New member here looking for advice

Hello group, I am a new member that is starting my search for a preowned Prevost.

I have not decided on which shell, nor converter yet, but I was thinking the best way to decide is to see as many in person as possible. To accomplish this, I am planning a coast to coast road trip to see as many as possible in person.

I am hoping the group here can add to my thought process on the best way to do this. I will be starting in Seattle, most likely stopping at Marathon in Oregon, but other than that I am open to ideas. I do plan to reach out to the larger dealers in the country, but any other guidance would be much appreciated. Thanks in advanced.

Go to the top of this form, click on Prevost stuff. Once there click on dealers, then scroll down to pre owned Dealers.

Chuck

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Originally Posted by Ck2hans

Go to the top of this form, click on Prevost stuff. Once there click on dealers, then scroll down to pre owned Dealers.

Chuck

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I have been looking into that.

I have a question, who is "the shop" for Country Coaches? Or is there one?

There are many capable Country Coach shops. The year and problem to be addressed will help determine the most capable shops.

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Originally Posted by Gil_J

There are many capable Country Coach shops. The year and problem to be addressed will help determine the most capable shops.

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I was thinking more along the lines of where to see them. I know the big service center for them is Premiere RV Services in Oregon, but they seem to sell a lot more of the class A production models, and rarely have the Prevost version in.

This up coming trip is just about how see as many as possible to narrow down my search of what I want.

Try Legacy Coach in Rockwall,Texas. We purchased our coach from them. Brandon the owner is extremely knowledgeable about all the systems in a coach. I was fortunate that he used our coach for vacations before the owner put it up for sale thus knowing what worked and what did not. When I went there to inspect our coach he set the whole day aside to go through everything. Our coach came with full maintenance reports for the previous seven years. That is the kind of information that is valuable. No matter where you go to look at coaches ask for maintenance records. If you find something ask Gil to give it an inspection.
https://www.legacycoach.com/

Thanks for the info about Legacy, I will add them to my list.

Keep in mind you are not purchasing a mass produced RV. You will do yourself a disservice by restricting where you look to your local geography.

If your search extends into next year. Make it a point to attend the Prevost Motorhome Expo. No where else can you look at 50+ Prevost motorhomes offer for sale. It's also the only time you can "interview" the owners of most dealerships to determine who feel you can feel good about.

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Originally Posted by Gil_J

Keep in mind you are not purchasing a mass produced RV. You will do yourself a disservice by restricting where you look to your local geography.

If your search extends into next year. Make it a point to attend the Prevost Motorhome Expo. No where else can you look at 50+ Prevost motorhomes offer for sale. It's also the only time you can "interview" the owners of most dealerships to determine who feel you can feel good about.

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Gil, I rang you the other day. I just wanted to follow up before I leave town this week.

Yesterday I was at Marathon (OR) for many hours. It was an impressive visit.

Heading towards SoCal tonight.

Been in AZ for the last few days, seen many buses. So many broken Liberty's... sad...

Off to TX tomorrow.

Finally home after a month on the road, ~8000 miles and 24 states.

Saw a lot of buses, what surprised me is how many broken, hacked on Liberties are out there. Was an eye opener...

If u want a really really well cared for Liberty see if Robert here on the pog would sell his.

RPSHOP I think he goes by that here. Hes not activly nor is it currently listed but he has mentioned he might want to do another.

Hes got a very very nice piece. Contact him talk for a while find out what he went throuh to get it where its at. It will be very beneficial to u I think. Afterward U will be comparing everything else u see to it. Ask him how many different things the list has grown to that he has either addressed and repaired on an 02 that was pretty good when he bought it.

Only problem with him is never no treats and no cookie jar in the garage when im out.

I wasn't really in the market for a liberty, but I was just surprised at the hacked together nature of them. On this trip I saw most of the converters in existence. The issue with the liberties were usually involving the automation/electrical system (allen bradley/crestron). It seems a lot were poorly upgraded or poorly fixed sometime in their lives. The only ones I saw that were fully functional had ~7 figure price tags.

It just amazed me that someone who owns(ed) one of those would take the cheap route in maintaining it.

This is just my personal opinion. "Seeing" as many as you can wouldn't be my organization framework for deciding which converter. I would do something like 1) compile as many distinctions / similarities as possible between the 4 major existing converters; and then 2) reading as much as possible on THIS forum for experienced owners' opinions on the pros / cons. And I would limit it to existing converters to max your ability to get support and service.

The converters differ on things such as their major systems strategy and components, and also design approaches in the "house"

If you travel a bunch and "see as many as you can" your head will be spinning and you'll be overwhelmed by superficial impressions.

FWIW we own a 13yo Marathon. Visiting the converters to tour and see close up their conversion processes and learn about their systems and components strategies would be a very good thing to do

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Originally Posted by CorporateMonkey

Hello group, I am a new member that is starting my search for a preowned Prevost.

I have not decided on which shell, nor converter yet, but I was thinking the best way to decide is to see as many in person as possible. To accomplish this, I am planning a coast to coast road trip to see as many as possible in person.

