Marathon Texas

[Jerry Winchester]

Made my first stop last night at Marathon's Grand Prairie, Texas facility. It exceeded my expectations.

First, it is just a few exits down 360 from Prevost Fort Worth, so that is a plus. And like Prevost, they have multiple 50 amp parking spaces that have water and there is a dump station as you pull in by the gate that already had a sewer hose hooked to it and a water hose rigged up to flush. The keypad gate gives you 24 hour access.

I could not belive all the coaches there. They have some new and used Marathons, but there were almost as many Libertys there. I spoke to Chad Duplantis (he attended the Kerrville and Branson rallies) and he said they had sold quite a few new coaches and taken most of the Libertys on trade. The other Libertys had come in for service and one came in right after we did last night. I also think Marathon has the right strategy in having service centers in California, Texas and Florida.

They have a nice place, but I think their workload has outgrown their shop space. Plenty of parking, but not many bays. I also had to laugh at their lift system; some crude ramps made of plywood. Very effective and light weight. I may have to rig up a couple as they would be way easy to store and move around.

The service manager was also a surprise. Les Evenson is a veteran Marathon guy who transferred from the Marathon plant in Oregon after spending time on the manufacturing line there. He for sure knows these coaches and it was good to talk to someone who is smarter than the Trukman for a change.

And the guy gives you his card with his cell phone number on it.......

I will take some pics when I go back up there and will report back on the quality of work vs the price. I doubt it will be cheap, but if they do a good job I will consider it worth the price.

[meandmyprs]

I bought my 04 model from Marathon, Texas (Chad) and gave them a list a mile long of things to fix and/or replace and they did it without ever questioning one item on the list....and these items were big.

I stay there all the time when I am passing through or I leave my bus in Dallas at their place and it is my home away from home when I am in Dallas on business. As Jerry said there are a ton of busses there to look at for sale.

Jerry, did you see the new H up front with wood grain for striping on the exterior? Crazy.

Brent

[Ray Davis]

I had Marathon Dallas do the PDI on my coach when I was purchasing it in October. They did a good job, but previous owner was a bit miffed. He setup the PDI, which they did a week before I was coming, however they didn't contact him with any deficiencies, so none of the stuff was ready when we came to see the coach. We had to wait an additional 3 days to get them to fix several minor things. They were overly busy, and it took 3 days, and ultimately we gave part of the list over to Prevost to finish.

As you indicated, they seem to need a lot more bays for working on coaches.

I guess while we were there a couple was picking up a 2007 coach, and I guess the poor guys were just being worked to death by the lady who wanted basically everything perfect. They ended up "delivering" that coach for over two weeks!

Ray

[gmcbuffalo]

Wow
I don't think Marathon Coburg will give you the time of day if you don't have a Marathon.
GregM

[Jerry Winchester]

Yep they had some nice coaches there for sure. The wood grain deal is one example of the recent changes in their interior and exterior design strategy. It is painful to see the vintage Marathons in the lot with the Liberty Casino Chic paint jobs. I really liked the new sewer / power drop down door addition.

They had Vantares, Country Coaches and Royales all in for service, so they look like an equal opportunity shop. I can see the factory not wanting to become a service center for every kind of coach out there, but the service manager reported that this is the first year they have really been "slammed" with service work and it I think it will only increase.

And I really liked the fact that the guy sat in the coach with me and asked about any maintenance that needed to be performed then talked about every system in the coach and what needed to be done. I had recently changed the oil on the engine and generator and replaced all the filters, along with the house water filter and Cruisair filters, so there was little they could do, but he never balked at doing any of it.

[Jerry Winchester]

Picked up the coach today from Marathon. From what I can tell, the work was done and all is functioning well.

The glitches ended up being a loose fuse holder on a circuit card that was in the relay box that is mounted to the ceiling of the second bay. This card had a 4 amp fuse that I found burned out on my troubleshooting day in Dayton, OH. I thought the connector next to the fuse holder was hot when I touched it but it didn't register to me that it was loose.

The intermittant "No Signal" on the plasma tv ended up being an inoperative HDTV amp. That also fixed the black line problem on both TVs.

Defroster was fixed and the spring for the door detent was reinstalled. And a few other odd items, so tomorrow when they send me the bill, I might have another opinion.

The good news was that they had it ready at the agreed time and I was able to pick it up on the weekend. I offered to settle up with them on the phone Friday, but they were okay with me taking the coach and us dealing with the paperwork next week.

I took these photos with my cell phone.

3047

They got a few new XL2's in since I was there a few weeks ago.

3048

All the Libertys live out back.

3049

[garyde]

Hi Jerry. Are all the Coaches out for display? Do they have any inside ? Do they have a sales floor?

[Jerry Winchester]

Gary,

All in, this place is not very big (or at least by Texas standards), so all the coaches are outside. The featured ones are in front of the building so that facilitates going after hours to look at the outside if you like. All the customer owned or considned coaches are locked in a compound that is accessable by keypad gate.

The front of the building is just offices with the service bays and some outside covered service areas running north behind the main building.

3050

[jello_jeep]

When I first bought my bus from a fellow in Ga, I had issues and stopped into Dallas on the way home.

I called first and Les was a bit reluctant to pipe me aboard as it was Nascar week. Being new to all this I had no idea why that would make any difference to him, I was kind of thinking, well go watch the race on your own time :)

When I explained I had just got it and was passing though on the way to So Cal and all, he got me in and I was there for three days.

