'd done we liked, and having the ability to easily change things to our liking is right up our alley. I message the woman, ask her some questions, things sound good overall. One of the questions I asked was how many miles on the bus, which she responded "It probably has a million miles" but followed that and some other questions such as generator hours with "My husband is the technical one, I'll give you his number and you can call him." Ok, fair enough. The paint and exterior made it look like there was no way it was a million mile bus. I figured she was just making a number up.

Talk to the husband and he didn't answer my question on generator hours, but also they hadn't seen the thing in quite a while as it was at this shop so fair enough. We talk and arrange things enough that we had an agreed upon price, I had a check, and we were going to meet to get the bus and complete the deal. Mileage as he claimed was around 200k when they bought it, and around 280k now. Ok, higher than I'd like, but the price was right and it's a Prevost, I can accept that.

Then he sends me a picture of the title, which shows mileage when they bought it (in 2006) of 625,000 miles. So, I pull the CarFax (yes, CarFax exists on busses, or at least can). It also showed the reported mileage of 625k. But it also showed almost exactly a year prior a mileage of 536k. So then some more digging, and the original owner of the bus was right outside of Nashville. This was originally an entertainer coach. Yeah, all of those miles add up. As a chartered entertainer coach, 70-80k miles a year makes complete sense. Those busses will tend to just run miles and miles every day as the performers get to their different gigs, and they don't get paid to sit around.

I confronted the sellers on the 625k mile number (not having told them I ran the CarFax) and they said that they lied on the title application because they were trying to save on taxes, and to make that story play out they had to put a fake mileage number in. Note, the wife and husband were both on speakerphone in the car, and the wife (who'd told me originally it was probably a million mile bus) claimed a very clear memory of their falsification of numbers on the title to get the lower tax rate. They'd bought it out of Tennessee and then supposedly leased it to a preacher for the first year (must have been a traveling preacher of some sort to need a tour bus). So then I pointed out CarFax showed that it had about 90k miles in the previous year. They stumbled on that one and then settled on the explanation that the preacher must've lied on the title too.

A little more digging into her previous Facebook posts showed that they had been leasing it out as well under their ownership, at least some of the time, and including right before they'd taken it in to have the interior redone - because the previous lessees had trashed the thing.

Putting the numbers together, a few things became obvious:

1) They were lying about the mileage somewhere to someone
2) I was one of the people they were lying to
3) The actual mileage number was probably much higher than anything that I had been told, be it via messages on Facebook, the title, or conversations on the phone
4) I therefore had a very hard time being able to trust anything else they said

My guess is that the bus actually had well over a million miles on it. I passed, and simply told them that the mileage on the title that I would have to carry forward would make sale very difficult for me in the future, and so we weren't going to be able to move forward. I talked with a couple of other Prevost owners who had million+ mile coaches, and they seemed to confirm my suspicions (which are fairly obvious and to be suspected). The busses may be advertised as 3M mile design life, and Charlie Daniels may have put 2M miles on his before he died, but once you hit that million mile mark you'll be nickel and dimed to death with little issues popping up. Sure, that's somewhat the nature of RV ownership, but I don't see a reason to go into something like that, and their price was also significantly too high given that mileage and history.

From what I can tell they ended up retrieving the bus and taking it back to their home and nobody else bought it, probably having similar issues to us (or just not actually able to buy/only tire kicking). It hasn't been listed/re-listed as being for sale. So, no idea if they're going to try to complete the interior the way they wanted it, or wait a while and then re-list it.

Then fast forward to this week. While driving home from 6Y9 Laurie was looking at Prevosts and we found another one that looked interesting. This one was complete and driving. The seller had just lowered the price fairly significantly, and while it was on the low end of finished Prevosts within that year (and had low total miles) it was also an appropriate price for this one in our opinion as the interior had some poor "customizations" and it was clearly not the top of the line. Talked to the fellow, overall liked what he had, but he'd owned it for 5 years and had it uncovered outdoors in that timeframe. Thought on it some and called to say that we liked it, understood he was firm on price, but weren't interested in that price because of the outdoor storage. Fellow said he was pretty sure it hadn't sold because the price was too low so he was going to raise it so people didn't think it was a piece of junk, because it wasn't. Also Prevosts don't leak!

Actually, yes, they do leak. The windows are known for leakage issues, and when they leak they'll leak inside the walls. If you look at the windows on this type of Prevost (picture is just a generic one on Google, not one I have been attempting to buy):

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You can see how they curve up around the top. Basically, you've got similar kinds of potential water pooling as you find on a sunroof. Just like an airplane or pretty much anything else, indoor storage is better, and the older it gets, the more you don't want it to be stored outdoors.