I am hoping the group here can add to my thought process on the best way to do this. I will be starting in Seattle, most likely stopping at Marathon in Oregon, but other than that I am open to ideas. I do plan to reach out to the larger dealers in the country, but any other guidance would be much appreciated. Thanks in advanced.

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Some folks focus on appearance. A few focus on the engineering side. Personally I've seen great looking coaches that can be fundamentally problematic, and visa versa.

It is much easier to update/remodel the appearance features of a coach than the engineering features.

Maybe if you decide on things that you don't want.... could be a floorplan that doesn't work for you, cruise-airs, aluminum holding tank, etc. - then your candidate field is much smaller and more manageable.

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Originally Posted by BadFitter

Some folks focus on appearance. A few focus on the engineering side. Personally I've seen great looking coaches that can be fundamentally problematic, and visa versa.

It is much easier to update/remodel the appearance features of a coach than the engineering features.

Maybe if you decide on things that you don't want.... could be a floorplan that doesn't work for you, cruise-airs, aluminum holding tank, etc. - then your candidate field is much smaller and more manageable.

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My month long road trip was a great success in that department. It was good to see a large number of them to see how they aged.

Some converters products clearly age better than others. Most of the Marathons were well cared for and still functional. A lot of the Country Coaches/Legendary were in good shape, but all had electrical gremlins usually related to their automation system.

Most of the sub $1m Liberties were in rough shape. That surprised me more than anything. Between dodgy repairs to the electrical system, or hacks on the crestron system, to cobbled together Cruisair systems, it was just an eye opener for what a premium product they are. I really like the engineering quality of Millenium, but I am not a huge fan of the style of them. If I was to build new, Millenium would be high on the list.

Early on I had not considered a Vantare/Featherlite, but after seeing a number of them, they (engineering wise) seem to be extremely robust. They are high up on my shopping list now.

Some of the orphan brands were fascinating, Thompson was one of the standouts. I toured a 2007 thompson that had an electrical system that it still ahead of what even liberty is using today. Personally I would not own something like that due to fact few could probably work on it, but it was still neat to see that level of engineering.

I have been looking also. Todays economy has brought out a lots of used rigs. Finding one with maintenance records is next to impossible. Called on a nice on yesterday that the guy had owned six years. Tires six years and batteries were in it when he bought it but the price was up there compared to a year ago. Just frustrating!!

Bought my first Prevost 3 yrs ago which I still have. Intentionally purchased a Featherlite because their systems are reasonably basic and are not proprietary. The earlier ones like I have are fairly basic on the electric side. Audio/video is old school with a lot of wires etc. Todays WiFi and Bluetooth will make changing/upgrading A/V system easier (haven't gotten that far yet). Slideouts don't have the air seal (it's a good thing and a bad thing) which makes the coach quieter.

Chuck

One thing I didn't hear you talk about is your needs and general budget. For example, we chose an H model due to our desire for the larger vertical storage. I store my bikes upright in one of the bays using fork mount points screwed into the joey bed.
Some people really value the higher ceiling space in the X.
Also consider maintenence. For us, we preferred Marathon partly because we're west coast based with usually annual trips thru Oregon and liked the availability of Coburg. We know them well, stay in the parking lot frequently. Liberty is a more east coast based company. But of course there's many 3rd party companies who also can provide service for whichever you choose.
Then of course there's look and feel. So I encourage you to explore what you need to help drive that selection process.
What an adventure, we hope you enjoy the shopping journey as much as you'll enjoy whichever you end of selecting.

@HOFFMAN SO GLAD YOU POSTED YOUR BLOG, LOOKS LIKE A FASCINATING READ!
I have a vogue by Mitchel....I really loves the simplicity of it. Things to consider (in my eyes) for your purchase are maintenance records, a former owner who knows the coach well and owners manuals. All coaches gonna need work or future work .
The most frustrating part of my 4 weeks of ownership so far is not knowing the systems. former owner is WORTHLESS, I have no service records and no owners manual. I have had to become ninja in electrics in a short amount of time, am now niffty with a multimeter and now Im a plumber. I have above avg general automotive knowledge and was a fabricator welder by trade...so I know i can learn this stuff (right?)
Good luck in your search...i can tell you this...with all my troubles this is still the most amazing purchase of my life. AM SO IN LOVE!!!!

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Originally Posted by Hoffman

One thing I didn't hear you talk about is your needs and general budget. For example, we chose an H model due to our desire for the larger vertical storage. I store my bikes upright in one of the bays using fork mount points screwed into the joey bed.
Some people really value the higher ceiling space in the X.
Also consider maintenence. For us, we preferred Marathon partly because we're west coast based with usually annual trips thru Oregon and liked the availability of Coburg. We know them well, stay in the parking lot frequently. Liberty is a more east coast based company. But of course there's many 3rd party companies who also can provide service for whichever you choose.
Then of course there's look and feel. So I encourage you to explore what you need to help drive that selection process.
What an adventure, we hope you enjoy the shopping journey as much as you'll enjoy whichever you end of selecting.

