New member here looking for advice

[CorporateMonkey]

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

Off to TX tomorrow.

[CorporateMonkey]

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...

[Joe Camper]

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.

[CorporateMonkey]

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.

[Marks71]

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

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.

[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.

[CorporateMonkey]

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.

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.

[Danj]

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!!

[Ck2hans]

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

[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.