But sure enough, he decided to raise the price back up to the initial value he had it at - where the thing hadn't sold for a month before he lowered the price in the first place. With the outdoor storage and some other issues, a realistic value is probably about half to 2/3 of what he's got it listed at right now. Someone else may feel differently.

Just like airplanes. "Don't have to sell, I know what I got!"

Meanwhile, I'm hoping to put the different tires on my existing bus next week, and I'm also thinking that my Bilstein shocks with around 40k miles on them need replaced. That was one of the first bits of work I did on this thing after purchase. I went with the Bilstein option because they were supposedly a softer ride than the Konis, and significantly cheaper. At that time, softening the ride was my primary concern as I hadn't completed a good number of my other improvements yet. Now ride is still a concern, but I feel like handling (specifically highway speed handling) feels worse than when the shocks were new. While buying a bus and selling this one is probably in the cards, we still have trips we'll do with this one, so I'll continue to make improvements that will benefit us on those trips.
 
And, the video on my water/methanol injection setup is now up:

 
So, in the second story, seller raised the price, and then lowered it back to the original price?
 
charheep said:
So, in the second story, seller raised the price, and then lowered it back to the original price?
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Other way around. Lowered the price, then raised it back to the original price.
 
We'd filled the black and grey tanks in the bus and put some treatment in them. The black tank we'd gotten a treatment for that was supposed to get the crap (literally) off the walls and bottom and generally get it cleaned out. For the grey tank, the same company said to just pour in a bunch of Dawn Ultra dish soap and fill it up, since the biggest things with grey tanks that apparently cause smells there are grease, and Dawn is excellent at cutting grease.

We let the tanks sit for about 3 days and then flushed everything, and so far, it smells better. We'll see how this goes. We aren't using the RV for a while and it doesn't typically stink when it's in the shop, but it would be nice if that was don. Really we've never done a thorough cleaning of either tank, and we've been battling black tank odors off and on for some time. At the very least the black tank level sensors do seem to be reading correctly now, so it must have cleaned something off.

After I got the bus back in the shop, I unloaded two of the super singles (one with the 0 offset and one with the 2" outset) so that I can test fit those on the rear and see which one I can go with. I believe the 2" outset will work fine, but it will need to be inboard enough to make sure that nothing rubs. I'll test that out, and then once I know for sure, I can get the fronts taken off and go to the tire shop to get all the tires swapped accordingly, and then test drive to see how that project goes.

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The one trans cooler needs to be replaced, and then it's "mission ready". However I also do think the shocks need to be replaced as the Bilsteins now have 40k miles on them (they were one of the first items I replaced on the bus when we first got it). Originally I'd gone with Bilsteins over Konis because the Konis supposedly had a harsher ride. However they are known for handling better. I'm going to see how the bus drives with the new tires on and then decide.

It does seem a little silly in some ways to do this work if we're thinking we're likely going to another bus, and arguably it is. However we do figure we've got more trips left in this one - especially if we buy something that we'll be converting ourselves - and so making it the best it can be for those trips is worth doing. We're not in a hurry and are more waiting for the right bus to come along. We're also trying to decide what that right bus is, and having seen none of them up close and in person makes it a bit harder. I'll keep watching for anything local for sale to go look at, as I think seeing some of these up close and being able to touch them will help us decide.
 
Ted said:
1) They were lying about the mileage somewhere to someone
2) I was one of the people they were lying to
3) The actual mileage number was probably much higher than anything that I had been told, be it via messages on Facebook, the title, or conversations on the phone
4) I therefore had a very hard time being able to trust anything else they said
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You trusted them longer than I would have. They are obviously lying to everyone about the mileage, as well as probably everything else (not just the bus). I think they are mostly lying to themselves about what good liars they are, which is a pretty common lie to tell.
 
iamtheari said:
You trusted them longer than I would have. They are obviously lying to everyone about the mileage, as well as probably everything else (not just the bus). I think they are mostly lying to themselves about what good liars they are, which is a pretty common lie to tell.
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I trust no one selling anything, and assume everything that I buy will have things the seller knows about but doesn't disclose. I also expect nothing I buy used to be perfect and have purchased a number of vehicles sight unseen, and continue to do so. When buying a known project vehicle, especially something like a bus, I can allow a decent amount of leeway and "caveat emptor."

