Yikes!!

[garyde]

Hi D'bug. When you have Prevost mania its hard to throttle down, but remember there are a lot of Coaches on the market right now and it's a buyers market. Take your time.

[Toy Box]

Dump the marathon temporary, and go see the Liberty. Fast Roger, are you here at DAB ? call me. 954-646-4490

[BrianE]

Hugh,

Listen to Gary and Jon. As usual, their advice is spot on. There are enough red flags on the local coach to send you elsewhere. Additionally, between the Arizona coach, Harry's very nice Royale, and maybe others, it sounds like you have other good options. Besides, a trip to the sunshine is always good. IT IS a buyers market. Go slow and try to get it right the first time.

[doodlebug45]

WOW! Thanks guys! That was a flood of great information and good opinions. The jury has spoken! I'm pretty sure that this will be a good coach some day but it needs some serious TLC. Joe's comments were right on but the price isn't good enough for me to take on the project. Thanks to you TBC members for contacting me with your info. There are some great units here and you're forcing me to do some heavy duty thinking. Hey, Mango! Are you still in the club? Somebody told me that you have a half decent coach if you don't mind the smell of Jerk chicken. My email address is hughst@shaw.ca . The saga continues! Thank God for the MPD support group.

Hugh (D'Bug)

[Just Plain Jeff]

Hugh: You done good. Thanks for posting your first bout with MPD. There are a lot more options out there than any of us realize at any given time. It likely that you have been now bombarded with a lot of guys who want to sell you their camper. They are very nice people who are as good as their word. I'm not going to write any more here because it is going to make everyone sick. Good choice.

[doodlebug45]

Thought I would fill you in on the last few pages of the 93 Marathon saga. I got a call from the dealer on Friday to tell me that they were all over the coach like a swarm of bees. I tried to gently tell him that we were losing interest but he talked right over me. I inquired as to why the DDEC had to be replaced at 145T miles and his answer was that he wasn't really sure but it happened just shortly after the engine was rebuilt. WHAT! That's the first I heard about an engine rebuild! WHY? Well, one of the cylinders was scored. He then went on to tell me that it cost him $50K to rebuild the engine but no, they never looked at the Allison. The last time I scored a cylinder was about 40 years ago in my 56 Chevy dirt track race car when I busted a ring while over revving. I'm sure there must be several possible reasons this could happen in an 8V92 but none of them can be good. I had to sign off that conversation because I was lost for words.

Today I got hold of the dealer (finally) and told him the deal was off because there were just too many weird things going on with that coach. He immediately went into nuclear sales mode trying to convince me that everything was going to be great. As a matter of fact, he had great news that they had finally figured out why the coach had stopped on the test drive. It seems the instant the engine quit was the instant I pushed the button to lock the bay doors. HUH?? Am I missing something here? Hitting the button to lock your bay doors while in motion will blow the breaker on your DDEC? Tell me it isn't so guys. I responded with a #%$@*&^! Mr. dealer, is that supposed to make me feel better about the reliability of this coach? His reply was that they really had no idea how or why that had happened but they were working on it. He kind of got mad when I asked if I turned on the heater if I might blow the engine. We went on for several rounds before he finally gave up. Along the way I mentioned that the final straw was his resistance to my taking the coach to the Detroit/Allison dealer for a checkup. I recall that this was something that really bugged Jon too. Another irritant I mentioned was the amount of wear on both the driver's and passenger's leather seats. I used to have a classic Mercedes with 300+K miles on it that had less worn upholstery. In retrospect, the whole conversation was kind of funny and I have to give the guy full marks for tenacity. As I said before, this coach has the potential to be excellent one of these days but I'm not going to be the one to d'bug it (pun intended). Any footnotes you may have to this saga would be welcome except for the "freaking idiot" comments!

Thanks to all of you who helped me through this phase of MPD. I will be much more careful now and try not to entertain you quite so much. That doesn't mean I'll stop asking stupid questions though. I'm sure I have a lot more trouble to get into.

Hugh (D'Bug)

[Jon Wehrenberg]

That guy doesn't know when to quit lying. $50K would buy the engine, transmission, all the tires, batteries and fuel for a year.

I may be a little screwed up in this respect, but if a seller lies to me, I have to head on down the road because there is too much at stake when buying one of these coaches. In the best of circumstances there is a huge learning curve for the first time buyer. It makes the situation considerably more complex if a seller is trying to cover something up.

[Just Plain Jeff]

Somebody's smokin' somebody on this deal. The last engine replacement I've seen while sneaking around the usual joints is about $13-15K with a one-year warranty. In most cases DD will rebuild the original engine. The 8V92 has cast iron sleeves which aren't that difficult for those who know how to do so, to replace. There are tons of guys in various businesses who will do the job for $xxx a 'hole,' meaning per cylinder. We'll get you a good camper, just hang in there. Oh, and thanks again for bringing your first Encounter of the Worst Kind to the board. This may likely help others who have been lurking in the shadows to start pushing the posting buttons.

[rbeecher]

Hugh,

I just sent you a private message before reading this latest post from you.

I can't believe anyone else hasn't said it yet but in reality, I think we all want you to keep looking for awhile not just because we want to be sure you end up with the right bus, which we do, but because we are enjoying your posts on bus hunting adventures tremendously. You have a very entertaining way of conveying your experiences and we might like you to extend the process for awhile.

Regarding engine rebuilds, when we had our transmission rebuilt at the Miami DD facility, it was a no brainer to check the engine at the same time, which we were happy to learn was in perfect health. On the other hand, had we had our bus checked by DD before buying it, someone else would have paid for the new tranny or we would have passed. We didn't know about this forum at the time. Btw, the DD tranny rebuild was $12,000 and a complete engine would have been $28,000. They have varying degrees of rebuilds.

I agree 100% with Jon and Joe so keep asking questions, we haven't seen a stupid one yet and we won't unless it is one from me. You are doing a great job of staying out of trouble so far. But please don't keep us waiting for the next episode, we are looking forward to it.

Richard Beecher
2002 Marathon XLII 45
1996 Vogue XL 40 for sale

[Judi Brown]

After reading about your experience D bug. I think we got lucky when we purchased our coach. We did not know about this board and would have been ripe for the picking. As it turned out all receits for repairs where with the bus and he had everything repaired first class. There is a receit for $23,000
for a new transmissom from DD. We thought these transmissions were bullit
proof and wondering why needed new one at 100,000 m. My husband watchs
trans. temp. close when using retarder. Another thing we read here where
people are getting motor over hauls at 150,000 miles and we were told these motors are good 250,000. Starting to worry because are at 125,000 now.
Judi B.