John Maddens coach

[Gary Carmichael]

Just getting ready to watch my pitiful Panthers play and was wondering, John Madden would not fly to the games he called he had two drivers that took him all over the country. He would be on the west coast then back to the east coast all in his bus. Does any body know what brand of bus he used? I guess the unit was supplied by the network, don't know, maybe he owned it. Just curios, With the deadlines he had to make it had to be reliable. Tanks for any info Gary

[travelite]

I don't know what he drives now, but he's used MCI's:

http://www.mcicoach.com/testimonials.htm

[merle&louise]

Who are some of the converters of MCI coaches?

In all of my travels I don't think I have ever seen an MCI that was used as a motorhome.

[Jon Wehrenberg]

MCI was used almost exclusively by Custom Coach in Columbus Ohio. They may now be out of business. But there was a period in the mid nineties when a few of the converters such as Marathon, Vantare and Hoffmahn, did some MCI conversions.

Don Hoffman used a converted MCI as his personal coach for years. I visited Vantare in Sanford about 15 years ago and they were converting an MCI. I asked one of the workers which shell was best. He said he was not allowed to answer questions like that, but he said he would show me some things on a Prevost shell and the MCI shell. One of the things he showed me was the rear electrical boxes and wiring. All of us know how neat and orderly our chassis electrical boxes are. The MCI wiring and electrical box looked like a rat's nest.

I drove an MCI conversion however and my driving impression was the coach was very quiet and handled very well so an MCI was a good base for a conversion. They must be reliable if we can judge by their dominance in the bus market.

[Reagan Sirmons]

Having seen one of his coaches on television, I believe it was a Prevost. The persons driving for him were selected by competition and the opportunity to drive for him was part of the reward for winning the driving competition.
At least, that is the story I read some time ago. In addition, there have been several reports done on his fear of flying, etc. and they showed him in a coach which I deemed to be a H3-45 Prevost. He has had several.
Reagan
Pres

[Orren Zook]

Maybe he's had an H3, maybe not...... but here's a quote from the home page of an 'un-named' coach manufacturer: "I like to be in the best . And for me that's MCI" - NFL Broadcaster John Madden.

[CAPT MOGUL & Sandy]

Tuga,
Ed's father had a 1979 MCI 9 bus which was custom converted as a new shell. The bus is still in the family (Ed's brother
has it now). They just did a break job on it recently and the air bags were still good. Never had leans! His brother takes the bus on trips quite often. Makes you wonder why Prevost air bags have to be changed sooner.
Tuga is authorized to post the picture because we can't post the picture with my Iphone.
Sandy

7283

[Gary Carmichael]

I remember the network showing his coach but have never been able to find it, maybe someone will have a photo of it, Gary

[Gary Carmichael]

Well it looks like Madden has been a MCI owner since 1987 and is on his fifth coach, complete with steam shower, Gary

[merle&louise]

Tuga,
Ed's father had a 1979 MCI 9 bus which was custom converted as a new shell. The bus is still in the family (Ed's brother
has it now). They just did a break job on it recently and the air bags were still good. Never had leans! His brother takes the bus on trips quite often. Makes you wonder why Prevost air bags have to be changed sooner.
Tuga is authorized to post the picture because we can't post the picture with my Iphone.
Sandy

Thanks Sandy, I forwarded the email picture to Jim Skiff asking him to post it. I don't know how to do it, sorry!

We look forward to seeing you and Ed in Kerrville.

[Jon Wehrenberg]

One of the differences between our air bags is the ones used on our coach are literally rolling over the base, which I think is called a piston.

As it rolls due to the coach bouncing up and down all the flexing of the air bag takes place in a concentrated area at the base where it flexes.

We all know the easiest way to cause something to crack or fail is to flex it back and forth turning it back on itself over and over. Do that with a thin piece of metal for example and it will fail right at the bend. The air bags on our coach are no different. They flex back and forth over the piston at the same single point over and over. It eventually shows up as cracking concentrated in that specific area. I have no idea what the ultimate life of the air bags will be if they were driven to the point of destruction. But once they fail, usually catastophically like a tire blowout the coach is either parked where that happened, or is going on a flat bed. It cannot be driven.

The MCI air bag appears to be designed so it flexes over its entire height so the damage due to flexing is minimal unlike ours which folds back on itself when rolling up and down the piston.

[hhoppe]

John Maden: The story goes; In Madens early days as a coach at Cal Poly in San Louis Obispo, CA. The basket ball team made a trip to Evansville Indiana. Maden had the flue and was forced to remain in california missing the trip. The plane carrying the team crashed on takeoff in Evansville loosing the entire team. It is thought by many this led to Madens non flying career. In the begining Maden was furnished Greyhound busses and drivers by Greyhound as a advertising venture. MCI was owned by Greyhound. The early MCI's were built with sloping floors rear to forward. This made them impossible to convert to Rv's. as the floor was the main structural members. Maybe some later MCI's were made with flat floors.
The previous statements need to be verified.