Normally what I'm looking for is enough clues to figure out what the real story probably is, and if it's something I can live with and be priced accordingly. In this case, I couldn't - the lies were too egregious, the price was too high, and it gets the mileage above what I'm willing to purchase.

And yes, they are definitely lying to themselves about what good liars they are.

We're continuing to consider what it is that we want to do going forward. Our probability of doing an upgrade at this point I think is pretty high, and we're just figuring out what that looks like. A proper bus is the most likely option, but we've also looked at some of the 44-45' RVs that have bunk configurations, which can be had in much newer model years for the same price as some of the busses we're looking at. I've always liked the looks of the Entegra Aspire, and they've got a bunk layout that really is very good for us. There's pros and cons to a purpose-built RV vs. a purpose-built commercial bus platform turned into an RV, and there's pros and cons to something new vs. something on the order of 20 years old.

Basic pros on an Entegra (for those interested, the Aspire 44R layout is what we like):

- Significantly newer, lower miles (all the Prevosts we're looking at are 100k+). The newer part is nice when you figure things like window seals, plumbing connections, etc.
- Quad slide layout does give better interior space when parked, and the layout is still workable going down the road
- Driver area
- Bunks are located near the master bedroom, but still a solid door and also on the other side of the bus, so some level of privacy, hidden behind doors when not in use
- We don't really care for the 1.5-bath layout a lot of RVs have, but the half bath is done well and doesn't take up space too much
- Nice having the main living room TV be on the passenger side wall rather than above the driver's head, and on a motorized lift so you can either see the TV or look out the window
- Really nice dinette layout

Basically, they've got the layout really well figured out. But, also cons:

- Only a 10kW generator (the Prevost conversions are pretty much all 15+kW)
- Lighter duty drivetrain that's pushed harder - 450 HP 9L Cummins and an Allison 3000 transmission, vs. a 450-500 HP 12.7L Detroit Diesel Series 60 and an Allison B500 transmission
- Modern emissions equipment (DEF, particulate filter, etc.)
- Giant single piece windshield which is expensive to buy and harder to replace (and probably also just not held in as well)

Really we need to do some traveling to check out some of these things in person.
 
I'm on my third Bus. The first was a 1958 GM 4104, the second was an MCI that now belongs to my youngest son and his wife. The one I currently have is a Prevost. They have all been great. This at Muncho Lake on the Alaska highway last June.
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Stickman said:
I'm on my third Bus. The first was a 1958 GM 4104, the second was an MCI that now belongs to my youngest son and his wife. The one I currently have is a Prevost. They have all been great. This at Muncho Lake on the Alaska highway last June.
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I remember you having the MCI. What year is your Prevost? 8V92 in it?
 
Stickman said:
6V92, I do miss the power of the V8! It's a 2005.
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I didn't realize they still made them with the 2-strokes that late.

2005 - is that the independent front suspension or still the I-beam?

Bus wise I feel like we're overall leaning more towards a Prevost if we buy one, more than anything because those tend to be pre-converted.
 
It started life as the team bus for the Vancouver hockey team. It came from the factory as an executive coach with only 22 seats. The bus is a 1985, it was converted in 2005, I should have clarified that. I would love to have a series 60 Detroit but it's really not worth the cost to convert it.
 
That makes more sense, it looked like one from the 80s. How is it holding up as far as "aging airframe" issues go and how does the ride compare?
 
The suspension is pretty much the same as newer coaches, not much has changed with that. I really like the disc brakes on the newer rigs though. Those old drum air brakes are okay but not great. On long grades you must be very cautious to avoid overheating them and running out of air. When they fade at the bottom of a long grade it is an attention getter!

I have a little rust around the receiver hitch, but it should be easily reparable. Most of a Prevost is stainless, although I've found that doesn't mean there won't be rust. My MCI had much more rust issues than the Prevost.

I carry standard air lines and fittings just in case. The copper lines get brittle. Usually you can hear the leaks on the walk around and it only takes a few minutes to repair them. I once repaired a leaking line while filling the rig with diesel, it was done before the fueling was. My biggest issue is old wiring, it all works but the switches are wearing out and sometimes won't stay on.

Over all I have found the Prevost (and the MCI) to be much better in every way than the 33' stick and staple rig I had before.
 
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We've been doing some more digging and trying to learn more about what the "next" rig should be. I did some more digging into the Entegras, and while there are a lot of features we like about them, the negatives that they have are ones that are very difficult if not impossible to change, and I think would be annoying. Owners say they have no problems setting the cruise at 75 with a trailer like ours and while they may have to slow some on upgrades, they're still overall keeping pace. With 450 HP and a side radiator, that makes sense. Our current bus has just never had a very good cooling system. I'm sure new ones are better, and I could also improve this one further. But that's a known weak point. Top speed is over 80, so speed isn't an issue as I'd been concerned might be.

