Rogue River slides

Tuga,

Starlight Motors in Van Alstyne Tx has I think for sale Marathon Coach 694??? a no slide H3-45.

I have an update: I spoke with a rep from Marathon today. He told me the following:

The coach that was listed on eBay was coach 0681 XLV and it was originally built as a non slide bus. Then later on an owner had Rogue Coach install a salon slide room in it. Marathon was not involved in its installation in any way.

Coach 0687 is a double slide H3-45.

Today, the bulk of Marathon coaches use Valid slides on both the XL II and the H3-45. These Valid slides use an air gasket as a seal.

If the customer wants Prevost slides Marathon will gladly use them. The 2008 models mid year used Valid slides exclusively and have continued using them up to today. For the XL IIs, Valid slides were used starting 2009 mid year and this allowed Marathon to build a coach with three and four slides.

It appears to me that Marathon favors the use of Valid or Prevost slides.

Hi Tuga, Fascinating info. I had always thought that once Prevost made slides available in the XLII that Marathon used them exclusively. It comes as a big surprise that Marathon still favors Valid. What's the affinity? More slides? Cheaper? Better profit margin? Better end result? Can the bracing and chassis strength be as good as Prevost? Certainly it can be, but is it? Does Marathon do the required FEA and modal analysis, or is the 2M mile chassis de-rated.

Coloradobus, Good call, you nailed it. Bus 0681 was born slideless. :)

It is my understanding ( feel free to correct me if I am wrong ), that Marathon started using Valid when they needed 3 and 4 slide coaches and Prevost only built single and double slide shells. The double slide shell went from Prevost to Valid where the aftermarket slides were added before it went to Marathon for conversion. It is also my understanding that Marathon now owns Valid and uses their slides exclusively.

Ken,

The fellow that I spoke to at Marathon said that they used Valid slides when they needed to build a 3 or 4 slide coach for a customer. Marathon does use Valid slides presently, unless the customer requests Prevost slides. From what he told me, Marathon feels that both are good slides.

I don't know if Marathon owns Valid or not. I think that Valid is a Canadian company and is located at 5320-B 48th Ave. S.E., Salmon Arm, B.C.

Tuga,Doesn't Valaid make all of the Newell slides.

Hi Jack,

Yes, Valid does make all of the sliderooms for Newell. I called Newell this morning to order some parts, and I asked the service writer about who made the slides. He confirmed that Valid makes them!

I looked on Valid Manufacturing website and they sell slides to Prevost, Newell, & MCI. I don't think that Marathon owns Valid, but I could be wrong.

Just ask my wife; she says I'm wrong all of the time!