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I never thought of doing this. Currently we keep 2 folders in the first CS bay, and put 2 road bikes on the back of our toad. I would consider putting the road bikes in the bay and getting rid of the folders because carrying the bikes on back of toad is a bit of a hassle w/ weather, road dirt etc. I'm going to set them in there when we re-unite w/ the bus in a couple of weeks to see how they fit. Thanks for the suggestion

To fit my bikes vertically in the first bay, I remove the front wheel (of the bikes) and remove the bike seat. Seems like a hassle, but once you get used to it, it's actually rather quick.
I used to have a shelf in half of the front bay, but I removed that to accommodate the bikes.

yeah thanks. We'll be back to the bus in a couple of weeks and I'm going to scope it out, do some measuring and definitely think about it. THANKS for passing along this info

I finally went to contract on a bus. I located a nice Marathon XLII non slide that has been fully updated (new interior, and electronics).

Bus will need a few mechanical repairs, which the sellers are taking care of, including a new Delco DN50 alternator (it just blew an oil line) and new suspension components (a-arms, bushings, etc...).

I do have one question for the group that I can't seem to find (I searched). Since they are replacing the DN50, I was thinking of upgrading to the DN50+ (450amp version). Has anyone done this?

In time I will be replacing the inverters and going with a large lithium battery system.

When mine went out on the road, we were almost 1500 miles away from home. Prevost had replacement 24v 50DN and shipped it to me - had it in one day. I did see that 50DN+ online, but 270 amp version has been sufficient so likely would have stayed with that anyway.

I would stick with the 270, not sure if all your internal wiring would be able to handle it.

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Originally Posted by PrevostNewbie

I would stick with the 270, not sure if all your internal wiring would be able to handle it.

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All of that will be upgraded. The lithium system I am designing will be quite large.

That' s awesome that you found a coach! I assume the 50DN is going to the house batteries and not the chassis ones. Personally, I'd want to pair it with something like wakespeed W500 regulator before just bolting it in http://wakespeed.com/products.html I do not know for certain if it's compatible (obviously check with Wakespeed), but it's the route I was going to try when I upgrade to lithium. Oh yeah, we need pics!

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Originally Posted by amt

That' s awesome that you found a coach! I assume the 50DN is going to the house batteries and not the chassis ones. Personally, I'd want to pair it with something like wakespeed W500 regulator before just bolting it in http://wakespeed.com/products.html I do not know for certain if it's compatible (obviously check with Wakespeed), but it's the route I was going to try when I upgrade to lithium. Oh yeah, we need pics!

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Well that is a neat item. I wonder if it will interface with the canbus system Victron uses?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_ns5SZazaM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_ns5SZazaM

This is Marathon #0757

It works with Victron's BMS: http://wakespeed.com/technical.html
I bet it works with the inverters as well.

When the time comes (probably not for a while), I was considering a package with the 50DN+, Wakespeed regulator, custom made batteries with Batrium BMS, and Victron Quattro. I was probably going to have the Batrium be the point of control (at least for battery charging if that's possible. However, I bet there's many ways to make this all play nicely together.

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Originally Posted by CorporateMonkey

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_ns5SZazaM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_ns5SZazaM

This is Marathon #0757

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Nice Bus, Well done!

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Originally Posted by amt

It works with Victron's BMS: http://wakespeed.com/technical.html
I bet it works with the inverters as well.

When the time comes (probably not for a while), I was considering a package with the 50DN+, Wakespeed regulator, custom made batteries with Batrium BMS, and Victron Quattro. I was probably going to have the Batrium be the point of control (at least for battery charging if that's possible. However, I bet there's many ways to make this all play nicely together.

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I am planning on basically to throw the entire Victron catalog at my bus.

I had the pleasure of spending some serious time with John Walker of Emerald coach last week. They are basically using the same system as I want (but with less batteries). Top notch equipment.

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Originally Posted by PrevostNewbie

Nice Bus, Well done!

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Thanks

BTW this bus was once owned by a member here (~2011), it looked very different then. Someone ~2019 sent it to Marathon to be heavily updated.

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Originally Posted by amt

It works with Victron's BMS: http://wakespeed.com/technical.html
I bet it works with the inverters as well.

When the time comes (probably not for a while), I was considering a package with the 50DN+, Wakespeed regulator, custom made batteries with Batrium BMS, and Victron Quattro. I was probably going to have the Batrium be the point of control (at least for battery charging if that's possible. However, I bet there's many ways to make this all play nicely together.

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I had two Heart 2800's in my Bus, pulled them out and installed two Multiplus Inverters.
http://forum.prevostownersgroup.com/...id=18186&stc=1

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Originally Posted by PrevostNewbie

I had two Heart 2800's in my Bus, pulled them out and installed two Multiplus Inverters.

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You have a 12v house system?

Yes I do. I also added a second Cerbo GX after the picture was taken. Amazon had the best prices for everything.