What is an issue though is the small grey tank at only 60ish gallons (100 gallons of fresh water). That's smaller than we have today, and we run into issues with not enough grey tank capacity. I really don't understand why they did that, but I think that speaks to the fact that their target market isn't quite like us. The generator at 10kw and up front I'm going to bet 1) isn't on air isolators like I have today with my current one and 2) is going to still be fairly loud at full bore with all 3 rooftop ACs going. I'm sure it's still quieter than I have today (and potentially as smooth if they have good isolation) but it still is a negative in my mind, especially for that cost.

Another negative as I see it is the big single piece windshield. They're popular on RVs, but it's a known weak point and problem area as coaches age. I don't mind the line in the center and windshield issues are things to consider.

I asked a few questions to the Prevost group as well, specifically as it relates to ground clearance and off-pavement driving. I'd be curious of @Stickman 's experiences driving his busses off-pavement as well. The general takeaway I have is that I should be fine, but that the Prevosts will have less ground clearance than I have today. Some people have pointed out that the Prevosts are about 2x the weight of our current bus, but since they don't have 2x the tire width (or 2x the drive tires) they are more prone to getting stuck or sinking in. To me, that mostly comes down to an issue of making good decisions. We always scope out an off-pavement location with the Land Rover before trying to get there with the bus, and I read the road when driving off-pavement.

Supposedly the Prevost XL2s (and it seems maybe the earlier ones as well) have an adjustable air suspension that lets you manually make the suspension raise or lower to get better ground clearance, and that gets close to 12". With a 45' bus there is still a departure angle and a big middle section to consider, but again, if we're talking something marginal or muddy we're not going there anyway. A good example is when we went to the Grand Canyon over spring break earlier this year. Originally our plan was to boondock. When it became obvious that those roads were muddy/snowy, we looked for other options and ended up staying at the Grand Canyon campground.

Another point that came up was turning radius. A 45' will naturally have a worse turning radius than a 40', but apparently the XL2s with the independent front suspension have a better turning radius. They're also known for having a better ride, although the solid axles are supposedly more durable and so you've got people preferring one or the other (usually whichever one they own) as you'd expect. There are different wheelbase options depending on whether it was a seated coach, entertainer coach, or motorhome coach from the factory (I find it odd they made those different options, but they did). But the motorhomes have the shortest wheelbase and thus the tightest turning radius, which probably works for us anyway.

We still haven't seen or touched a Prevost (either of us), I haven't touched an Entegra (only seen them in campgrounds), and we haven't driven either. All of that is a hard part. The closest we've found any of these for sale is Dallas, which isn't far but not like we can use drive to a dealer and check these things out. Given that when you get to Prevosts they're all custom builds to some degree and few of them have bunks. I haven't seen many that seem like they could be easily converted to a bunk configuration.

Meanwhile, back on the current bus front, I got the new fronts and super singles on the back on the current bus. I've not test driven it yet, but I'm looking forward to doing that and seeing how the bus drives with those. I suspect it should make an improvement. Also of note is that since the super singles are drive tires, it'll give me a rough idea of how those impact noise/ride/etc. vs. standard steer tires that most RVs run on the back. I followed that advice when I got tires for this RV right after we bought it in 2020, but I've always wondered how accurate it is.
 
The Prevost doesn't have a great turning radius. The lifting tag axle makes a big difference though. My MCI had a better turning radius even without the lifting tag.

When I drove the Alaska Highway last June there were many miles of unpaved road and the Prevost did fine, even towing my overweight trailer. It has an empty weight of 26000 pounds and a max weight of 40000.

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Thanks @Stickman . That's more or less what I figured. Yours being older weighs less, but I think I could make it work. The ones we'd be looking at have a lifting tag axle and if we got one with IFS those two things should help turning radius a lot. That's interesting that your MCI was better.

One thing I do have to give credit to Freightliner for with my XC is that it does have a really good turning radius.
 
Honestly, where I notice the turn radius the most is backing. The Prevost just takes more room. Still very manageable though.
 
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We end up doing turns at full lock quite a bit. Some of it’s a matter of having the turn radius so I’m using the capabilities of the bus, but some places were legitimate “anything with a worse turning radius wouldn’t have made it here.”

