Cracked Fiberglass At Rub Rail

[dogear]

Anyone heard of cracked fiberglass emanating from the rub rain downwards on a bay door? I noticed a crack about 6 inches long originating at the rub rail downwards towards the bottom of the drivers side plumb bay door. The coach just came from the shop and at first I thought that it had happened whilst it was in the shop. Looking closer there was no scratching or scrape marks that would have indicated a hit of some kind and we concluded that it had to be some kind of stress crack. The door operation was still smooth as glass so we didn't feel like this crack was the result of some sort of flexing possibly due to uneven jacking. I decided to call my friend who drives a Vantare for NASAR and before I even got the words out of my mouth he said that he's seen a number of these types of cracks when we worked for Featherlite and that they were due to the rub rail being installed too tightly. Has anyone experienced this or heard of this happening? This coach is three years old and what we can't figure out is why this problem is just showing up now. I was told these types of cracks usually show up during the first year of service. Thanks.......JR

[jack14r]

I have a question related to this,since Vantari builds their own slides do you think that when they cut the slide hole it compromised the integrity of the structure,also does Vantari start with a coach that has the added structure in the bays for slide coaches?I would also think that we drive so few miles compared to some of the Vantari Nascar coaches that a problem could take a few years to show up.

[treedoc]

jack 14r I wouldn't be suprised if Vantare ordered their slide coaches with slide hole in place. We toured the Prevost factory in Janurary this year. We viewed a slide coach in the welding bay. There were more gussets in the floor area to compensate for the loss of upright beams. It would seem to me it would much more cost effective to a coach with a slide hole. Other wise they would undo that part of the frame structure. Just my thoughts. Rick

[garyde]

If you have a crack on a door, its not going to be related to the slides or slide re infocement. It is more likely a point stress. If you can take off the rub rail , you might see where it starts.

[jack14r]

Treedoc,I was at Vantari 3-4 years ago and a coach that I saw was being prepared to be cut for slides, I also question if they order them with the gussets that you saw at the factory.What I am saying is if Vantari does not purchase the shells with the gussets there will be stress points in many places which can create cracks when they cut the shell and install slides.

[Wally]

I think you will find that this was "std. eqipment" on an "H" during certain year models as I have seen it before. You might want to check with Prevost before repairing and maybe you will get a gift of some sort but I can't be positive on a 2007 model. Worth a try ???

Dave Wishnoff
Liberty Coach

[BenC]

The Vantare Slideout Program was started at the time of it's sale to Featherlite. The design was coordinated with the engineers at Featherlite in Cresco Iowa, and no, the shells were never ordered with any reinforcement from Prevost. At the time of the Slide Program's inception, Prevost had not even put any research and developement into reinforcing the structure. However, the engineers were overly compensating for the big whole they cut out of the side of any H3 (hence the door size shrinking so much to accomodate the added truss work. The problem with bay door cracking on H3-45 VIP coaches is not specific to Vantare, but just about every convertor at some point in time. If the rubrail from International Bus Parts (IBP) has a halogen light installed in it, a hole was cut in the door, which helps exasserbate the problem. Hope that information helps.

Ben @ Coach Worx

[dogear]

Thanks for the info guys! This coach has some bad paint/fiberglass along the whole passenger side and has to repainted. Prevost is going to warranty the repaint so as someone mentioned maybe I can get them to warranty the bay door cracking as well. Worth a try as was mentioned. Thanks.....JR