Over-the-road air??

[Pete]

Having owned both, the first an American conversion (1985) with Prevost bus air and heat with 3 cruise air units. The second coach, a 1995 Vision with no bus air and heat. The current coach, (95 Vision) has dash air, and 4 roof airs, which is capable of operating the front and rear roof airs from inverters. It has 2 3,600 watt inverters operating from 2 banks of 8-D batteries. (a total of 8 8-D batteries for the house side).
So far, it works ........ok with this system. I fell for the old story of (A) it saves bay space , where do you think the batteries and inverters are housed?..in the saved bay space of course. (B) It is more efficient because it does not sap the engine hp to operate the a/c. ..Where do you think the power comes from which operates the alternator which supplies power to the batteries thru the inverters to operate the a/c units....from the engine!. and (C) why do you think most all of the converters do not build coaches with prevost road air and heat?....Because it is cheaper!
Having owned both, I would not buy another without PREVOST BUS AIR & HEAT..

It is much easier to manage, just turn it on as you would in your automobile, adjust the temperature control and you are good to go!

Also, if you should loose your bus air and heat for some reason..start the genset and run your roof or cruise airs. Or a Jon stated above if you are trying to cool a hot coach prior to a trip run both systems for a few minutes to cool the coach for travel, then shut down the genset and use the bus air and heat.

I have heard these arguments pro and con for years, but if you travel in the hot regions of this United States, you need Prevost Bus Air and Heat. Just ask someone who has owned both!

Now having said that, those of us who do not own a coach with Prevost Bus Air & Heat should not get rid of our coaches, we should just contend with batteries/inverters, or run our gensets, roof airs or cruise airs, our dash airs
and not be quite as comfortable. (maybe change our shirts before we arrive so as to not have sweaty armpits, and look as though we have traveled in comfort to our destination).

Its really not all that bad, just trying to make my point on the ease of operating a prevost with bus air.

[phorner]

I have not yet found a day that was hot enough to overwhelm the Prevost OTR air conditioning.....

In fact it, if left to maximum cool, it will drive you out of the coach in search of some relief from the cccccold!

We'll be travelling the desert southwest extensively this summer, so a real test is yet to come.

[hillndale]

Having owned both, the first an American conversion (1985) with Prevost bus air and heat with 3 cruise air units. The second coach, a 1995 Vision with no bus air and heat. The current coach, (95 Vision) has dash air, and 4 roof airs, which is capable of operating the front and rear roof airs from inverters. It has 2 3,600 watt inverters operating from 2 banks of 8-D batteries. (a total of 8 8-D batteries for the house side).
So far, it works ........ok with this system. I fell for the old story of (A) it saves bay space , where do you think the batteries and inverters are housed?..in the saved bay space of course. (B) It is more efficient because it does not sap the engine hp to operate the a/c. ..Where do you think the power comes from which operates the alternator which supplies power to the batteries thru the inverters to operate the a/c units....from the engine!. and (C) why do you think most all of the converters do not build coaches with prevost road air and heat?....Because it is cheaper!
Having owned both, I would not buy another without PREVOST BUS AIR & HEAT..

It is much easier to manage, just turn it on as you would in your automobile, adjust the temperature control and you are good to go!

Also, if you should loose your bus air and heat for some reason..start the genset and run your roof or cruise airs. Or a Jon stated above if you are trying to cool a hot coach prior to a trip run both systems for a few minutes to cool the coach for travel, then shut down the genset and use the bus air and heat.

I have heard these arguments pro and con for years, but if you travel in the hot regions of this United States, you need Prevost Bus Air and Heat. Just ask someone who has owned both!

Now having said that, those of us who do not own a coach with Prevost Bus Air & Heat should not get rid of our coaches, we should just contend with batteries/inverters, or run our gensets, roof airs or cruise airs, our dash airs
and not be quite as comfortable. (maybe change our shirts before we arrive so as to not have sweaty armpits, and look as though we have traveled in comfort to our destination).

