Safety First

[Jeffery Raymond]

This is a reminder to all that are interested in working on their coaches that the first thing to have in mind is Safety First.

We're all pumped up thinking about fixing this and that. Our buses have many potential hazards to human beings and it's essential that any planned repairs or maintenance be performed in a prudent fashion.

Other, more experienced posters can offer more details, but keeping this in mind: We have hot surfaces, high voltage circuits, heavy weight; a wrench left behind in the engine compartment can be a deadly object if not removed prior to start up and so on.

The idea behind providing repair and maintenance information is to provide owners with an idea of what is needed to fix their bus; no intention is provided here that everyone should or could fix everything themselves; that's why converters and Prevost have service facilities.

So, plan your work based on your competence and it is not a sign of weakness to say, "Ah, I'll pay for this one."

End of soapbox rant.

[mike kerley]

Excellent point Jeff,

We just had our shocks changed out in Jacksonville. I had seen the posts about "how to" and said, no thanks, I have not a pit or a lift and hate crawling around under the bus on my back and only have a small air gun (which needs the coach air to work) and even though I know I "could do it", chose not to. I'm really glad I did. Those old shocks hated to give up. The nuts on them gave the air gun a run and "various items" had to be removed first to even access the top nuts. A 6 hour job that would have taken me two days and would not have been fun. I'm glad I spent the money and watched. Plus I learned some more things about the coach.

I'll stick to the wiring!

[Jon Wehrenberg]

I can't stress enough how correct Jeff is. If you are uncomfortable with your mechanical skills or the complexity of the repair, or cannot or will not properly support the coach before getting under it, please let the professionals do the repair or supervise you.

One of the points that I have tried to make and has been repeated several times is that when I teach about how your brake system functions, it is not necessarily to expect you will be crawling under your bus to do major repairs, but to make you aware of what the repairs or temporary fix entails so as an educated owner you will not allow a repair facility or tow truck driver to take advantage of you.