Just bought one of the "Veteran" Prevosts

[chuckd]

Good evening, new owner here of a 1979 Prevost Liberty Conversion 35 footer. Just agreed to terms etc and picking up next Thursday in Chicago. I will have questions, the second owner has had it since the late 90's and bought it from the original owner who unfortunately was suffering from dimentia. So there is a lot that has not been handed down. All the manuals are with the coach so hopefully many answers lie therein.

It is an all "electric" coach somewhat unfortunately with a 6V-92 turbo motor, and Allison 4 spd. The really good news is that it has been stored inside all of it's life, by people who know and understand buses. It truly is like a 1979 time capsule and that is the good news, the bad news it is like a 1979 time capsule.

it has 3 year old rubber, all new batteries (6 8Ds) and has very few scratches or dings on the outside. It has 3 what I call cruise air acs, and 3 sources of heat, electric, Espar air, and engine heat. So hopefully I will be warm in the winter as I ski in Montana about 6 weeks a year.

More later, glad to have joined the group

Chuck

Stillwater Mn

[truk4u]

Welcome aboard Chuck, looks like you have real classic. Post some pictures when you get a chance and congratulations on becoming a Prevost owner.

[jimshoen]

Start putting together a tool chest, or maybe just select one bay for tools.

[michaeldterry]

Welcome to the asylum we call P.O.G., Chuck! Post like they vote in Chicago (early and often) and most importantly - have fun! You'll find that we don't take ourselves too seriously here and rib each other (usualy with good nature) unmercifully - a thick skin and a healthy sense of humor are required!

Tell us about yourself so that we don't have to make up a bunch of lies about you! :p

[garyde]

Hi Chuck. I'm looking forward to your posts. You might have one of the earliest Coaches for a POG member. I'm interest in how the Liberty looks and is holding up. Congradulations.

[parksincpp]

Congrats on the new coach. Would love to see some pictures. Welcome to POG.

[johnny64]

Good to have you on board us older bus guys have got to stick to together He He
John

[chuckd]

Well yesterday flew into Chicago and picked up my new to me 1979 35 foot Prevost. It was a great experience!!! Drove it home taking my time as I did not want the experience to end. I took some notes from this board and others and drove it like I stole it. I drove mostly at 2000 rpm and 68 mph. Did not exceed 2100 and did not lug the engine. No pyro gauge so I couldn't monitor the temp.

Got a list of niggles to address:

Espar air heater does not work. Not a unique experience I am told.
Windows fog up badly during the first several miles.
After market cruise control does not work.
It has 4 battery banks. One is a 24 volt for engine starting with 2 8D batteries in parallel. Another is one 8D for the gen set, and two others are for battery bank A and battery bank B. (I do not make this up). The 24 volt battery bank is charged by a 24 volt alternator, and all of the 12 volt banks by a 12 volt alternator. The gen set drives a battery charger that is supposed to charge all of the 12 volt batteries it is non functional. Need to check that out.

So will be posting the above in the appropriate places after I have done some more investigating as to potential sources of the problem.

Great ride, handling - just a cool experience.

Chuck

[Will Garner]

chuckd,

Welcome to POG, home to the finest lunatics you could possibly find anywhere. We do have lots of fun and from experience I will say these lunatics provide some of the best advice and/or directions to solving a bus problem.

I saw a 35' Prevost while in Chula Vista California in June 2008. It was from Oregon. The owner had been a ship builder (luxury yachts) and had made a conversion for him and his wife. What a prime example of the boat builders art applied to a bus.

One word of advice, get to one of the POG get togethers locally or the big one this fall in Kerrville, TX. You will love it and we will get to see your bus!

[Jon Wehrenberg]

Congratulations Chuck. If you get to one of our rallies soon I guarantee your bus will get more attention than a new four slide.

The comment about fogging windows got my attention. Before you do too much take the time to carefully go over your cooling system, including the heat exchangers for coach heat and defrost. You could be experiencing a minor leak now that could get serious. Or it could be the coach has moisture in it that needed to be driven out by some heat. Such as from carpet cleaning.

We can help you understand the electrical systems. Who was the converter?

[chuckd]

Jon:

It is a Liberty Conversion on a La Mirage chassis. I agree with you about the heater, it is water vapor, (I think) and am monitoring the coolant to make sure it is staying full. Unfortunatly the documentation I have although very complete from Prevost is less so for Liberty. Not clear where the heat exchangers are from the documentation, but have found them by trial and error. Also not clear the path to and from the front of the coach.

Will need some help with the ee, going into shore power to see what happens as a way of isolating the issue.

The weight of this little puppy is interesting with full fuel and totally full bays (the owner gave me two cases of oil, extra jake, extra alternator, sound deadening for the gen, extra belts, pulleys, all the hoses for camping and for the engine etc, it weighed 11740 in the front and 20620 in the rear, for a total of 32360, which is a bit chunky but solid.

chuckd
Stillwater Mn

[Jon Wehrenberg]

That vintage of coach will not bear any similarity to the coaches of today with respect to the electrical systems, but even worse, over the years the original systems may have been "upgraded" possibly by professionals or possibly by shade tree mechanics.

If you get some time try to describe how you think your house is set up. Ignore the chassis. The two should be isolated from one another.

If I were to guess your coach when built had a selector switch to be set depending on whether shore power, generator power, or inverter power was to be used for the 120V AC circuits.

I suspect it had a converter or two powered by the generator or shore power to keep the house batteries charged and the house DC circuits such as lighting were separated into two systems.

It is likely that 120V AC power from batteries would have come from a DC motor driven AC generator, something no longer seen, and now replaced by an inverter or inverter/charger.