New Member; New (Old) Prevost

[Flash]

Greetings,

After spending several months chasing a variety of Blue Bird Wanderlodges, I luckily found Prevost-Stuff and am now in the "Purchase Pending" mode on a 1997 Prevost Liberty XL. I'm still convinced that a Bird is a fantastic coach but, hey, a Prevost is a Prevost! And this was love at first sight. She's going in for pre-purchase inspections at Western Branch Detroit Diesel in Portsmouth, VA and Amadas Coach in Suffolk, VA. I'm confident that she's going to get a clean bill of health because she's been owned and coddled for 10 years by my seller. Every Prevost should be so lucky to have the climate-controlled accommodations that this baby has had. Every man would like to have a "Man Cave." Well, this coach has had a "Prevost Cave."

All of that said, I'd like to thank Dale (I think) for posting the Pre-Purchase Inspection Checklist that I intend to ask my inspection team to utilize as they look over #367. If there is anything else that folks familiar with that list think should be part of the process, I'd appreciate hearing about them.

Finally, my only reservation about this coach is that it does not have Bus Air. Instead she is cooled OTR by 3 14,000 BTU Cruise Airs with 2 4500 watt Trace inverters powering them. In the little bit of time that I have been obsessing over this coach, I have learned that the vast majority of Prevost conversions have Bus Air. Some have Cruise Air, and others have roof air. But what I am hearing is that Cruise Airs pick up a lot of road heat and may struggle to provide sufficient cooling in hot climates. In that case, I understand that owners use their generators. I think this coach has been priced to take that "deficiency" into account, and there is very little otherwise that I don't think is awesome about this Classic. BUT I'd love to hear what folks' experiences might have been sans Bus Air in their Prevost Libertys or similar conversions.

I must admit that this is my very first Forum experience on the internet. So, I look forward to my an "On-Line Prevost Romance" with the rest of you folks.

Regards,

Flash
1997 Prevost Liberty XL (soon)
Charlottesville, VA/Vero Beach, FL

11134

[Gil_J]

Congrats! I thought all Libertys had bus air. Anyway, I think that a properly vented Cruise Air should work fine. It's just an opinion. I have a Country Coach so we have the smaller (right sized) bus air installed by CC. I also have roof airs which is somewhat universally used by the plastic coach industry with great success.

[rahangman]

Gil, how does your CC air work for you. We are having a considerable amount of work on ours to bring it back to life (as we would like it)

[dale farley]

Flash,

Congratulations on your new bus and welcome to the POG. If the bus drives as nice as it looks, you'll be in good shape. Make sure you look at the "Tutorials and Helpful Hints" to get some help on manuevering on the POG site and don't hesitate to ask quesitons.

[Joe Camper]

U are a lucky man congradulations.

I was introduced to this bus by anther POGer that was also interested in it. I like to be different and this has different all over it.

Ive been wanting to bring up a conversation on the bus for a month now but did not want to attract any other attention to it. There it was right in prevost-Stuff hiding in plain view.

U have found 1 of 4 coaches that Liberty built like this. Its my understanding Buddy Greg ordered them like this when they were a dealer for Liberty.


Sure looks different without the big alt and a/c compresor but there were other BIG differences.

A pair of 4024 Trace inverters they always had Heart and the if someone blindfolded U and took U inside unless U saw the switch panels U would never guess it was a liberty. wood laminants cool bathroom floorplan

I talked to the seller maybe a month ago and he mentioned that at purchase he was unaware of its unique design for Liberty but went on to camp it without issue or compramize for 10yr.

He mentioned something very interesting he said during the hot summer days while driving the 2 cruise air condensing units behind the front bumper did way better and never thru a code with the louvers CLOSED and seemsto make sence to me too.

Great price beautiful bus very unique and its a Liberty. congradulations.

Your seller purchased that bus from Phil Cooper he remembered it too.

I would have loved to be able to buy it.

Jack 14 r has a source for replacement condensor cooling blower motors that throw way more air across the condensors than the OEM motor concidering the converters design this bus IMO would be a prime candidate for these upgraded motors. Royals and Vantare that have cockpit cruiseair running on inverter for driving would also be good candidates.

[Joe Camper]

Flash here is the conversation I had with him on the a/c and alternator and inverter and gererator.

There may be 1 additional aspect f the a/c question U may not cmpletly understand.

When its 100 and u r in a bus without OTR A/C off the engine and the house side is cooled by cruisair (like this bus) if the house side cruisair do overheat ON generator U have nothing to fall back on.

He said this about the bus

The alternator has the ability to run all 3 of the cruisair while driving but 1 of the 3 falts out while driving. I believe it was the center air conditioner. He also said it worked wonderfully when parked and while driving the dash air ff engine along with the 2 house cruisair were always more than enough and I believe that. (that 3rd one may benifit from Jacks better cooling blower motor)

He also said that house battery voltage could only be suffucuantly maintained by the house alternator while all 3 a/c were running on inverter IF U were at highway speeds only. He also went on to say that was how the gen got the high amout of hrs (not nessessarily a bad thing either)

He said the only thing he had to get in the habbit of doing was anytime he would hit a exit ramp or a rest area ramp he would start the generator. Around town same thing but on the big road no problem.

THIS IS WHERE U are going to have to decide on and deal with compramises on this bus, this is its big difference from other Libertys.

He said he was buying another Liberty Right? well whats that tell ya.

Dont let it get away the a/c will be just fine U can put a golf cart into all the extra space downstairs if u want.

[jack14r]

I have modified 2 out of the 4 with larger squirrel cage fans,they will move about 50% more air across the condensers and I have been in 104 degree and the others would shut down but these 2 would not.I really don't think that these fans are necessary except on severe days,I do think that most cruise airs are not charged for max performance and can benefit greatly if they are properly charged and cleaned.

[coreygrubb]

Rodger, The CC OTR works so well that we keep it repaired and maintained religiously. going down the road it is more than sufficient even at 110 deg. In extreme heat we hit the genset and roofs 15-30 min before stopping.

[Jamie Bradford]

Welcome on board - Nice looking bus!

Jamie

[Gil_J]

Rodger,

My CC OTR Air works great. The only thing I've done to it was replace the clutch. When the compressor was replaced, before I bought it, the wrong size pulley was installed. So, at $45 for clutch and pulley I changed them both. Dale may have more specifics.

[Gary Carmichael]

Flash, glad to see another Virginian with a Prevost, ever get down south on the Blue Ridge Parkway I am at mile post 163, you would be welcome to stay overnite I have full hookups, Gary Floyd V.A.