Originally Posted by
0533
Good morning Jon,
I finally weighed my front end yesterday. It is 16,080 lbs. I thought you might want to have this # as part of this report.
Anyway I agree it would have been nice to do each one of these items separately, but I felt that the sum total of each of these upgrades would provide the very best result that one could expect to achieve from this vintage of coach. My hope was, and I do believe it has been proven to be the case, was to make an older independent front suspension Prevost perform more closely to the fully independent Prevosts with the newer 356 setups etc. I truly feel this has been achieved, and I am a nut about this stuff. My final wish is that Prevost will get back and tell me they have a solution for the Tag axle (Rockwell Disc Brake Stud issue) The studs need to be about 3/4 of an inch longer to span the distance on the disc. This should not be difficult to achieve and the end result will provide both a wider profile (13 inches) tire, a higher profile and a tire set that can rotate to the steers when needed like the newer coaches.
Here are the costs. I do not have my paperwork, it is in the coach but here are the round numbers for each upgrade and service.
1. Michelin 365 R70/22.5 upgrade kit on the front. This includes tires, wheels, studs, all parts necessary to change over including labor at Prevost $3750. per axle. Tires alone mounted are about $1650 of that total, this includes Alcoa wheels, really nice looking with the larger profile.
2. Koni shocks and new airbags. This includes all shocks, bags, coach ride leveling, testing the air system. I had the Koni's set at Medium ride stiffness. About $4000.
Steer A-ARMS on the top front, (1998 XL45 shell) The new A-arms have a grease fitting in the center top connection, the old ones were sealed units. My A-arms were badly worn, where the arms connect at either end at the top right and left, the rubber was torn up badly. Total cost $2000. Most Prevost shops will need to order these in.
2. Changed Drive and tag tires to 315 80/22.5 XZA 2 Energy plus koni's and new bags. These are the tires that are used on the newer units. $4800
3. had a 3 axle alignment. I was out of align by a little. $695 It was out by a very small amount.
4. had the ride height set at factory specs, was out by a fraction in the front, 1/4 inch. This was part of the bags and shocks replacement costs.
All prices included sales taxes and did not include any trade in amounts for old wheels and tires.
Some important notes, the ride height was not out by much, and the alignment was not out much either. My assumption from this is that the upgrades including bags, shocks, front wheels and tires and the A-Arm make the difference. My bags and shocks had only 35,000 miles on them over 10 years, doesn't sound like much, but time is the killer, sitting, my other thought is the 365 upgrade makes for a much better front end profile stance , and the side to side control, handling is much improved, and I have experienced no slow speed turning problems at all, I actually felt like it turned more easily, more smoothly if that is possible.
Thats my final thoughts, will keep you abreast of the Tag axle 365 upgrades if they become available. I think that JON should have the studs machined to Prevost specs and sell them to each of us who wants to upgrade, how about it Jon.
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