Marathon Boys, a Question for You.

I was contacted by a new Prevost (2001, XL2) owner today. He acquired this bus as a damaged unit (Insurance job, I think?) and is repairing it. The following is brief story on the bus;

He flew to Indiana to pickup the bus after he purchase it.

He pickup up the unit and had several issues upon pickup. The coach engine was started and he observed the 24 house batteries taking a charge (27 volts). Apparently, the house batteries had depleted and during the checkout?, numerous switches were depressed, including an ac unit. The house batteries did not have a chance to recharge before this was done. During the drive back to Houston, he observed the house batteries volt meter reading 34 volts (He thinks the voltage regulator for the house batteries faulted). When he stopped to checkout the problem, one of the batteries had ruptured, blowing the top of the battery off (His words!). And one of the inverters was smoking, literally. (All bad things!)

So he brought the coach to Prevost Fort Worth for repairs??!! His Prevost Fort Worth experience was similar to mine, not good! Prevost Fort Worth replaced two of the side windows that were broken.

However, the coach control system did not work when he picked up the coach from Prevost. He drove down the road to Marathon Fort Worth. Marathon Fort Worth stated that the cost of repair would be between $2,000 and $20,000. Marathon stated that his coach controller (I do not know the official name of the electronics that control the Marathon coach side.) would need replacement because Marathon was no longer services the version he had.

My Question is........

When he asked Marathon for drawings, they told him that their drawings were proprietary and would not give him any drawings of his coach. He stated he asked several times, with no results.

Is this normal practice for Marathon coach owners? Not able to get drawings or information for a coach you own?

I am a Country Coach owner and have been able to accumulate drawings (It is a struggle!), not a complete set yet, but I do have drawings. I thought that Country Coach was the only coach converter that treats it customers like badly.


Hector and "Plastic Shield"

Marathon does not hand over the complete drawings for any coach, at least that is what I understand. They do work hard to help you with a problem, from the sounds of things your friend is not sure what or where his problem is. If he takes a little time to learn his new toy before calling Marathon, he might have a fighting chance.
I don't think that is much help but, he needs to dig in a little or open his wallet, one of the two!

Hector,

I'm surprised they even worked on since it was a damaged unit or insurance salvage. Liberty is kind of the same way with drawings, there are plenty I would like to have, but not available. Sounds like maybe he didn't do his home work before buying a damaged nightmare.

I'm just curious why won't they give the drawings of your coach? I know I don't have a name brand coach but I have all the drawings of my coach. Not trying to be smart --- but just want to know.

First, when you have drawings for coaches where the converters are out of business you have to figure there is not much need to protect proprietary information.

Second, I don't like the idea of not being able to get the drawings either, but Marathon has always worked with me on any technical issue up to having a guy walk me thru the wiring diagram on the phone to troubleshoot a problem. This lasted for a couple of hours. No complaint from them.

Lastly, I would not have taken a Marathon house problem to Prevost to fix. That's a rookie mistake. I've been to Prevost Ft. Worth for service 5 times without a hitch.

Double lastly, when you buy a salvage or damaged unit, the hidden problems are just the tip of the iceberg. Hope someone has a big checkbook cuz I'll bet this is a whopper.

If there were some voltage spikes on the house system, it might be the system just needs a re set. I did'nt hear what was wrong with the controls .
Before he has anyone dig into the systems , he should start with buying a complete set of new batteries and a new inverter if it is smoked.
Also verify the voltage regulators are reading correctly.
Check every fuse on the House side and all breakers on the Coach side.

As has been said before, don't hand a open check book to anyone.

Wiring diagrams are only as good as the guy who is working on the Coach. If you don't know what your looking for, you are spinning your wheels un necessarily. So, try to narrow the issues and go from there.

Hector, No, this is not a normal response Marathon owners get when they call for help, BUT.......

Is this coach your asking about an '01 shell? or '01 conversion? Do you know if it has a single slide coach? Do you know the coach production number?? or last four numbers of the VIN? Unfortunately, when a Marathon is totalled for whatever reason and has gone to salvage title, Marathon will strike it from its Family History of Coaches and will not support it. In their eyes, it is no longer a Marathon if it has been totalled/.
Call me 303-907-4746----JIM

Wow, I didn't realize that convertors were so worried about their "stuff". Like Hector, I have collected information, schematics and procedures from Country Coach, although I have never seen anything that resembled a maintainance and repair manual or a parts manual. I suppose one can argue that most coaches are unique but deep down the convertors all follow a basic plan that is common to their conversions.

