Some Good News For Country Coach Owners

[mcirco]

Without going into all the agonizing details, I am pleased to report that I have concluded the deal with the Bankruptcy Court to obtain all the documentation, drawings, service manuals, etc. that were used by Country Coach to build and service all their Prevost Conversions. In addition, I have also obtained service test fixtures including a complete enclosure with motherboard and all other boards used in the buses of the 90's thru 2003. Furthermore I have acquired all of their spare printed circuit boards as well as many of the parts used on these boards. As I had mentioned earlier, I have obtained well over a thousand of the elusive Sunmulon switches. Yesterday morning, I personally delivered everything to a freight terminal in Eugene Oregon for shipment to my home in Maryland. It will take me some time to inventory what I have but all of us orphaned owners should feel comfortable that we should be able to keep all our Country Coach proprietary electronics running for the forseeable future. I have met with Nick Hessler who has been working on Country Coach buses for many years and I will be supporting him with spares, parts, documentation, etc. so he can continue in his efforts to support our buses. As most of you know my background is as an electronic design engineer so excuse my geeky excitement. It will also take me a while to go thru all the drawings but the goal will be to provide every owner with a copy of all applicable drawings associated with their bus. The drawings and documentation just for buses was over 40 GB (GigaBytes) of data. Many of the files are in "AutoCad" files and I will convert them to PDF files. Fortunately, Country Coach did a reasonable job of scanning even old drawings into their computer system. I am sure there will probably be a few things missing though. The Bankcruptcy Court let the Auctioneers into the building to begin organizing for the sale before I was given access. Their cleaning crew threw out files and drawings believing they were of no value. I did rescue quite a bit , maybe even more than I thought, because when I arrived at the freight terminal yesterday I had over 2200 pounds of stuff. There is plenty more to this story but I wanted to share the news while I am sitting at the airport in Portland heading back home.

Miles and Laura Circo
2004 Country Coach XLII D/S
Wittman, Maryland

[rahangman]

CONGRATULATIONS ---- I want to be the first, (if not thats ok too) to congratulate you. Sounds like you have done real well and now the work will begin. Sounds like it may not be all work, but a true labor of love. Hope to find out what arrangements we can make as owners....#60115 here.

[dale farley]

Miles, It sounds like you have done a great job of securing this information and inventory, and we are all very appreciative of your efforts. Thanks again for making this happen.

[LarryB]

Miles, Good to hear all went reasonably well for you dealing with this project. Thought I might hear from you to be recruited for some 'grunt work' but seems you had everything under control. Thanks for the update---I'm sure all of us CC owners are feeling much better that this info and equipment is in good hands and will be available to us.

Thanks again

[JIM KELLER]

Good Job Miles ! Thanks for all your hard work.

[Kenj]

Without going into all the agonizing details, I am pleased to report that I have concluded the deal with the Bankruptcy Court to obtain all the documentation, drawings, service manuals, etc. that were used by Country Coach to build and service all their Prevost Conversions. In addition, I have also obtained service test fixtures including a complete enclosure with motherboard and all other boards used in the buses of the 90's thru 2003. Furthermore I have acquired all of their spare printed circuit boards as well as many of the parts used on these boards. As I had mentioned earlier, I have obtained well over a thousand of the elusive Sunmulon switches. Yesterday morning, I personally delivered everything to a freight terminal in Eugene Oregon for shipment to my home in Maryland. It will take me some time to inventory what I have but all of us orphaned owners should feel comfortable that we should be able to keep all our Country Coach proprietary electronics running for the forseeable future. I have met with Nick Hessler who has been working on Country Coach buses for many years and I will be supporting him with spares, parts, documentation, etc. so he can continue in his efforts to support our buses. As most of you know my background is as an electronic design engineer so excuse my geeky excitement. It will also take me a while to go thru all the drawings but the goal will be to provide every owner with a copy of all applicable drawings associated with their bus. The drawings and documentation just for buses was over 40 GB (GigaBytes) of data. Many of the files are in "AutoCad" files and I will convert them to PDF files. Fortunately, Country Coach did a reasonable job of scanning even old drawings into their computer system. I am sure there will probably be a few things missing though. The Bankcruptcy Court let the Auctioneers into the building to begin organizing for the sale before I was given access. Their cleaning crew threw out files and drawings believing they were of no value. I did rescue quite a bit , maybe even more than I thought, because when I arrived at the freight terminal yesterday I had over 2200 pounds of stuff. There is plenty more to this story but I wanted to share the news while I am sitting at the airport in Portland heading back home.

