Rogue River slides

[merle&louise]

Has anyone seen this bus?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=120738537160&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT

I spoke to the owner today and he informed me that it has a Rogue River slide. He said that Marathon installed this slide at their factory in Eugene, OR. He has owned the bus for about a year and a half.

Does anyone have a Rogue River slide?

[BoaterAl]

Pictures and description is probably the best I 've ever seen. Some-one really put some time into that.

Bus is a head turner.

Guess I need to clean my roof.

[michaeldterry]

Pictures and description is probably the best I 've ever seen. Some-one really put some time into that.

Bus is a head turner.

Guess I need to clean my roof.

That's the most comprehensive eBay listing I've ever seen and the bus is beautiful!

[billbunch47]

Tuga, that was a very small outfit from up in WI. saw there work at the Pery FMCA back in 03-04 timeframe. There claim to fame was they would build a twin slide XL2 for about 650.000 when the big boys had already gone over a million plus. There workmanship was increadable the coach they had in Ga was a birds eye maple laminate with flowing lines like the origanal Millienum style with a lot of European plumbing and cooking stuff way ahead of there time. Used to see a section in the FMCA mag. classifieds for there stuff. My only guess is they went by the wayside like so many others.

[RonAltman]

I first saw that bus on eBay about a month ago, it's a beautiful bus. If someone would hurry up and buy this house I'm in I'd be on my way to Everett, Washington rather quickly to get a first hand look-see at that coach.

[garyde]

I guess it has OTR since I didnt see any A/C of the roof. The slide does not have the locking pins which maintains the integrity of the truss structure of the bus. I would ask about that.
Aside from that, its a real nice bus and it should go quick.

[merle&louise]

Gary,

It has CruiseAirs instead of roof ACs. I noticed in one of the photos that there are 2 channels on the bottom of the slideroom. This would indicate an electric slide from what I have seen of similar Newells in that vintage. The absence of locking pins is a minus; but like you said it is a really beautiful bus.

Bill,

Thanks for your post. I agree the inside is really unique and is a 10! I really love the bus overall; the only negative is that it doesn't have a flat floor slide. I don't like the 2 chairs sitting 4" above the granite/bamboo floor; it looks like they could fall off at any minute. The owner told me that Marathon converted it; Rogue River manufactured the slideroom. So I guess that means that Marathon cut a hole in the bus, braced it, and purchased a Rogue River slideroom. He said the slide works very smoothly extending and retracting.

It is priced out of my range, but it sure will be a head turner for somebody; especially with that John Starr paint design.

[merle&louise]

I first saw that bus on eBay about a month ago, it's a beautiful bus. If someone would hurry up and buy this house I'm in I'd be on my way to Everett, Washington rather quickly to get a first hand look-see at that coach.

Ron,

Hope your house sells soon so you can go up there and get it.

I would love to see the coach in person. Love the colors.

[travelite]

The 14L S60 puzzles me, and they also mention DDEC VI, which leads me to believe that both are typos. I believe this model year should have the 12.7L DDEC IV S60. No OTR, but cruise-airs and chassis air. The chassis air looks like a York style compressor mounted by the fan drive. Very pretty bus, but overpriced.

[BoaterAl]

We had a boat years ago with a similar situation due to a minor step up with a floor. During a interior remodel the chair in place was a concern as it was just not a smooth get off and you found yourself sliding off to find the floor with your feet. I see the same concern on the bus, awkward height. Solution, we had the chair butt height shortened. This is really not an expensive undertaking to make the additional slide height now user friendly. It appears the same could be done with this slide/chairs.
Just a idea if this was a deal breaker with considering the purchase.

[Jon Wehrenberg]

I have to agree with Gary. For me that non-Prevost slide would be a deal breaker even though the coach is absolutely fantastic.

Prevost has worked very hard to develop slides. The fact that they have had several generations of slides indicates that even with their extensive expertise the design of slides is difficult. Until they changed the structure of the shell all the Prevost slides had locking pins to restore the integrity of the structure when the slide room opening cut the backbone of the original structure in half.

The issues I would have would be primarily the loss of the strength of the shell. I would be concerned about future support. I would be very concerned about moisture entry because there is no awning associated with the slide room and I would wonder how to get inflatable seals when they fail from the company that produced the slide. I also wonder what the procedure for seal replacement is. Replacing a Prevost seal might be expensive due to the cost of the seal, but the seals are available and easily replaced in a few hours with two people.

