WTB 97/98/99/00 XL

[Three5ives]

Seriously looking for a 97/98/99/00 XL. I'm new to the Prevost world and have missed out on a few while trying to get the lay of the land the past month or so.

Must haves:


Private toilet room
Roof-tops if no OTR


Converter preferences:
Liberty/Marathon/CC/Royale/Vantare

Not interested in projects, looking for a ‘top shelf’ example and willing to pay accordingly. No contingencies to immediate purchase.

If you or someone you know is looking to sale their ‘pride and joy’ but don’t want to see it turn into a road dog, know it will be in good hands. As have all of my prior buses, it will be lightly enjoyed but also doted on, residing in a nice garage right around the corner from ETLC in Lenior City. My wife and I are excellent maintainers of 'stuff', that's what we do.

@admin If this post is in the wrong forum or not allowed, please move or delete accordingly.


-Clint

prior/current buses:
https://www.95bird.com/main

[Gil_J]

Clint,

Those seriously wanting to sell will always list their coach. There's no better place to look than Prevost-Stuff.com

I'm curious. Why roof airs only if the coach doesn't have Bus Air? One has nothing to do with the other.

If you have any questions, give me a call.

[Three5ives]

I'm all over Prevost-Stuff.com and every other possible dealer/listing service. All three of my birds above were bought privately.

As to your question, I don't want travel (in motion) to be influenced by CA performance. If I have OTR I can travel anywhere w/o concern of temp and no need for CAs during travel, only at rest. If no OTR, roof-airs/dash air for travel and roof-air at rest. CA/dash-air seems to have some limitations on travel in summer in the SW. That said, if a CA/dash-air bus has some other qualities that makes it a stand-out, like insanely clean with strong service history, I'll compromise.

[Three5ives]

Still looking. I'm finding the compromises required to get a nice XL are much more significant than I expected. The A/C configuration is the biggest. I would like to stay away from cruise-airs, I live in the south and thus tend to travel in the south mostly on short trips (not retired yet). That said, eliminating cruise-airs significantly reduces an already low inventory market-place.

[truxton]

I would not compromise. Even bus air is becoming obsolete because the systems are so old when they do go no one can fix them when you need it. I had 4 calls this summer from guys on POG needing help out west that no one could help them.
I have a Liberty friend with an 07 who lost his bus air and CA's on his way to Montana. Liberty Chicago told him we are not working on them anymore, he ordered a new Marathon in AUG.

If you run out west across the deserts in the summer you can't stay cool with CA's, impossible. There's some old timers on here right now saying ahhh mine are fine or the roof airs are noisy. BS.

We have a couple guys on PC who have had it with CA's and have cut holes in the roof and added roof airs. They are very resourceful and the 1st bus is working great. I'm sure they will get feedback from Monday morning quarterbacks but I give them alot of credit. They had enough. Anyone who tells you I can get right in to so and so to fix CA's is lying.

We'll see if any of the guys that called me jump in here.

Later
bv

[truk4u]

Ditto Bernie’s comments, I’ve had both roof airs and Cruisairs in multiple coaches, no Cruiseair for me. Just try getting a compressor, parts or a new or rebuild Cruiseair, good luck. Nothing worse than HP shutdown when you need it the most due to high ambient temps. Although they did work really well in my Chris Craft being water cooled.:p

[wjohnson720]

Curious why 97 or newer. I have a 95 country coach, roof air, over the road air, dash air, series 60 Detroit, straight front axle. No slides. Works great for my short 2 - 4 day trips. I think 95 is the first year for series 60.

I have traveled in 95+ with just the dash air and stay cool. I do have to run the generator is I want to use the roof airs going down the road.

The OTR is built by country coach. Very repairable with available compressors and parts.

Good luck in your search.

[Three5ives]

Curious why 97 or newer. I have a 95 country coach, roof air, over the road air, dash air, series 60 Detroit, straight front axle. No slides. Works great for my short 2 - 4 day trips. I think 95 is the first year for series 60.

I have traveled in 95+ with just the dash air and stay cool. I do have to run the generator is I want to use the roof airs going down the road.

