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Something about that explanation sounds fishy to me. The part that they lost just enough air pressure to confuse?????????????????????
Very confusing. Are the locking pins and slide operated by air?
I was expecting you to say the slide pins were not all the way seated or the slide was not all the way on the stops.
That phenomenon can also occur if by chance you take out an emergency air line to a maxi by kicking something up off the road. A blown air bag or tire could take one out too. Or a fitting crack and failure on the emergency side.
Probability: slim to none but it happens. Another good reason not to run the center lane.
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That design feature is dangerous. In fact if I had a slide coach I would insist that it be disabled.
I can see the advantages of a system that prevents the coach from going into drive if the slide is not fully retracted. I can envision a system that prevents the release of the air brakes if the slide does not fully retract, but once the coach is underway, even if it is to move it 3 feet the emergency brake application feature should be disabled until the next cycling of the slide.
The folks this happened to were lucky. What if this happened on an icy bridge with no median divider? What if this happened in the Lincoln Tunnel at rush hour. What if this happened on a curvy section of a mountainous road?
All slide coach owners need to consider the impact that this will have on your coach and you if your spring brakes are applied with no warning and with no regard to your speed, traffic conditions or road surface conditions. When your drive and tag axles are locked up you have zero control over where the ass end of the coach is going to end up, and which direction you will be pointing when it stops.
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Well, after reading these posts I am going to re-consider an XL II:confused:
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Tuga, i wouldn't consider any of these stories common occurances. Obviously everyone has a story to tell regard their coach or someone elses.
The thing to keep in mind is the Bus itself, how it is built and how it has performed over hundreds of thousands of miles over many years.
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Tuga,
Gary is right. Except for things such as the above Prevost shells are extremely stout and reliable. Items such as what is described above is a safety feature that needs some reprogramming, but it doesn't reflect a failure of the entire shell, just a design error easily addressed.
I know you are happy with Newell, and a Newell may be the equal of Prevost in terms of longevity and reliability, but one thing is for sure. The Prevost chassis is proven in commercial service by operators of seated coaches and entertainer coaches (which have slides) every day and that experience directly relates to the motorhomes. Add to that refinement of the chassis the collected expertise of the converters and the total package represents the most reliable coach you can get.
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I agree with disabling the system immediately. Doing that is very simple. There is a single relay in the front run area under the driver. If this is removed, the bus can be placed in gear, emergency brake released, and if desired moved (I do not know why you would do that) with the slide extended. According to the wiring diagram this is the only thing necessary to stop the possibility of the "emergency stop" due to sensing a slide out. I believe the label is something like "slide lockout" or something similar. I can check in a couple of days when I am back at the coach. I have removed mine almost as soon as I purchased the bus. I always check that relay after having any work done on the bus by any commercial establishment. One time a technician must of thought that I had lost the relay and replaced the relay.
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Someone above ask the question, "Why would you want to move the bus with the slides ourt?" When we had our Country Coach 2 slide XL with HWH slides, in campground we needed to move the bus to re-level with some leveling bricks. Instead of running both rooms in, I pulled it forward all hanging out, then Chris placed down the bricks and I rolled back on them.
Made for a very easy, quick effort to re-level. That coach had no inter-lock system with the tranny or parking brake.
Silly us, we had Prevost Mira Loma on our 2nd bus, 2002 XLII, add a module during a service reacall, that would prevent us from moving while slides were out. silly us, it is very handy to that manueverability if needed. We never had any trouble prior to that module.
