Slides Love Um or Leave Um

[Gary & Peggy Stevens]

I hesitate to even post this, cause I know of a 1/2 dozen guys that will just Laugh and "SAY I TOLD YOU SO".

My slide wouldn't go out last night, when I went to pick up the bus after having some new A/V equipment upgrade put into the bus. But that wasn't the worst problem. The worst problem was, Peg went with me to pick it up and the slide wouldn't go out.
I always check things like the slide goes in/out, Curtains work and go up/down, tires aren't flat, when I have anyone do anything on the bus, and nothing has been stolen out of one of my bays ?

So the 24 hour Prevost tech was very helpful ( 9:00pm) but couldn't solve the slide issue, and it is getting past Peg's bed time, so we just take it home and put it away for the night.

This morning I call Bill Jensen and he asks me several questions about what I have and haven't tried so far, and then proceeds to tell me how to cross jump a vacuum switch to see if it is a bad switch in the slide out mechanism, that won't allow the slide out.

After repeating over the phone the process, at least twice to me, ( you know cause I am illiterate about my bus ) and I want to be sure I don't screw something else up while trying to fix this issue... It works. I mean what Bill told me to do works, and I now know what part to order. I had plans to drive back to Dallas Prevost to have them figure out the fix, but Now I am just waiting for the part to come in, and I will fix it myself.

So after spending about 45 minutes on the phone with Bill Jensen, and him walking me through what to do, I am very happy and want to Thank Bill Jensen personally for all his efforts.
I removed the wire in the picture to make a jumper to the connected wire.

Sorry for the long post

[Coloradobus]

Hi Gary,

Good call, Bill is GREAT! Those sliderooms sure do open up the coach interior!

[garyde]

HiGary. That is great you got it running. The slides can be daunting to trouble shoot. I've watched Scott at Mira Loma go thru the sequence to replace a slide air seal and I still don't know all the 'ins and outs' of the system. Pardon the Pun.

[Jon Wehrenberg]

Gary,

I will agree completely with you that there is probably no one more qualified than Bill Jensen to help us with problems. He has been around forever, and he knows these coaches intimately. He is a huge asset to Prevost and to us as individual bus owners.

I have been critical however of two issues in which Bill has been involved, both of which he may be relating the company position and may not have the ability to say anything else. This is not a swipe at Bill, but at what he says. The first was the air bag issue between he and Joe. The short version is he insisted a specific part number was correct for our coaches and that if it failed to perform like the one replaced it was still the one to be used. It was later determined and verified that a bag not listed on the parts list will work as intended and is a good fit. Bill may have been forced to not deviate from the parts list by Volvo policy. But regardless of why, it took a lot of investigating on the part of some guys on this forum to get the pertinent poop.

The second issue is the double side fill puking problem. I can understand why if Bill were to acknowledge the problem there could be a run on Prevost to do something about it. The fix is expensive. The response "the two side fill does not mean both sides can be filled the same time" was just a silly response. A lot of stuff we learn was not likely widespread knowledge until P-stuff and POG came along. But now that we know two side fill coaches are a problem, wouldn't it be nice if we could get reasonable responses other than to stop filling from both sides, use a garden hose sized fuel fill, and buy an expensive kit to correct a mistake that should not have happened in the first place.

Bill Jensen is still the most knowledgable guy in Prevost and he has my utmost respect.

[Gary & Peggy Stevens]

Very well said, Jon, and I agree with everything you said. I doubt that Bill has to say, ONLY what is mandated by Volvo to say, however he does have to keep his position (job) clear. Sometimes we just don't get the answer we expect or NEED from people.

Remember, when Bill said at the Sieverville rally that if anyone had a problem with their front door locking mechanism, to mention it to Prevost next time it was serviced, and it would be taken care of? I mentioned it, they replaced my entire door handle assembly, ( inside and out ) ( All Parts, 2 1/2 hours labor, and No Charge. I just mentioned Bill said you would fix it and they did. !

Very happy.

Now to figure out exactly why the fuel pukes out after the nozzle shuts off?
The only good news is it doesn't puke as much as it used to, cause I am at the RV island instead of the truck island.

Gary S.

[Jon Wehrenberg]

As long as you don't mind wasting a whole bunch of time filling your bus, the RV island may be just fine. I usually run my bus a whole lot of miles between fueling because I just don't like truck stops. And when I take on 200 to 230 gallons (long range fuel on my coach) that dinky garden hose takes forever. It takes me less time to jam in two big nozzles, get the job done and then clean the fuel off the side than it takes to line up at the RV island behind the plastic coaches.

I'm optimistic about leaning the coach over to see if that does the trick.

[Gary & Peggy Stevens]

Ok Jon, I can understand the time frame thing, but How about all the extra Lew Bucks it costs per gallon at the truck island vs the RV island?

Usually 6-8 cents a gallon less at the RV Island, and I realize that only equals $18 per tank fill up, and only about $114 per year at 10,000 miles per year average,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, and,....... oh hell never mind.

Gary S.

[Coloradobus]

Gary,
I am that stubborn. Coming home a few weeks ago from Florida we happened on a T/A Truckstop some miles south of Atlanta.
Pulled into the truck island and went in with my plastic. After giving them our Visa card, I took a short detour out front to look at the car island diesel price. It was the same as advertised "Cash Price" for credit. But the Credit price was 7 cents higher at the truck island. I went in and asked if they could adjust the truck island pump to do the car price for an RV/Car. NO!! They told me I couldn't get the car island price at the truck island. Soooo, we wheeled out front to the car island pump and became a very large obstacle. We were at the pump for 45 minutes. I had to run my card 5 times to fill the tank that eventually took 184 gallons. The last 2 swipes of the card at the pump rendered 2 trips back to fuel desk. At that time, the Mgr was there and apologized, saying if he had been notified, I could have had the car island price at the truck island. We DID save over 12 Lew Bucks, and I had good out of seat time. Face it, we're cheap B________!

[Jon Wehrenberg]

Gary,

With 298 gallons of fuel there are only rare exceptions when I do not fill locally. On those occasions when I fill on the road I use the Flying J card.

My fuel on the road is paid for with cash, not a credit card, so as a result the fuel price is the same at the truck or car islands. Jim explains clearly why I won't go to the car or RV islands. It is slow and a major hassle.

My Pilot or Flying J cards turn on the pump. I pay cash at the J and the Pilot card is their own credit card so I get a bill for cash price. I use the Pilot a few miles from my house.

[GDeen]

Gary,

With 298 gallons of fuel there are only rare exceptions when I do not fill locally. On those occasions when I fill on the road I use the Flying J card.

My fuel on the road is paid for with cash, not a credit card, so as a result the fuel price is the same at the truck or car islands. Jim explains clearly why I won't go to the car or RV islands. It is slow and a major hassle.

My Pilot or Flying J cards turn on the pump. I pay cash at the J and the Pilot card is their own credit card so I get a bill for cash price. I use the Pilot a few miles from my house.

Does this technique incur a guaranteed diesel douche?? Any way around it?