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I am looking at two Country Coach conversion that are one year apart and have both been maintained well. What is the advantage or disadvantage of one of these systems over the other. Also the Dometic has new shocks and airbags and the other 1992 Chassis has original. When should they be updated? And what is the estimated cost?
We intend to fulltime starting June 2008. Thank you.
There has been a ton of discussion about this topic in the past and you may wish to do a search and read all that has been posted.
The short version is if the bus does not have the Prevost over the road AC system (whole coach) cruise airs may not function properly when traveling because the condensing units will be picking up the heated air radiating from the highway, and in some cases that air may be so warm the units will shut down due to excessive temperatures.
The roof air units will be in the cooler ambient temperatures while traveling and could be expected to work better.
When parked and the air intake for the Cruise Airs is in the shade beneath the coach this is not an issue.
Roof air units are cheap and readily available. They may be noisier.
As to original shocks and airbags on one versus the other.....you are looking at about $1200 to $1500 in parts and perhaps 12 hours of labor to replace them. So it boils down to the fact that you may have to spend that on the one coach for peace of mind. Personally, I think their life is gone by 10 years and if I were to buy a coach without good records or evidence the air bags and brake chambers are very recent, I would replace them and be done with it. Both are critical. Shocks less critical.
Thank you Jon. Therefore with the cruise airs I loose 1+ bays to their mechanics and I do not with the roof airs. Also If it the cruise air does not have the Prevost over the road AC system (whole coach) they may not function well, but if they do then it is a space lose issue. Am I reading you correctly.
Thanks for clearing up the shocks and brakes for me.
Wlloydw,
I have had both and look at it a little different. The cruiseairs were easy to work on and in my Marathon, did not take up any compartment space since they were behind the front bumper. They were easily serviced and performed well while running down the road or sitting still. I did not experience any overheating due to ambient temps, but if I had been in Arizona in July, it may have been a problem. They do put out a lot of heat under the bus and I always worried about the intakes while in dusty areas or sitting on grass.
The roof mounts work well, but they're a little noisier than the cruiseairs and increase the height of the bus. Working on them will require roof access and that I don't like. The last thing I want is someone stomping around on the roof scuffing up the paint and potentially causing leaks around the A/C mounts.
So there's my take, living in the SE, I would prefer cruiseairs over roof units.
We live in Nova Scotia but plan on fulltiming starting in June 2008 all over North America. We will spend more time in South in the winder and we have family in GA. Thank you for the clarification. We see the one with cruiseairs tomorrow. I will confirm their location.
Knowing what I know now, and based on the fact you do not live in the desert southwest I would not let the type AC unit be the deal breaker.
The issue of bay storage is blown all out of proportion. Cruise air condensing units, as Tom points out are generally placed in space generally unusable to you.
If one of the coaches has over the road air, to me that would be a deal maker because without it, on that vintage of coach it is highly probable you are going to be running your generator to get AC working while you run down the road. Later coaches ran some AC units from inverters.
Jon thank you for the advise. The roof air during the test drive today was very noisy and I do not want to run the generator all the time, though the 16 KW Wrico gen in the one we looked at today was almost silent. Thanks