New owner of old Marathon

[Rufus Scout]

Greetings all,

I am the new owner of a 1985 Marathon with 165,000 miles. This is the first motorhome I have ever owned, although I have rented a number of them over the years. I have found forums like this to be very helpful with regard to my other interests and look forward to learning a lot and someday being able to contribute.

I live in West Central Ohio, own a manufacturing business in Indiana and plan to use the coach for vacation travel and business travel as well.

Looking forward to learning all about these coaches. I am mechanically inclined and am mightily impressed by the documentation that came with the coach. Looks like about 4 linear feet of manuals, schematics, bills of material, etc. Gives me confidence. :)

Thanks for reading,

Erik

[dale farley]

Rufus,

Welcome to the forum. You have come to the right place to get information about your bus. There is a wealth of information that resides with the members and the database of the forum itself. Just about every question you will have, has been discussed before and will be discussed again.

[Rufus Scout]

Thanks Roadrunner. The Search function is my friend. ;)

[garyde]

Welcome to POG Rufus. Over the years POG has collected a huge Library of information regarding Prevost Buses, Detroit engines, Allison transmissions and so on. You can probably find most anything you have questions on here.
Converter information as well.
Many members here have a wealth of information as well which they are more than willing to jump in and share. You don't have to twist any arms here.
We also have mini rallys and a yearly national rally where we enjoy and share in each others experiences .

[Pete]

Rufus, to add to Gary's comments, our annual convention is being held in Las Vegas the 1st thru the 5th of October.....so get that Marathon on the road and join us.....you will meet a lot of great folks, hear some great stories, (some may even be true), and learn more about your coach. The LVMR is one of the nicest parks you will ever visit.

[Rufus Scout]

Pete, I would love to come to the convention, but October is when I will be trying out my Prevost as a bird hunting base station in Northern Michigan! But, I will certainly attend a gathering in the future.

[Rufus Scout]

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b315/boxbirdsrfun/DSCF1115.jpg

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b315/boxbirdsrfun/DSCF1116.jpg

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b315/boxbirdsrfun/DSCF1121-1.jpg

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b315/boxbirdsrfun/DSCF1122-1.jpg

[Rufus Scout]

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b315/boxbirdsrfun/DSCF1124-1.jpg

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b315/boxbirdsrfun/DSCF1125-1.jpg

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b315/boxbirdsrfun/DSCF1117.jpg

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b315/boxbirdsrfun/DSCF1119.jpg

[Rufus Scout]

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b315/boxbirdsrfun/DSCF1136.jpg

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b315/boxbirdsrfun/DSCF1140.jpg

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b315/boxbirdsrfun/DSCF1141-1.jpg

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b315/boxbirdsrfun/DSCF1142-1.jpg

[Rufus Scout]

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b315/boxbirdsrfun/DSCF1129.jpg

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b315/boxbirdsrfun/DSCF1130.jpg

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b315/boxbirdsrfun/DSCF1131.jpg

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b315/boxbirdsrfun/DSCF1132.jpg

[Ray Davis]

Beautiful condition for a 1985 coach.

[Rufus Scout]

Beautiful condition for a 1985 coach.

Thanks. Only 165,000 miles. All bills and receipts dating back to 1985. Change the flooring and the fabric upholstery and it will look nicer. I already pulled out the upholstered soffits and trashcanned them. Nice Koa-wood soffits behind them. I am thinking of teakwood floors from the front of the coach to the bath and carpet in the bath and bedroom.

Oh, and I also pulled out the state of the art in 1985 audio equipment. :)

BTW, it is Marathon Coach 110 according to the paperwork.

[Ray Davis]

That's exciting. We have, as I remember, a member here on the forum who owns the very first Prevost that was converted by Marathon. I'm not sure what the number would be. I believe they did a few other shells (MCI ?) first.

[CAPT MOGUL & Sandy]

That would be Yankee802 with that first Prevost converted by Marathon, Ray.
Sandy

[normancasson]

Thats a very good looking coach. If it has the later style tail lights its hard to tell them from later year coaches. I happen to own Marathon coach #113-which would be the 13th coach they produced . I would encourage you to join the Marathon coach club as well as POG--A lot of our Marathon owners are members of both. I've owned my coach about 12 years and probably went through many of the same things you'll be doing in the future. I hadn't seen many coaches when I purchased mine but after a few rally's came away with a list of upgrades I wanted to do. I never realized most coaches had side by side refrigerators and mine had a 110/12v RV refer so one of my first changes was to upgrade that. I also realized even a small air leak means you wake up your neighbors if you leave the compressor on so I installed a separate compressor just for the toilet which made that pretty much trouble free. You changed the sound system, I installed a drop down 8' screen above the drivers area and a projector aft-If I'm watching TV while @ a campground you'll see people gathered around the windows-they can't believe anybody could do that. I also change the old round tail lights for LED's-a great look. Feel free to PM me if you have any questions. I'll be in Las Vegas but have a place there so I won't be bringing the coach. If you or any other POGers would like to fly in for the rally I could host 2 couples if it would make it easier for you to attend-again just PM me.

[Rufus Scout]

Well, I just completed a two week trip with the coach with my wife and two German Wirehaired pointers. We RV park camped and dry camped. The bus ran fine but there are some issues, so it's back at the dealer getting them corrected. I believe that all the major issues are interconnected:

House batteries lose charge while driving, but charge right up when on shore power.

Strong "cooking battery" smell when on shore power.

When hooking up to shore power, no lighting, fridge, etc. will power up until you start the bus. Then you can turn it off and everything runs fine.

Also, the engine occasionally will not shut down, the little cylinder that shuts off the fuel doesn't always deploy. Item to be fixed.

I also am embarassed to say that I put the first dent in the bus, I hit a hidden-by-grass tree stump and curled the bay doors under on the right side. Everything works, but embarassing.

Fun trip, my wife loved it. Our first evening in the bus outside of West Branch, MI.

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b315/boxbirdsrfun/976ff0982376f3dd6addc9ae57de2746.jpg

[garyde]

Congradulations on your purchase. Sounds like your having a great time regardless of the issues. When my batterries started gassing, it was time to replace them. With the refer & lights not working unless plugged in, that is also and indication of bad batterries or inverter failing.

[Yankee802]

Yes, Rufus found me, I own #109, the first Prevost Marathon converted, fist 8 were MCIs I believe. Does yours have the window in the back? When we were coach shopping there was another Marathon, and I think it was yours, we found online, but it had a window in the rear, ONLY coach I've EVER seen with that. Nice coach, enjoy! :)

Geoff

[gmcbuffalo]

I am guessing that the house batteries are the ones gassing, they maybe lead-acid like car batteries. Replace them with AGM. Make sure the dealer if he does it puts in AGM's and that they are all of the same date.