Prevost Mira Loma did me right this time!

[Ray Davis]

I'm sure many of you had heard my prior rants on air conditioning service from Prevost in Mira Loma, and how even though I'd been back for the same repair several times, I continued to pay some sizable amount of the bill, like $1400 for Freon each of 4 times.

Today I have a much nicer report ...

When I returned from the ralleys at the end of October, I dropped the bus off for service (oil change, lube, generator service). I also mentioned that after a few days my AC had failed again (although not catastrophically) and I was (again) having problems with the "leans". It was so bad at one point I stopped the bus, and 5 minutes later it was on it's nose.

When I first went to pickup the bus 3-4 weeks later, I noticed the bus was still leaning, although they'd indicated they'd fixed two leaks in the rear. (I had told them the problem was front right). Anyway, speaking with Joe Gabele and bringing him up to date on prior services and explaining my feelings on the matter seemed to help. Joe got the bus back in the front of the line the next Monday (this was on a Saturday, he came out to meet me), and by Wednesday it seems they fixed it for good.

I was dreading getting the bill for this, as they did a bunch of A/C work again, along with several hours in locating the air leak (2 front bags up under the insulation). I figured that I was gonna get hit big time, again!

I was pleasantly surprised to find that I was charged only for the new work I'd requested, and the previously "fixed" AC and airbag issues were not charged to me.

I have to say that they won back a customer with this. So far the bus is staying up for over a week! I don't know about the AC, but I'm hopeful that it's fixed (again). But, I am extremely happy with their treatment this time.

I felt it only fair after mentioning poor service to do the same when I received good service. My thanks to Joe Gabele at Prevost Mira Loma. He seems to be a real straight shooter.

[jello_jeep]

Glad to hear that ray. I have dealt with Joe as well. Seems like a good guy, but overworked.

He kept telling me he was going to call me back, and very rarely ever would. When I went over there, I kind of found out why. Every 30 seconds, someone is paging him.. Joe line1... Joe line 2.. Joe call holding on 3... It would make me crazy.

He indicated they were fixin to get him some help. I hope they do.

He does seem like a nice chap though.

[garyde]

I wonder Ray, if there is anyway to prevent Fishing expeditions like what happened to you with the A/C system and the constant recharging. I would hope Prevost would have a consceince and admit when they mis-diagnose.
Being in theService Industry myself, I would feel very uneasy about recharging a customer for what was an obvious blunder on one of my men's work.
I just feel like this could happen to any one of us. Good to hear they finally cut you a break. Gary

[mikedee]

I am a new owner with about two months and 5,000 miles on my seat. I stopped at Mira Loma to purchase two new windshield wipers and was very well treated. The counter service man got the part number and went to get my new wipers, in a few moments he return and said they were out of the wipers but did have refills.

I said that the refills would be fine and to order me some new blades. He gave me the refills, twice refused my money, offered to help me replace the blades and sent the new wipers to my house with in a couple days at a very reasonable price and freight free.

I used to own an American Tradition and Fleetwood treated me fine but not like Prevost.

Mike & Dee Clark
01 XLII Prevost Royale

[Ray Davis]

I wonder Ray, if there is anyway to prevent Fishing expeditions like what happened to you with the A/C system

Gary, what Joe (and previously Nathan) told me is that the probably never should have ever accepted my coach for repair work on the AC anyway. They indicated that nationally around the Prevost facilities, that there is a rash of dramatic failures on Country Coach AC systems, and because it's not Prevost equipment, they don't really want to work on it, if they feel it cannot be properly fixed.

Granted, I believe some of my issues may have been started by previous owner putting something other than R12 in the system, and then Prevost re-introducing R12, but it's impossible to prove.

If it fails again, and I can't get it repaired, I'm going to replace all of the hoses, connectors and things that need to be changed, and make it a new system with R134 in it. They basically told me that this is what is needed to be done to make it work without issue. Bad news is that this is somewhere around $15k to have done! Yikes!

[Joe Cannarozzi]

.Another new member! Welcome to the club Mikedee:)

[MangoMike]

I know one thing, after checking out the NOOB's avatar I'm not messin' with that guy on the forum. ;)


Welcome to POG, Mikedee.

Mike

[Just Plain Jeff]

Welcome to the Forum! And even more good news...some good treatment from Prevost! Hey, could this be...the Holiday Season?

[lewpopp]

As per usual, I look at Ray's story a little different. I'm sure I don't have all of the facts, but, if you list on the left side of the ledger all of the charges that were made over the period of mistakes, and then list on the right what they supposively gave you, there is a humungus deficit that no one would like to handle. Now a little love from Prevost is supposed to heal everything? BULL !!! Spend 20 grand and accomplish nothing and then they give you approx a 5-10% forgiveness and we are all happy. BULL !!!

Lew

[truk4u]

Welcome Mike and Dee, glad your on board and hope you can make POG3.:D

[MangoMike]

Mike & Dee,

You know I like the idea of combing both first names to create a unique screen name. I'm thinking of making the change.

MikeBattleaxe

[jello_jeep]

MikeBattleaxe

Wow mango, either your wife never reads this forum, or you have BIG ONES indeed !! LOL

[MangoMike]

Warren,

No LEW ONES here. Mrs. Mango just looked over my shoulder.

New name:

PainintheassDonna

[rfoster]

MM: Your but is going to be smokin instead of the turkey!

[Ray Davis]

Spend 20 grand and accomplish nothing and then they give you approx a 5-10% forgiveness and we are all happy. BULL !!!