If any moisture gets behind the seal the resulting damage is unbelievably expensive to repair due to mold and mildew which spread out of sight until the damage is done.

[Coloradobus]

Tuga, This Marathon Coach #687. Nice coach beautiful paint. The slideroom is from Rogue, of Medford Oregion. They folded in 2003. The first Prevost slide installed Marathon Coach XLII was Coach 700, also a 2001 conversion with a "Y" or 2000 model year shell.
Note the driver side bay doors. You will see the first 3 have what looks like a silver line across the bottom. This is a Hinge. These door swing down. Luckliy the water/sewer bay is pantagraph. When you open these bay doors you then have to crawl over them to gain access to stuff in bay.
For Rogue slides, they don't use the air bladder. They used the convertional squeegee rubber strips to seal the coach slideroom from weather. Similar to what Vantare uses.
This is the first Rogue slide room Marathon XLII I have seen. If you remember Pogger 0533. That was Bruce Harris' Coach number. All the XL45 Marathons and a few 40 footers had Rogue Rooms, Steve Bennett of Ca. Coach Co has Marathon coach #409 as a 1996 Bus
I would have to call Marathon to see if this coach was originally born a slideroom coach. Marathon may have done it, but I'm not sure if it was from the begining of the coach life.

[aggies09]

Tuga, it sure is coincidental that this coach has the required LSU color scheme. I know how you and Louise love those Tigers.

Pretty bus.

[merle&louise]

Tuga, This Marathon Coach #687. Nice coach beautiful paint. The slideroom is from Rogue, of Medford Oregion. They folded in 2003. The first Prevost slide installed Marathon Coach XLII was Coach 700, also a 2001 conversion with a "Y" or 2000 model year shell.
Note the driver side bay doots. You will see the first 3 have what looks like a silver line across the bottom. This is a Hinge. These door swing down. Luckliy the water/sewer bay is pantagraph. When you open these bay doors you then have to crawl over them to gain access to stuff in bay.
For Rogue slides, they don't use the air bladder. They used the convertional squeegee rubber strips to seal the coach slideroom from weather. Similar to what Vantare uses.
This is the first Rogue slide room Marathon XLII I have seen. If you remember Pogger 0533. That was Bruce Harris' Coach number. All the XL45 Marathons and a few 40 footers had Rogue Rooms, Steve Bennett of Ca. Coach Co has Marathon coach #409 as a 1996 Bus
I would have to call Marathon to see if this coach was originally born a slideroom coach. Marathon may have done it, but I'm not sure if it was from the begining of the coach life.

Wow, what an informative post! Thanks Jim. The bay doors swinging down is a BFD. Is Bruce still a member of POG? I'd like his input on this coach. Think I'll give Marathon a call and see if they installed the Rogue slide or if it was done at birth by Prevost. As I understand, Marathon presently uses Valid slides on XL IIs and Prevost slides on H3s. Do they use an air gasket system on the Valid slides?

Jon makes some good points; having Prevost support is a big plus.

Boy, it sure is a gorgeous bus!

[Coloradobus]

Tuga,

Pat Sprenger would be the one to talk to.

What I was saying about the slideroom, is that, and I don't know this now, but this coach/shell may have been "born" slide-free, and either Marathon as an Out-sourced- Option or the original owner after purchas had Rogue install the slide. . This is what makes me suspicious the coach was built slide-free off the line. PANTERRA COACH bought the proprietary rights when ROGUE went belly-up. So they may have info on this coach that would help educate yourself more.
Another tell-tale, is the 1st Preovst installed slided Marathons like our past Caoch which was 2001 shell, 2002 XLII had Zipdee Awnings all the way around. This style of awning would help aid to keep weather out with rubber Squeegees' sealing the slideroom. Not that the Rubber Squeegee style slideroom seal is bad, we were considering a coach, its just not a Prevost factory installed item.
Another thought, is the bay doors that swing down were either electrically driven or hydraulically driven with ram pistions. Our 1999 shell called a 2001 Country Coach XL, yes an XL 45 with 2 HWH sliderooms with rubber inner tube seals had CAFE" style bay doors on the driver side including the sewer bay, similar to Fast Roger's coach #60476, and wnen one of the motors failed, you have NO access.. Something else to consider.
And finally, I see the auction has ended, no wonder, the buy it now price, is 100,000 too much IMO.

