Riveted Prevost and Slides

[wracinti]

Hi There,
New to the forum(Thanks Gil and Dale !), I am in the hunt for a Prevost. I think I have it narrowed down. Definitely a 40 footer due to space constraints at home, riveted, and no slide or one slide. My question is: When did Prevost stop making riveted coaches?, and when did Prevost start making their own slides? I understand that 1997 and forward was front ISS, any other significant innovations that are noteworthy? Thanks Wayne

[cthalfman]

My understanding is that the last XL's (Riveted sides) were produced in 1999 as a 1999 chassis. Not sure on when Provost introduced their own slide but it was definately later than 2000.

[garyde]

Hi Wayne. My Prevost has 2- factory slides and it is a 2002 chassis. I believe they produced a single slide in 2001.

[lbriant]

I have a 2000 riveted but your right it was built in 99,
HWH have put slides in way longer than Prevost and I have a 17 ft HWH hydraulic slide installed at conversion and I love it 14 yrs old and knock wood still works great ,
You need to actually open the door when you put it in or out or you could blow a window out of the coach dispersing that much air fairly quickly,
I like the wipers on the slide some of the new buses, ( I know I might catch a little crap ) have the bladder system and I know a few personal friends that are on there third one torn !
That is fine if you have I am strictly guessing around $5000.00 for repairs, I wonder how many you could go through in 14 or 15 yrs ???
Sometimes I think newer isn't always better ???

[Gil_J]

Larry makes a great point.

There was a time before Prevost slides where Prevost participated in factory installation of someone else's slides. Maybe Valid or HWH.

[wracinti]

So ,how does that work? Does Prevost install a HWH slide? Does the converter install the slide? Is the Prevost shell taken to HWH and installed there?

[Denny]

I have been to HWH to have slide work done on a Foretravel I had several years ago and saw 2 Prevosts there having slides installed. They were just shells then going to the converter.

[truxton]

Prevost installs slides as far as I know. Valid was Prevost approved. You won't have a problem with Valid or Prevost slides either way. In the downturn a lot of crazy stuff happened so I can't verify all of this but what I do know is my friend wanted to order a 3 slide bath and a half in an X-3 and he was told the converter needed to order 5 shells with 3 slides to get that. A converter won't order 5 shells at a time for 1 customer to get 3 slides in an X. So another converter told us it was a nice way of them saying no, you can't do that. The bladder system in Prevost slides is almost bullet proof when operated correctly. Of course you can have problems with anything but I put my money on Prevost slides.
Later
bv

[cthalfman]

From what I have been led to believe is that our 1999 XL shell was delivered to Country Coach by Prevost. Country Coach in turn had two slides installed by Rogue River prior to the conversion (They were in close proximity to each other). Our slides are pressure seals like the perimeter of a refrigerator door (no swipes or bladders) and are electric motor and gear driven. We have not had any issues to date with our slides other than having to replace one of our pneumatic slide lock solenoids.

[truxton]

IMHO if I was looking for a 10 to 14 year old bus my concerns about who made the slides is a non issue as long as it has a clean history. Finding out how and who took care of it would and should be the number one priority.
I don't know if I got off the thread or not, sorry.

Later
bv

[Gil_J]

As I understand the history, the non Prevost slides were installed at Prevost with the slide manufacturer. This was just a few slides, driven by a single converter, and before Prevost got into building there own slides. The converter may have been Marathon, but I don't really remember.

[lbriant]

You didn't get off the thread,
He said he was looking for a riveted coach so we were discussing slides, as Prevost didn't install them at the time,
Your coach was probably built in 2006 if I were to guess so going on 9 yrs old and sounds like it's been a fine coach and also it is very nice looking,
I was just voicing my opinion on slides , But yet the slides like the other 1000 things on the bus are very important,
Respectfully, I don't believe you can make a blanket statement if you have a Prevost factory slide you will never have a problem ?????
And I don't know what IMHO stands for I would have to ask my kids .)

[truxton]

In My Humble Opinion.

Never made a blanket statement, I would prefer Prevost slides.

My bus is a 2006 chasis and Marathon sold it in Oct of 2007 so it has been on the road for 6.5 years.

Thank you for the compliment.

Later
bv

[Seabyrd]

As I understand the history, the non Prevost slides were installed at Prevost with the slide manufacturer. This was just a few slides, driven by a single converter, and before Prevost got into building there own slides. The converter may have been Marathon, but I don't really remember.

All the early H series Prevost had HWH slides with regular seals... no air seals ... Prevost didn't build an H with Prevost slides until the mid 2000s I believe.. we just looked at a 2004 Vantare with HWH slides... not sure exactly when that changed. Ours was one of the first ones built with 2 slides... Love them !!!

[lbriant]

So Bernie,
Are you still running the factory tires and batteries ?
Just curious ?

[lbriant]

Larry,
What year is your coach, nice looker ,

[truxton]

No, tires Feb 2013
Batteries May 2012

Later
bv

[BenC]

The first year of production of IFS coaches (late 1996 & 1997), it was an option. There are still some coaches that are 1997 chassis that have I-beam front suspension. Take a look to verify.
Y-7040 was the first Prevost shell that was an XL2, except for a few prototype coaches for sliderooms.

Prevost did not officially start shipping out their "factory slide" coaches for almost another year (2001 model shells).

Prevost has never installed slideouts on 40-ft shells, but did work with HWH Corporation in the 1990's and Valid Manufacturing in the mid 2000's as they installed slides.

There are some rivetted XL's with slides, primarily Vantares or Marathons.

Vantare, after being purchased by Featherlite trailers, began their slide program using HWH hydraulics under the engineering and direction of the Cresco, Iowa Featherlite headquarters.
Marathon began their slide program around the same time with Rogue, another Oregon company, and later HWH, followed by Valid Manufacturing in the 2000's.