Where to find tires ....

[Jon Wehrenberg]

Until I became unemployed in 2000, we used the coach to do trade shows for our former company as well as travel to do seminars for our largest customer. Our customer had about 80 sales offices around the country and we would spend a day with the sales reps, and then generally do a seminar or presentation relating to the products and how they related to the various applicable plumbing codes with the reps.

The company we owned also did about 30 trade shows related to the campground industry, and I used to do most of them, I carried the entire booth and its contents in the bay of the bus or our Grand Cherokee that we towed.

While we ended up traveling into every single one of the 48 contiguous states and taking advantage of the work we were doing to get us to places we would not have ordinarily seen. We had little time to ourselves to enjoy the bus except on weekends. We spent about 13 to 16 weeks in the bus each year, not all at once but in various length blocks of time, with the longest being gone for 5 weeks and a typical trip around 5 days to a week.

When it didn't make sense to run the bus, such as a one day seminar 400 miles away I would use the plane. During that decade I did a lot of travel and when I sold the business to my daughter the first few years down here in TN we rarely used the bus or the plane. I think one year we put 30,000 on the bus and that really was too much. Now I think we are around 12,000 a year, and this year may end up being a little more.

[Darl-Wilson]

"If the coach has Pro Driver that is recording the mileage, as is the DDEC (I think). An owner or buyer can rely on that." Jon's quote

I purchased the Silverleaf VMSpc that has a whole variety of information on sensors, gauges, AND a speedo with an odometer. The device reads from DDEC and indicates the mileage on my coach is about 2,000 miles less than indicated on my dash odo. Jon, does that mean, to a certainty, that my odometer mileage is not to be relied on? If that assumption is correct then would it be best for any POGer buying a used coach to use this device to make sure the mileage is correct?

[Darl-Wilson]

I will bring this device and a couple of adapters to POG VI in May if anyone wants to check their odo or any other items, like codes, etc. Let me know if you have any questions or check out the Silverleaf website. My laptop will also be available for those lacking a portable computer.

[Jon Wehrenberg]

Darl,

I have not heard of a coach odometer reading more than the DDEC or Pro Driver. It is usually the other way around because the speedometers our vintage coaches had did not always count distance traveled. They would cease functioning for short periods and they eventually just stop registering miles.

But I think you might have a CC dash. Different animal I think.

The new Prevost replacement speedo that replaces the original uses an LCD mileage display, and it replaces the electro mechanical original.

[Darl-Wilson]

It is a CC dash Jon. Having spent more than a few days in the new and used car and RV business I too have never seen a speedo with more than actual miles unless it had been replaced with a used unit. Maybe!

[Jon Wehrenberg]

The difference could just be in the calibration that CC did when they built it.

When I replaced the speedo in the other bus it had to be calibrated. The calbration value Prevost gave was quite a bit wrong, so on my first trip I think it indicated 20 or 25 mph at 55. I knew from experience what my speed was from the tach so it was no big deal to have a bad readout for the trip. The cruise still worked and is independent of the speedo anyway. I eventually got it pretty accurate through trial and error. I assume the interstate mile markers are fairly accurate and I was able to go fifty miles or so and still have the tenths read out within a few tenths of the one when I first started checking.

I still use the Pro Driver as the mileage because it has the maintenance reminder built in. It makes life simple.

[Petervs]

Jon,
The gizmo for getting the odometer to read right is simply a signal generator, hooked to a small electric motor. The leads are connected to the new speedo, and the number of pulses it provides at the spinning speed is programmed into the speedo so it reads 84 mph while running. Obviously the speedo is also connected to a battery. Then you wait. Wait some more, wait even longer. Depends on how many miles you need to add. basically 84 mph is about 2000 miles in a 24 hour period. I need to rack up 143,000 miles so it is about 2 months. Today it reads 18,000 or so. I am patient.

Ans there are no mechanical parts in the new speedo, so there is no wear happening.

[Ray Davis]

Aren't the electronic odometers settable, i.e. there's some magic way of just setting the correct reading?

[Petervs]

Ray,
There is some way to just set them, but the industry makes that extremely difficult because they do not want to make it easy for people to set them back at resale time. There is some proprietary hookup and software involved. Heck, if a teenager can crack an I-phone this is probably not hard by comparison. I just decided to use the brute force approach to set mine.

One would think there should be a one time set option when you buy a replacement unit, and the number should only get bigger, but that is what VDO wants $125 to adjust.

I know it only takes them 5 minutes to set it and I dislike paying that much money for 5 minutes work. After all, the guy is not performing surgery on me....in that case I might spend that kind of money for 5 minutes work.

[Ray Davis]

I didn't realize they get $125 to do that! Yikes. Well, two months ain't too long to wait ...