[travelite]

Jim, Thanks for the info on the bottom hinged doors. I never would have spotted that. I imagine when they're open they're suspended in a horizontal position and don't actually touch the ground. For this to work, the door support needs to be strong enough to kneel on and to take the weight of whatever you happen to be sliding across it. Hinging on a vertical edge certainly makes more sense, but for whatever reason I guess it isn't (or wasn't) feasible.

[gmcbuffalo]

actually those lower hinged bay doors may not be that bad, if you look at the Generator bay it hinges down and it looks like the other hinged doors have Joey beds in them that slide out. Based on the one bay open next to the generator bay.

[Coloradobus]

Travelite, I found my list that Steve Irvin gave me long ago Marathon Coach numbers that were NO Slide Coaches for 2001 and 2002 line up

Starting with"

Marathon Coach 663,664,665,667,668,669,670,671,672,674,675,676,68 0,681,682,683,687 (BINGO) for 687 on Ebay,, and 688,690,691,692,693,699,702,704 (Kevin E's), 705,706,711,713,718,721,724,727,729 (which is an 2002 and beyond) 737,739,755,757,758,767,770.. As best as I can find in my old info.

[merle&louise]

Jim,

Thanks for all of your efforts; especially the list of non slide "born" buses above.

[Coloradobus]

Tuga,


This list is for XLII';s' There are some non slide H3-45's but some have Girards so since they won't fit in our garage, I didn't accumulate a tally list.

[Coloradobus]

Tuga,

Starlight Motors in Van Alstyne Tx has I think for sale Marathon Coach 694??? a no slide H3-45.

[merle&louise]

I have an update: I spoke with a rep from Marathon today. He told me the following:

The coach that was listed on eBay was coach 0681 XLV and it was originally built as a non slide bus. Then later on an owner had Rogue Coach install a salon slide room in it. Marathon was not involved in its installation in any way.

Coach 0687 is a double slide H3-45.

Today, the bulk of Marathon coaches use Valid slides on both the XL II and the H3-45. These Valid slides use an air gasket as a seal.

If the customer wants Prevost slides Marathon will gladly use them. The 2008 models mid year used Valid slides exclusively and have continued using them up to today. For the XL IIs, Valid slides were used starting 2009 mid year and this allowed Marathon to build a coach with three and four slides.

It appears to me that Marathon favors the use of Valid or Prevost slides.

[travelite]

Hi Tuga, Fascinating info. I had always thought that once Prevost made slides available in the XLII that Marathon used them exclusively. It comes as a big surprise that Marathon still favors Valid. What's the affinity? More slides? Cheaper? Better profit margin? Better end result? Can the bracing and chassis strength be as good as Prevost? Certainly it can be, but is it? Does Marathon do the required FEA and modal analysis, or is the 2M mile chassis de-rated.

Coloradobus, Good call, you nailed it. Bus 0681 was born slideless. :)

[kenrobertson]

It is my understanding ( feel free to correct me if I am wrong ), that Marathon started using Valid when they needed 3 and 4 slide coaches and Prevost only built single and double slide shells. The double slide shell went from Prevost to Valid where the aftermarket slides were added before it went to Marathon for conversion. It is also my understanding that Marathon now owns Valid and uses their slides exclusively.

[merle&louise]

Ken,

The fellow that I spoke to at Marathon said that they used Valid slides when they needed to build a 3 or 4 slide coach for a customer. Marathon does use Valid slides presently, unless the customer requests Prevost slides. From what he told me, Marathon feels that both are good slides.

I don't know if Marathon owns Valid or not. I think that Valid is a Canadian company and is located at 5320-B 48th Ave. S.E., Salmon Arm, B.C.

[jack14r]

Tuga,Doesn't Valaid make all of the Newell slides.

[merle&louise]

Hi Jack,

Yes, Valid does make all of the sliderooms for Newell. I called Newell this morning to order some parts, and I asked the service writer about who made the slides. He confirmed that Valid makes them!

I looked on Valid Manufacturing website and they sell slides to Prevost, Newell, & MCI. I don't think that Marathon owns Valid, but I could be wrong.

Just ask my wife; she says I'm wrong all of the time!