Lifting rear of coach

[grantracy]

Dale, I am with you....put it in the trailer. The lift, as discussed in earlier posts, can stress the chassis of a Prevost. Remember that rear of the back wheels is already a very heavy engine! The trailer protects the bike and allows for some storage. Ellen & I have a single axle motorcycle trailer, but are currently looking to move to a tandem axle unit to improve stability in the event of a blowout. The unit in the picture, while interesting, is relying on a very small tire rotating at very high RPM!!!! Ellen drives the Liberty with the trailer...no problem. We both practised with the trailer at the school yard prior to departure. Ken & Ellen

I probably misspoke when I said "she didnt want to deal with it" I meant she didnt want to deal with the possibility of having to back a trailer down in a tight situation. I am all for a trailer and admit the lift looks like it is out there,however I ran it by Vantare before installing and they didnt seem to think it was a problem. Jury is still definitely out on this one.For what its worth it is an XL

[GDeen]

Thanks for the info Tuga - will see what I can find on that discussion.

As to the trailer, I don't mind pulling one a bit. I do want a toad though and a trailer to pull the toad and bike would them be something I would have to deal with all the time when parking or "camping", and not sure I want the trouble of finding a place to dump it. Maybe that is less hassle than I am making it out to be.

[Ray Davis]

lift should not be put on any Prevost except an XL. XLV and XL II's will not handle the load

I'm no expert in this, but I believe that when Tuga indicated XLV, that includes your coach. I believe that XL = 40 ft, but XLV = 45 foot. I think your signature indicates a 45 foot, which makes it an XLV?

Ray

ps: just did a search and found this reference post from Jon
http://forum.prevostownersgroup.com/...read.php?t=365

[Just Plain Jeff]

Elaborating....

A bike lift, if properly installed can go on a 40' XL. You don't want to put one on an H3-45 or an XLV due to the structure of the frame members and the engine mounts.

The 'right' way to install same is to pull the center bumper off the rear (duh) of the coach and have a plate welded to the two carrying frame members. From there, you build out the support brackets from the frame so that the weight is distributed properly from side to side (streetside to curbside).

We did this on our Angola by the guy who did the original OverBilt lifts (out of business) at his shop in New York. It was a big job, but he said that most of the problems he'd had were those with improper installation. His lift, BTW, was much lighter than a hydraulic lift as it had a 12v starter-type motor and cable system for lifting.

I don't have bit a moment right now, but if you use the search feature either here or over on Prevost-stuff, you will see there have been a couple of conversations about this over the years.

Lastly, Liberty has seen XLV coaches with rivets popping out of the rear from bike lifts that either weren't done right or on the wrong coach.

Hope this helps.

[Jon Wehrenberg]

Gordon,

When Prevost created the 45' motorhome shell they cantilevered an additional 27" behind the tag and drive axles.

That doesn't seem like much because it is easy to think of the Prevost coach as being overbuilt because it is intended for millions of miles.

But if you look at the structure under the coach you will note the engine cradle and the frame supporting it hangs from the rear of the structure that carries the drive and tag axles. Some of the load can be seen as being shared with the truss frame and the upper structure of the shell.

Prevost has determined that the limits of that structure are 1000 pound vertical load at the ball hitch. The ball hitch typically is within 6 inches of the bumper. You are creating a long lever arm with the lift for the motorcycle and the weight of the lift plus the motor cycle probably exceeds the Prevost limit by a factor of for or five times if not more.

The first sign you are exceeding the limit is the air bags are not recovering to give you the road clearance. Further signs are going to be stress cracks first visible in the rear cap, and you are likely going to experience some structural failure.

To prove the actual impact of what you are doing, weigh the coach and each axle on a truck scales loaded with all the stuff you normally carry, full fuel and full fresh water with empty holding tanks.

Repeat the weighing process with the motorcycle lift and the bike on the coach. You will likely not a substantial reduction in front axle weight affecting both steering and braking (adversely), and a dramatic increase in tag and drive axle weights, probably exceeding their limits.

[dalej]

And just add the added weight when you hit a bad bridge, the ones that leave the coach bouncing. Think of the stress on the brackets that attach the bike lift.

[Joe Cannarozzi]

I'll take that a step further. We pull a toad 4 wheels down and I would not hesitate to pull a trlr but you can bet I'd make sure I could load it with either no more tongue weight than it has empty or even slightly less, depending on what that tongue weight is empty. One disclamer- If I had unlimited recources I wouldn't worry about it at all.

This leads me to a question I've been wondering about. What is the tongue weight on these stacker trlrs? Can they be loaded neutrally? If the tongue is exessive can they be loaded to reduce the tongue weight slightly?

I've been told by 2 different folks, one mechanic and 1 charter owner, both of many years and did not know or work with each other, to watch the frame rails above the drives for stress cracks. This is advice givin from experiances with XLs, 40ftrs that never pulled anything! Ahhhhhhhhh the beauty of the tow-bar.

For those still interested try

www.rvliftsofamerica.com

[wrongagain]

maybe skid wheels is the answer.
several rv places have these, even camping world.

http://www.pakindustries.com/skid_wheels.html

[grantracy]

thanks for the insights..may be time to rethink lift.Don"t much like the look of it anyway.

[lewpopp]

Joe C.,

What the frig is a toung? Is it a chinese TONGUE?

Yes, I am getting better each day, sorry.