Lew, I wont dispute you that the leger heavily leans to the left side, as you indicated. I'm just really happy in this case, nothing extra was added to that side. From what was comped from the bill, it could have been much, much worse. In the past, I always got charged full boat. All I'm saying is THIS time, I'm happy. This Christmas I get to keep several thousand dollars in my pocket, and that's good.

[merle&louise]

Welcome Mike & Dee. How about some pictures of your bus?

You will be glad that you joined this group, they are the most helpful and knowledgeable guys around when it comes to Prevosts. This forum is a 10!

Ray,

Is it your OTR air system that might need revamping or the cruise airs?

I hope that your last repair will do the trick. We'll keep our fingers crossed.

It's nice when a facility cuts you a little slack. We all need a break every once in a while.

Good post!

[Ray Davis]

Is it your OTR air system that might need revamping or the cruise airs?

Hey Tuga,

It's been the Country Coach variation on OTR that has been the problem. I did have work done on the Cruise Airs, but they seem to be doing fine. One thing I leared about Cruise Airs though is that they are really not designed to be used when you are in motion, and it's like 120 degrees outside.

The CA's pull there air from under the bus. If your moving and it's extraordinarily hot outside, the asphault is even hotter, and they are sucking real hot air, and will thermally overload.

They are better when still, even when hot, because the bus tends to shadow the pavement below, and the air via the intakes is overall cooler.

[merle&louise]

Ray,

If at some point in the future you elect to re-vamp the OTR I saw something on Peter Vs Marathon that was pretty cool. Instead of having OTR which I would think could be expensive to maintain; he had 3 automotive type dash AC units throughout his coach (front, middle, & rear). He said that the three units running off of the engine did a very good job cooling the coach. It seems to me that it would be less expensive to install 3 of these.

Just a thought, Peter could tell you more about it, but I thought that it was a good concept. The redundancy was also a nice feature; if one fails, the other two help out. :cool:

[Petervs]

Hi all, just a minor clarification. My 94 Marathon XLV has the standard Marathon answer to the air conditioning problem of that vintage.

I have 3 cruise airs that run from the generator or Shore Power. While driving, we have a standard Prevost dash air and a Marathon added unit that adds a second dash air type compressor driven by a belt from the engine, a condenser with electric fan mounted to the right side engine compartment door, and 2 evaporator units. One of those is in the bedroom, the other is in the kitchen.

Each of these 3 have their own thermostat and fan speed control panels mounted near the cool air outlets, but you can turn the system on or off from the dashboard while driving.

Overall the system works real well, it is well designed, has been trouble free, and we are cool inside while driving in 105 degree heat. And when you stop driving the back of the coach is cool too. If you are starting out with a heat soaked coach it takes quite a while to get cooled down, but if you begin before it is real hot inside the system keeps up with no problem. Our personal approach is to avoid hot places in general; a kind of natural air conditioning.

Marathon does not do it this way any longer. They now install 4 rooftop air units, and with today's huge inverters, you can run two of those and your dash air when the engine is running. The engine alternator powers the inverters which make 110 volt AC to run the AC's. This is simpler and cheaper, although not necessarily better in all regards. I do like the redundency in my system. And I do not like rooftop AC because they are louder inside when running.

I think the Marathon ,method is a good system for a motorhome. On a tour or Charter bus, the Over the Road Air is designed to keep the interior cool when driving through Phoenix in the summer with 45 people on board. This is a much larger heat load than we will see with a well insulated motorhome conversion and typically 2-4 people. So, the OTR is overkill.

On a related note, do any of you have any problems with holding tank odors when driving with the front sliding driver and passenger windows open? We seem to get a little vacuum effect that seems to pull tank vent air inside, perhaps coming from an empty P trap somewhere. I like to drive with the windows open but the smell in not nice.

[Jon Wehrenberg]

I think coach design is regressing to some extent. Peter, I think you are correct about setting up a small vacuum with the front slider open. We would occasionally get a whiff and I think the dry trap was the one for the washer.

The reason I mention regressing is our old coach had a skylight in the living room, powered vents in the dining/kitchen and bedroom and a fantastic fan in the bath. With the right combination of those fans or open vents we could stay comfortable under most circumstances without any open windows or AC.

Now we have mirrors in the ceiling that show up streaks so they not only don't do anything, but they add to the work load.

[truk4u]

I think you will find your stink is coming from the overflow hole in your toilet. Here's my experience:

I had a Foretravel with that problem and had to plug the overflow hole. That stopped the stink, it was a direct vent to the holding tank. Just had to be real careful not to leave the toilet until it had cycled, in case the water kept coming. The toilet mfg. even supplied the little plastic plug.

In the Marathon, the Microphor toilet has the same vent hole, but there is a small plastic tube that gets a little water each time you flush and creates a mini P-trap. My plastic line was pinched, all the water had evaporated and let stink in anytime you created a vacuum from the Fantastic fan or driving with a window open. Fixed the pinched line and all is well.

I know this is JDUB territory (poop, toilet, holding tank, butt crack, stink, etc.), but trying to help!:D

By the way, where is the Flame Snuffer, he's missing?:eek:

[Joe Cannarozzi]

We have a switch on the control panel marked ODOR CONTROL.

I have never been able to move either the amp or volt meters when turning it on and Ive scowered the plumming bay looking for something? Im thinking its probably something DC but that is a guess.

The only thing I found is on the holding tank, there are 2 leads that hook up at 2 of the lower corners of the tank and I know that they are not the level sensors. Weather or not this is it I dont know but regardless its inop. and Id like to put that accessory online?

Anyone else have this or somthing like it that can shed some lite on the issue?

Im told by my wife that the only odor trouble in our camper is from flatulence.:confused:

NO not me, the dogs, the dogs:D