Joe Camper
02-01-2014, 11:24 AM
I recently had the privilege of meeting a great family with 6 children ranging in age from 1 to 15 from Alaska.
Very very well behaved kids all home schooled a pleasure to encounter in this day and age. He is a general contractor. Their house burned down do to a faulty double wall chimney stack that did not preform as designed. before rebuilding they decided they would get a big ass bus and see the country.
This is where happy tale ends. They did not do their homework.
He decided it would be easier to modify a entertainer into a motorhome to fit their needs than pulling a motorhome apart to add the sleeping area they required.
He did manage to get a pretty good price on one that needed some work 50k for a 97XLV.
After picking it up in Nashville they immediately headed for Florida. Because they had not yet put a baseplate on their suburban the wife followed behind.
Very soon after going through Atlanta he gets a call from his wife who tells him there is something glowing in the right rear tag area and small bits of glowing burning things R hitting the roadway.
Unknown to him he had a parking brake chamber leaking and dragging the brake (emergency air one of those leaks I suggested U will not catch early on if u do not release the parking brakes and shut the bus off and listen)
When they stopped it flamed up and good. He said they exhausted all the water and was pouring their only remaining gallon of liquid (milk) on it before it finally stopped flaming up.
Being your normal resourceful Alaskan he had tire tools and with instruction from someone who I did not ask he was told to pull the tire and rim that side raise the tag and drive it in.
As he got underway again he immediately noticed a very bad vibration and about that time the driveshaft. let loose and when it did it destroyed the tail shaft on the trans.
I ran into him at Prevo in Jacksonville where he was getting a new trans and driveline and a spindle for the tag ect ect ect. I asked him if he knew the DOT pretrip brake inspection and if he would be interested in learning to which he was very receptive.
I could not have felt worse for this great family as the 8 of them waited out what was to this point a repair that was still developing in their suburban.
Meeting theses folks combined with the projects im currently doing for another new to prevo owner got me thinking about preoffer inspections.
If U R a looker YOU CAN NOT spend too much time doing a preoffer inspection. Being one who does them for folks the preoffer inspection is a very challenging task.
If I was asked to preform one on this H im currently working on I would say.........even if I took 2 or 3 days I would have been exceptionally talented to uncover all the things that have surfaced that have after living on board for 2 weeks and putting almost 1500miles on it. Im quite confident there R still gremlins here too. We shook out most of them but IMO not all not yet.
If U R a serious 1st time buyer and find the coach U really like Id suggest paying the seller to either live on it for a week or more and driving it at least 500 miles. U will be happy U did.
These folks R very lucky the bus did not burn to the ground.
Very very well behaved kids all home schooled a pleasure to encounter in this day and age. He is a general contractor. Their house burned down do to a faulty double wall chimney stack that did not preform as designed. before rebuilding they decided they would get a big ass bus and see the country.
This is where happy tale ends. They did not do their homework.
He decided it would be easier to modify a entertainer into a motorhome to fit their needs than pulling a motorhome apart to add the sleeping area they required.
He did manage to get a pretty good price on one that needed some work 50k for a 97XLV.
After picking it up in Nashville they immediately headed for Florida. Because they had not yet put a baseplate on their suburban the wife followed behind.
Very soon after going through Atlanta he gets a call from his wife who tells him there is something glowing in the right rear tag area and small bits of glowing burning things R hitting the roadway.
Unknown to him he had a parking brake chamber leaking and dragging the brake (emergency air one of those leaks I suggested U will not catch early on if u do not release the parking brakes and shut the bus off and listen)
When they stopped it flamed up and good. He said they exhausted all the water and was pouring their only remaining gallon of liquid (milk) on it before it finally stopped flaming up.
Being your normal resourceful Alaskan he had tire tools and with instruction from someone who I did not ask he was told to pull the tire and rim that side raise the tag and drive it in.
As he got underway again he immediately noticed a very bad vibration and about that time the driveshaft. let loose and when it did it destroyed the tail shaft on the trans.
I ran into him at Prevo in Jacksonville where he was getting a new trans and driveline and a spindle for the tag ect ect ect. I asked him if he knew the DOT pretrip brake inspection and if he would be interested in learning to which he was very receptive.
I could not have felt worse for this great family as the 8 of them waited out what was to this point a repair that was still developing in their suburban.
Meeting theses folks combined with the projects im currently doing for another new to prevo owner got me thinking about preoffer inspections.
If U R a looker YOU CAN NOT spend too much time doing a preoffer inspection. Being one who does them for folks the preoffer inspection is a very challenging task.
If I was asked to preform one on this H im currently working on I would say.........even if I took 2 or 3 days I would have been exceptionally talented to uncover all the things that have surfaced that have after living on board for 2 weeks and putting almost 1500miles on it. Im quite confident there R still gremlins here too. We shook out most of them but IMO not all not yet.
If U R a serious 1st time buyer and find the coach U really like Id suggest paying the seller to either live on it for a week or more and driving it at least 500 miles. U will be happy U did.
These folks R very lucky the bus did not burn to the ground.