Miles and Laura Circo
2004 Country Coach XLII D/S
Wittman, Maryland

Great news! Thanks for all your efforts. you mention support through 2003 coaches. What about 2008? Also, do you have a source for the CC logo wheel covers? I have coach L065.

[Ray Davis]

Miles, that is wonderful news for CC owners. Congrats. But, I will admit to being confused. I thought that Bob Lee had been the big bidder for at least some of that at the auction? Did I misunderstand?

ray

[Denny]

Miles, Thanks for the great effort to salvage what material you could. My bus is 60385; anything that you would have pertaining to my bus I am interested in. Please let me know the cost.

Again, Thanks!!

[mcirco]

I am happy to clarify some of the recent issues:

To all the owners of 2004 and newer Country Coach Conversions - also known as the L series - Rest assured I have acquired all of the documentaion for those buses also. Unlike the earlier buses they do not incorporate the proprietary electronics found on the 60000 series buses. The L-series uses Crestron/Frogen control or Crestron/Spyder control. There are many documents that were obtained needed for service and diagonosing issues that were not included in the information suppled to owners by Country Coach. There are many other drawings for non-electrical parts and systems that were also obtained. Information was also obtained on a vendor by vendor basis on parts and systems supplied to Country Coach. Some items were standard and others were customized or made exclusively for Country Coach. In addition, there were changes made on an ongoing basis as these buses were produced. Many of these changes were for reliability, safety or to fix problems. I have the engineering change orders detailing why each change was made and at what L### they began to incorporate each change. Finally, there was also a level of customization to every bus, not only do I have the production drawings reflecting those changes but many of these changes involved modifications to the Crestron System. I have obtained the unique software on a model by model basis for many of the buses.

The question has been raised - What did Bob Lee acquire? At the public auction Bob obtained the Country Coach name, Website, Computer System, Country Coach Patents - basically all Intellectual Property. In addition, his company Oregon MotorCoach Center bought all the parts in the service stockroom except for the parts I was able to acquire. Please note the majority of motorhomes produced by Country Coach were not buses. The ratio was almost 100 to 1 - 100 fiberglass motorhomes to 1 Prevost Conversion - so most of the parts in the stockroom were not for our buses but some were -so if you need a part PLEASE CALL Oregon MotorCoach Center - I spent many days there recently and if they don't have the part, they have people there with over 20 years experience with Country Coach and will surely be able to help you find it or a replacement. Their memories where truly amazing. Ed Read is a great contact there for any question.

As far a my deal - I negotiated my deal with the Bankruptcy Court and Trustee BEFORE the public auction. All my documentation, drawings, service information and materials were obtained before the auction and specifically gathered and put aside for the benefit of supporting the Country Coach Prevost Owners. I hired 2 former Country Coach key emplyees and the 3 of us spent days gathering up everything bus related. My deal does not enable me to use the drawings to produce new buses but to supply the drawings to owners to ensure their buses can continue to be operated, serviced and maintained. Bob Lee otained the right at the auction to produce new Country Coach Motorhomes and Prevost Conversions if he chooses.

Hopefully this helps everyone's understanding a bit more - there will still be plenty more to talk about after everything finally gets here and the dust settles.

Miles and Laura Circo
2004 Country Coach XLII D/S
Wittman, Maryland

[JIM CHALOUPKA]

Congratulations Miles, even though Your deeds do not personally affect me, I have great respect and admiration for what you have accomplished!
You truly are THE MAN!!!!!!




JIM:)

[rfoster]

Miles For President!

[Ray Davis]

Miles, thanks for the clarification. When you first posted (prior to the auction), I thought that this was wonderful news for CC Prevost owners. Then, I thought I'd read basically that Bob Lee had outbid you on this. My misunderstanding.

It's great news to hear what you've done for our CC owners!

Ray

[Will Garner]

Miles,

A big thumbs up for what you were able to acquire. I am but one of many that will benefit from your efforts. Let's set awhile in Maine and discuss your achievement.

Thanks for your efforts on behalf of others like me.:)

[JIM KELLER]

Miles For President!

I second that .

[lloyd&pamela]

Thanks Miles, great job.

[PrevostNewbie]

Hi Miles, I am picking up my first Prevost tomorrow morning, Wondering if any of this is still avail? Please Let me know, Thank You.

Mike Giboney
1992 Prevost Country Coach XL
#60187

[Fratto]

This is great news. Thank you so much for all f your hard work.

[Fratto]

Ha! Just realized that this was a 2010 thread that Prevost Newbie picked up ... but still great to know that this stuff could be available

[BadFitter]

Your not the first, Mark... just saying for a friend. :)