While it is great to have a tech support team on the other end of the line, there are most certainly times when even that could be an inconvenience. Further, it is common knowledge that many of the convertors today are struggling and pity the poor owner if they should fail with that same owner having not one iota of data on the conversion. Bring patience and funds then just perhaps the coach could be reverse engineered. I don't believe there is a car, truck, bus, boat, tractor or airplane out there where the manufacturer did not prepare a complete maintainance and parts manual, evidently the convertors are exempt or have exempted themselves from this practice....too bad.

John

flyu2there,

Each Marathon Coach we have owned came in it, manuals, wiring schematics, plumbing diagrams. When Ray Davis had his former coach, along with Buster's endure the hanger fire almost 2 years ago, Marathon deleted Ray and Kathy's coach since it was totalled.
It ended up in an Auction in Easstern Canada last summer. It has since showed up at Marathon Beaumont Ca, several times with the attempt of being passed off as a different coach. Whoever bought it, realizes that is an "orphan" and is trying to get Marathon to work on it. They don't want the liability of working on a failed coach.
If this is the case of Dreamchasers' contact, then this coach is considered a former Marathon. I am suspicious, that this '01 XLII may be our former coach, 2 coaches ago, that was in a horrific wreck a year ago August 15th, 2008 where there was a death involved.
We saw that coach last November 2008 at Mira Loma. Anyone would be insane to attempt to repair that coach. The entire coach was twisted. Popped in the front by earthen ridges it rammed and popped in the rear by a the Tahoe it was towing. When you looked at it from the front, it had a parrellagram appearance to it, squashed and the roof was leaning to the curbside, with everything below the front windshield pushed in at maybe a 45 degree angle scrunching the entry stairs.
I am curious.

Hector,

I made a few phone calls and the owner who contacted you does not have our former coach. whew!

What I was referring to is a maintainance manual......... A book that provides some form of tree diagram to troubleshoot and repair various components. I am quite certain that most of us have the basic schematics, users guides, etc., but, unfortunately they are very basic line drawings with much detail omitted. A parts manual that shows where each component is located and also lists the vendor and part number for each item is the second text that I have never seen associated with any conversion.

I understand completely about branded or salvage titles. I also am aware that most manufacturers of any motor vehicle do orphan a vehicle that has been deemed a total loss, however that is still no excuse for not having appropriate service manuals available to others besides the convertor or his designees. Twenty years ago it ws fairly common place to come across a vehicle with either a salvage title or one that had been washed by registering in different locations however today, what with CarFax and a dozen others, it is very difficult to hide a total loss vehicles.

BTW if it was silver/blu 2001, a little birdie told me one went thru the auction in Tuscon yesterday and sold for 17K!

John

flyu2there,
We have had in each of our Marathons the item that you are asking about.
Above and beyond the schematic, we also have had map so to speak of where FET boxes are and what they control, the Discreet boxe and attached keypad they talk to and the such.
The Marathon is divided into Zones: labeled ceiling height, floor height and under belly in the book-like notebook. Each side, or corner or end of the coach is identified by a Letter indicating position in the Zone where a piece of equipment is located in each coach. None are the same. Now, to confound things tho, we have discoeverd the map of equipment is not truly correct. One of our FET boxes needed to reset and was identified as being in the curbside rear corner, ceiling hieght location------none found. turned out, it was in the opposite corner, roadside rear corne, celing hieght and so on.

John, I have those manuals and a notebook with brochures for most of the converter installed components on my bus, anything else that I have needed Liberty has been very forth coming with the information.

The lack of a complete and formally printed manual IMHO is not practical as most all coaches different.

I also believe that each converter thinks they do things the best way possible and do not want to have their technical data too freely available for the competition to pick on for marketing purposes. That is the same with CNC machine tools, the purchaser never gets 100% of the manufacturing data, only what is necessary on a "need to know" basis for repairs. Modern machine builders encourage users to utilize factory repair personnel to enforce proper repair and thus uphold the manufacturers reputation.


JIM

Ditto what Kevin said. Marathon will not hand out the drawings. The electrical control system for that coach was manufactured by Techlon (EDSI).
Parts and support are still available from the manufacturer, but not Marathon.
Contact Brian at 610-682-9764.