Its really not all that bad, just trying to make my point on the ease of operating a prevost with bus air.

too late for me. our featherlite on order has no OTR air...
However, we do a lot of driving in the southwest but much of it is in the mountains. I'm thinking the genset is probably a better way to go in that case bc don't need to waste any engine power needed for the steep inclines. Plus i would think 4 15K BTU roof airs would be more than enough to make it icey cool inside.

ps: of course, still wish we had OTR...oh well

[Jon Wehrenberg]

With 80,000 + BTUs available for OTR it has excess capacity. So on a 45 foot coach 4 AC units of 13,000 to 15,000 BTUs should be ample.

The key however is to never let the inside temps get away from you.

We learned the hard way. We were in Washington DC a few years ago and would be gone for the day. At 8:00 when we left we had two cruise airs set and working. In the 95 degree days the coach was about 85 when we got back to it at about 5:00 when we returned.

Even with all 4 cruise airs turned on it was a couple of hours before the inside temps began to get comfortable. It was cooler inside than outside, but it was still hot. The only way to get down to where we wanted it was to run the OTR.

When we owners are asked about coaches by potential buyers we always encourage the making of a list of features that are "must have" features. Anytime OTR is brought into the discussion, owners of coaches tend to defend what they have. I suppose that is normal, but few owners of a OTR equipped coach would seek out one without it. Salesmen over the years have created some really well polished reasons why OTR is not needed, but when buying a Prevost a good rule to follow is that often "too much is just not enough."

[Ray Davis]

My case may be just one of bad luck ...

http://forum.prevostownersgroup.com/...read.php?t=281

Long story short, traveling from Salt Lake City in June, temperature outside is verging on 120 degrees, pavement probably 150 degrees, ALL of my A/C systems fail. Newly serviced by Prevost, my CC OTR compressor locks up, and a short time later, my cruiseairs all fail with thermal shutdown.

Unfortunately, this saga continued for several months, as I fought to get the A/C working, and spent thousands of dollars doing it.

Because I live in the west, and any normal travel requires going through the desert (and quite likely in summer), wouldn't want cruise airs. My current bus has OTR, and I'm tickled with it. Still have to try it in the heat of the summer, but I'm not expecting any issues.

Ray

[Jon Wehrenberg]

The Cruise Airs did not fail, but were unable to function because the heat radiating from the road did not allow the condenser units to adequately cool.

This is where roof air units are significantly better.

[Jerry Winchester]

Cruised into Houston yesterday with the OTR air just kicking while the outside air temp was 91. And from the pool of water in the hanger when I shut it down, I would say it was doing a good job of de-humidification.

This is our second coach with OTR air and while the R-12 system was unbeatable from a coldness standard, the new one keeps the coach real nice and since I have chicks scattered out thru the whole thing, it makes my life way easy.

Especially when I pass the SOB's with the windows down or some guy has his old lady panting like a road lizard with her mouth over the AC outlet trying to find some tepid air.

[Ray Davis]

The Cruise Airs did not fail, but were unable to function because the heat radiating from the road did not allow the condenser units to adequately cool.

Maybe it's not called a failure, but the darn things stopped operating completely! And I agree, the roof airs would have been much better in that particular instance. So, now my coach has both roof airs, AND OTR.

I'm looking for down-right chilly on my next summer trip!

[hillndale]

Our last coach had just two roof airs (plus dash air) and we took a trip thru Yuma and the low desert last summer. It was around a constant 118-120 degrees and the coach was nice and cool the whole time. I never shut it off in fear that we wouldn't be able to get it cooled off again but i'm thinking maybe the roof airs are the best best overall for consistent maximum cooling. Engine temperature continued to run within the normal range (even when we got to the Santa Ana mountains) but i'm wondering with an OTR type system if that would have been the case. Downside of course is the genset running constantly but that was worth it to keep everyone on board happy.

PS: still jealous of everyone with OTR of course

[Jon Wehrenberg]

There is a POG member who has been silent here. He has the answer for getting performance out of Cruise Airs when the heat radiating off the roads is capable of shutting the units dow,

Jim Shoen has added misters to his condensing units tied into a pressure switch and his water system. When the pressure in the condensing unit builds because it is too hot for condenser cooling the misters come on and spray water across the coil.

This is a very effective way to make Cruise Airs work if the coach does not have roof airs.

Jim??? Where are you?