Strange leak from spoiler

[B&DNewman]

This is a strange substance leaking out of passenger side of bus on the rear of bus from the spoiler. It appears to be of a stickey substance rust color.
Have had the bus top resealed and this just continues to run down the side only in the morning not durning the day. If anyone has information on this I would love to hear from you. I really have not lost my mind.....
Thank you, Bill

[garyde]

Hi Bill. Can you identify exactly where it is coming from? What year is your Coach? XLll or H3-45?
It may be coming from an antenna base, orsome other base on the roof.

[dale farley]

Bill, It sounds like moisture is accumulating on the top of the bus at night and picking up something as it runs off. Stops when the sun drys it up. I am assuming it is currently outside.

[sawdust_128]

Guess: Very fine airborne Lake Havasu dust on roof behind, spoiler mobilized by night time condensation. That dust has a lot of bacteria and pollen intermingled with the inorganics and would make it feel slippery.

Solution: Option 1. Wash coach. Option 2. Drink single malt scotch until it doesn't bother you.

[James]

While washing the bus I noticed what appeared to be a small stain on the passenger side rear spoiler. I got the ladder, climbed up and discovered a small crack in the side of the fiberglass. Today when the repair guy was looking at it to give a repair quote he found another crack on top the bus at the center of the spoiler.

He stated that he had seen similar cracks happen on other buses that were going up into cold climates and back.

I don't know if temperature variation is the cause or not but if you have a spoiler you may want to take a look for cracks.

[sawdust_128]

Pictures please? So we know where to look?

[Jon Wehrenberg]

James, has the bus ever been used to tow a trailer with an excessive tongue weight or has there ever been a motorcycle lift on the rear?

[James]

James, has the bus ever been used to tow a trailer with an excessive tongue weight or has there ever been a motorcycle lift on the rear?

There was a motorcycle lift on the rear and I was concerned about that so I had Kaiser in Eugene, OR do an inspection of the frame and engine mounts and they stated everything was fine.

[Jon Wehrenberg]

Everything may be fine now that the stress has been removed, but I will bet the weight cantilevered off the rear of the engine cradle caused flexing that was transmitted all the way up to the top of the fiberglass cap.

Prevost has a 1000 pound limit on the hitch and that down force is at 8" from the hitch. If you hang a motorcycle on a lift and the center of gravity for the lift and motorcycle is 18 or 20 inches out, and the motocycle and lift combined weigh 1000 pounds the engine cradle sees that as 3 X the weight limit for the hitch.

If it is any comfort your coach is not the first, nor will it be the last whose limits have been exceeded.

[James]

Prevost has a 1000 pound limit on the hitch and that down force is at 8" from the hitch.

Sometime around 2002 Prevost went to a 1500 pound limit at 6.5 inches from the hitch.

I don't know what kind of motorcycle the previous owner carried but a large Harley along with the lift could have exceeded that.

[Jon Wehrenberg]

OK, I was using the standards for my 97 as the limit. However 1000 pounds at 8" isn't that much less than 1500 at 6.5".

If the load of a lift and a heavy bike was a static load I don't think the potential for damage would be so great, however if the bus goes over one of those depressions in the road that cause a little whoopty-do (a highly technical term, but I am sure you know what I mean) that lever arm all of a sudden just gained a substantial increase in force.

If you look at how our coach is constructed the engine / transmission cradle itself is cantilevered off the rear of the rear axle sub frame and in part carried by the horizontal trusses which run beneath the windows and over the wheel well arches. Unlike the front which just carries some sheetmetal and a couple of windshields ahead of the axle, the rear has the weight of the engine and transmission to support and the strength is already compromised by the length of the overhang on the rear on our buses, compared to that of the entertainer shells.

[garyde]

When I was at Prevost a few weeks back, they were working on a new Marathon Prevost which had gone off the road and fallen on its side. The tow wrecking crew who came out, lifted the coach and pulled it from the tow cradle. In doing so they tweeked the cradle and subsequently the entire back end of the coach . So now they had to not only install a new cradle but also re work the entire back end of the coach as it was all bent just slightly on the port side all the way up to the bedroom slide windows. A very costly mistake by the tow company.

[gmcbuffalo]

The costly mistake was the going off the road and falling on it side. Could be hard to prove the tow company caused the bends.

[HarborBus]

Gary, I saw that bus when I was there also, who knows we might have been there the same time. I was told the guy had just picked it up from Marathon (it was brand new) and going through some mountains when he put it on it's side in the ditch. Sounds like he needed to brush off a little speed.............. way sooner.:eek:

[Jon Wehrenberg]

Our buses are extremely easy to over drive. First, with the engine in the rear and the excellent sound suppression, not only of engine noise, but wind noise we lose the ability to judge speed from those clues. But compare the bus driving position relative to a car. We sit much closer to the road in a car so we perceive the speed better because our peripheral vision picks up things moving by more readily because they are closer. In the bus we are 8' off the ground, so the sense of speed we develop for driving a car is no longer accurate and it doesn't seem we are going as fast. An analogy is in a plane close to the ground we have a sensation of speed, but when at altitude it does not seem we are moving.

Be careful out there folks. These buses don't corner or stop anywhere near as well as a car.