The OTR is built by country coach. Very repairable with available compressors and parts.

Good luck in your search.

An assumption on my part that the 97 was the culmination of years of perfecting the straight-axle XL. I would consider a 95/96 also, given really nice condition and some service records. A 40' CC with roof-air and CC-air is really appealing, and really rare. I like Marathon a lot, but seems like they made very few non-CA buses from the mid to late 90s. Have the opportunity to buy a nice 40' 97 Marathon, but it has CAs and open bathroom. Willing to compromise on the latter, but really REALLY struggling with the CAs.

Coming from the Bluebird world I never expected finding a nice Prevost to be so difficult (granted, it's absolutely the worst possible time to be looking). All S60 powered Bluebirds have roof-tops and dash-air, so there was never a CA issue to consider. Plus, I would say that easily 70% of the S60 Bluebirds had private toilets. I'm finding that's not the case with Prevost, as the open-bath or 'toilet in the hall' (as my wife calls it) was a very popular floor plan.

[Joe Camper]

In 97 prevo complicated the suspension by adding a ping tank to every airbag on the bus. In theory it makes the ride smoother. In reality its not a noticable difference and creates a whole bunch more places for suspension leaks.

[Three5ives]

Interesting, I thought the ping tank design went back further than that.

[Joe Camper]

Foe a couple years u could get a 60 series with a straight axle front end and no ping tanks all 3.

Good stuff.

[MusicianTrader]

Gee guys thanks for making me feel better about my cruise airs...as if I didnt have enough problems already

[Gil_J]

The ping tanks supporting the air bags are there to make the suspension more reactive to roll. An immediate supply of air is available in the ping tanks when a bag needs to be inflated quickly. It really wasn't so much for a smoother ride.

A bigger complaint many will have with the early S-60 powered coaches is the tag axle logic. It requires aux air pressure to hold. It's unrealistic to think a coach of that age or even half that age will maintain aux air pressure. The good news is that logic can be changed and Joe's the guy to do it.

[BGLogistics]

Yep. Joe did mine - updated to the new "tag axle logic". Couldn't be happier with this combo - Series 60, straight axle, Prevost OTR A/C.

[Joe Camper]

Billy u r a prior truck driver with the background to make comparisons as to ride and stability with big heavy vehicals.

Do u ever experiance exessive roll in the camper a chassis without those ping tanks?

Where do u come up with this stuff Gill lol

So u r in a turn and it rolls over some, enough to open the ride height valve. Well wouldnt a smaller vessle fill quicker? Adding volume takes more air? The added volume would seem to me to do just the opposite of what u suggest. please excuse my ignorance there could be validity to what u suggest i just dont see it.

[BGLogistics]

This bus does seem to lean more than any tractor. Oddly no rear sway bar or provision for adding one - no bracketry on axle or chassis (I've looked at similar chassis with one). Maybe a 40' with this VIN wasn't an option - the parts manual shows some VIN breaks so who knows. I've learned to adjust my cornering style. As far as ping tanks I have no idea, never driven or been a passenger in another Prevost. Only stepped in 3 others besides this one.

[Three5ives]

regarding body roll. The ex-Bluebird guys that previously owned a wide body heavy S60 bird (LXI is 51K lbs), notice significant reduction in body roll when transitioning to a Prevost. Most contribute it to outboard bag placement and ping tanks. I've owned both a 42' Bluebird S60 (48K lbs) and a 43' Bluebird S60 (51.5K lbs). My first experience driving a Prevost was a few weeks ago, drove a 97 XLV. I noticed the improved stability from less roll and better tracking, but what I found most surprising was how lite it felt. I did not expect that. To prove what I felt was accurate we went to a nearby CAT Scales ... 44K lbs. It was pointed out to me that from the window line up is aluminum on a Prevost, on a bird it's riveted steel roof and all. Additionally on a bird, on top of the roof are steel walk ways, and goat rails. You can tell the CG on a bird is much higher which combined with the inboard bag placement and lack of ping tanks (maybe) can make for a lot of roll.