The general poo-pooing of off pavement travel of course triggers my standard response of “Challenge accepted” and it didn’t take me long to think about what I could change to improve performance in off pavement conditions using off the shelf parts just in a non-standard configuration.
 
(Somewhat) related.. We're heading to Overland Expo East in Arrington, VA in a few weeks. I'm looking forward to finally seeing first-hand all these overland rig setups that I've been oogling over the past year or so via YT videos. Hopefully I can start wrapping my head around how much of this stuff is really necessary vs. over-engineered because people like to tinker - I expect to see a good sample size of both. I don't think they're much on busses or RV's, but I expect to see a lot of various power system setups, sleeping and storage systems, and general cool-to-have camping/overlanding gear which should be interesting.
 
CJones said:
(Somewhat) related.. We're heading to Overland Expo East in Arrington, VA in a few weeks. I'm looking forward to finally seeing first-hand all these overland rig setups that I've been oogling over the past year or so via YT videos. Hopefully I can start wrapping my head around how much of this stuff is really necessary vs. over-engineered because people like to tinker - I expect to see a good sample size of both. I don't think they're much on busses or RV's, but I expect to see a lot of various power system setups, sleeping and storage systems, and general cool-to-have camping/overlanding gear which should be interesting.
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That sounds fun. I like some of the overlanding type rigs I've seen. Not for us (at this point anyway) but it's neat to see how other people decide to answer the question of how best to camp.
 
In what should be a surprise to no one, we've signed a contract on a Prevost.

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In typical Ted fashion, I've basically done everything to my bus, have massively improved it, and then decide to put it up for sale and buy something else.

The reality is that an upgrade has been on our minds for a while, and a Prevost is what we wanted from the beginning. However at the time we wouldn't have been able to swing one (or at least not a good one). For a first RV, what we bought made the most sense for a lot of reasons - including the fact that we had no idea whether we were going to like this or not. The end result has been that we obviously like it a whole lot.

Although we spent our time looking at other options, we just kept on coming back to the Prevost. We love the looks, we love a commercial designed and built chassis intended to go a million miles, and by all accounts the support network is very good. It doesn't hurt having a Detroit Series 60 (perhaps the most prolific bus and semi truck engine of modern times) and an Allison B500 (perhaps the most prolific bus transmission of modern times). Yes, it's more complex than what we have now, but with significant benefits.

This particular one that we were considering has a triple bunk interior setup and on the whole seemed to be as close to exactly what we wanted on paper as we were likely to find. There were a few things we weren't sure about with it. RVs can be hard to take good pictures in, and the reality is many people take bad pictures anyway. The location of the toilet closet wasn't clear as it related to other items. In the end, it actually was a very nice and cohesive layout on the whole. The major gripe we had was the lack of a washer and dryer. This was a big deal for us - however as part of the sale price I negotiated them installing these units (in place of the second vanity sink - something we didn't see a need for) as well as changing the refrigerator (both require the windshield to be removed, so many as well do these both at once) and some other nits. They'll do these over the course of the next month or so and then I'll take delivery.

The test drive and general walk around/inspection/impressions were all very positive. The driving quality difference is exactly what I'd expected. I got my RV to be as good of driving of an RV as one could get from a Freightliner XC (and really for the most part it's pretty good), but it's still night and day. We're all really going to enjoy the drives with it. While it is bigger than our current RV, at the end of the day it's not a huge amount taller, the width is the same, and it's only 5' longer. It's not that huge of a difference. The motorhome chassis from Prevost has the shortest wheelbase, and between that, the lifting tag axle, and the independent front suspension, it turns just fine.

Naturally, this means our current RV is going to go up for sale. I have a few details I need to finish up on it (and I haven't even test driven it with the super singles - sadly that was something I probably shouldn't have done) but then I need to get a listing together. If anyone on here who's been following my RV is interested in it, send me a PM and we can talk details. I have a rough idea of what I'd like to get out of it but haven't settled on a firm price.
 
NealRomeoGolf said:
I think it needs a Cat engine swap.
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I'd definitely be happier throwing in a C-15, or even a C-13.

I saw a couple of Newells at this RV dealer that I think had Cats in them. Newell does their own thing with their high end RVs, and while I like some of what they do, it seems eveyrone I've talked to says they're basically not serviceable.
 
SoonerAviator said:
No slides?
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2 slides, same as ours - both on the driver's side.

While at this shop (that had almost exclusively Prevosts) I walked through some non-slide coaches. Honestly I was surprised at how much room they had inside. However we still are happier with the decision we made.
 
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