I then found out what difference Nascar week meant there LOL.

I had no toad either, and Les even gave me a ride to pick up squeezins in case my good pal Truckster stopped by.

He is a nice chap indeed.

How far is that from your place Jdub?

[Jerry Winchester]

It's about 3 1/2 hours to Grand Prairie. It's an easy drive and being two exits south of Prevost's "Fort Worth" location is a bonus. There must have been some gerrymandering going on with the borders here because they both look like they are in Arlington and at best Prevost is in Grapevine, but that's not what the address reads. Go figure.

[Gary & Peggy Stevens]

So Jer, you mentioned your Defroster was fixed? Was that the problem you talked about a couple of months ago, where the air blows a plenty out of the windshield defrosters, but you get nothing in the way of air out of your dash registers? If so I have that problem too.

Esplain what they did to fix that issue, please.

Thanks.

Gary S.

[lewpopp]

I think Prevost likes to tell you to leave after the work is done and the bill will follow. I think you should insist they complete the bill as you wait and they would be convinced you care about the bill. Even what they did would be fresh on your mind and you can prove what differences you find.

Prevost loves to send you a bill in the mail so they can shove it so far up your A-- and you know there is no sun shining there.

But hell, these Texans have all the good things so they don't care. HMMMM.

[dreamchasers]

Gary,

My coach has the same symptom, that being 'mucho' air coming out of the defroster vents and very little coming from the vents in the dash. I would also be interested in hearing what the fix was? It would be nice to re direct all that air flow to the dash registers.

Hector

[Larry W]

I had a no air coming out of two of my dash vent so I removed the panel that it looks like most converters install to make the entryway look nice. I found the hoses to the vents had fallen off over time. I also found that over the years all the other hose clamps were now loose. With all the hoses now attached the air flow is better.
When I started this project it was to find out why the fans had a high pitched noise at the higher speeds. That was a simple fix. The Prevost installed air filter was covered with lint. Washing the filter made a big difference in the fan noise level.

[truk4u]

Larry,

Are you saying there is an air intake filter for the dash air? If so, where is it located?

[jack14r]

Truk,there is a filter for the dash air,in the XLII it is at the base of the dash on the floor just above the top entrance step.It is a reusable filter also the manual shows the location,but the converter might have hidden the filter behind their modified dash.

[Gary & Peggy Stevens]

Hector, I am hoping that JDUB will explain how Marathon fixed his Dash air problem, and that I can do the same to fix mine.

I have a vent in the dash just above the steps but their is no filter there? :confused:


I will have to look further behind that dash area to see if I can detect any loose clamps or air hoses that have come off. Again I get lots of air out of the defroster vents, but nothing to speak of out of any of the dash register vents.

Jer, are you out there. Gots anything to add to my dilemma ? A solution perhaps? :D

[Jerry Winchester]

Well the answer is that the right side defroster outlet was blocked. I didn't notice an abnormal amount of air coming out of the defroster vents driving home, but to tell you the truth, I wasn't look at it very hard either. But there was cold air coming out of that side, so I will look it over when we leave on Wednesday and report back.

I was told that you can never completely cut the air off to the defroster vents. I think this has something to do with the large windows and the amount of heat they pass, so to keep the front of the coach comfortable, air comes out these vents. Also, there are no dash vents on the passanger side, so that may also have something to do with it.

[garyde]

All dash air units will have a return air opening. If you refer to your manual, (for my XLII it is described on pg. 7-9) It shows the opening with filter at the top of step @ RH dash wall. I have to remove a stylish stainless grill which covers the entire step wall on that side to access the filter. My filter had never been cleaned probably and was packed with dirt, hair, etc.

[Jerry Winchester]

Got the coach back home and discovered the TV in the bedroom would not turn on. I'm thinking it was jacked up when they were working on it in Dallas but maybe not.

Some troubleshooting reveals there is power to the plug on the TV but it acts dead. So I make myself comfortable in the closet whilst Rae holds the TV and I remove it from the brackets in the AV alcove.

I suspected the power cord had come unplugged from the TV. I don't know why, but on a lot of the new LCD and plasma TVs, the power cord also plugs into the TV instead of being hard wired. And as fate would have it, the plug resides behind the bracket that is attached to the back of the TV to hold it in place so you can't inspect it without removing the whole TV.

So we get it out and sure enough, the plug was loose. So we go to reinstall it and I quickly determine the best method is to pull the mount out and re-attach it to the TV then reinstall the whole mount.

Now I am sweating like a fat chick all wadded up in that closet and with my best electric screwdriver humming along while we get this thing hammered back in place. The test was successful and the TV is now ready to entertain the Spawn of Satan on the trip to OSH.

I can't imagine the pain someone who is not very handy with tools goes thru trying to keep one of these coaches humming along. I would have hated to haul that sow back to Marathon because a plug no one can see had jiggled loose.

[jonnie]

JDUB,

SOW! That is way harsh. Do I sense the end of a love affair between you and the sow?

John

[Jerry Winchester]

Just think of it as a term of endearment.

[Gary & Peggy Stevens]

Jer, Sorry to hear about your TV issue, glad you got it fixed, But All I can Say is: "Better you than me" :D


Gary S.

[garyde]

Hi Jerry. Ah the RV lifestyle. Good times.