XL door handle failure

[GSwaim]

I have read many posts that talk about the creative way to get into your XL or XLII when the door handle decides to fail and lock you out. I've even seen pictures of the special tool made to jimmie your way in through the door bell access hole. I have yet to hear a full description as to how to prevent the failure from happening. What ever happened to an ounce of prevention being worth more? I have an 02 XLII that still has it's original handle and before I'm locked out I've decided to learn what it takes to prevent this handle mechanism failure.

Prevost says they have a fix which is part # 288556 "Product Improvement kit" as they call it. It appears very sturdy and they claim they have never had to replace it. I like to hear some testamony to that fact from the group here on how it performs. It appears the kit has all the linkage and such to make a complete upgrade. Prevost is looking at 5 hours to do this job. That makes this repair in the $1000 range which is rediculous until you factor in trying to break into your bus in the middle of a rain sptorm with no tools.

I can say after seeing and trying this new handle on a newer prevost model and several upgraded XLIIs here at prevost that the mechanism seems very stout and works well. How many of you have changed to this new handle? What kind of dollars were you looking at to do this upgrade?

[Kenneth Brewer]

I hope no one has encountered this problem on the H's?

[Jamie Bradford]

http://forum.prevostownersgroup.com/...ion&highlight=

Read this thread

PS... I called Prevost last week about another "issue" which they had originally quoted 5X ( $ 1000 vs $ 200 ) what someone else had quoted for a repair . I asked them to "check their math" and please call me back.......... I have yet to hear from them????????

[GSwaim]

Thanks for the link but I read that thread as well as three others on this forum and still don't know fully how to approach this problem. I'm not interested in all the exciting and creative antics of how to get back into my bus when the handle fails. I'm interested in hearing about how people prevented this from happening. Real details, not conjecture. I have yet to see a part number that matches the upgraded handle kit in the parts listing or hear a detailed account of the upgrade process. Am I missing something?

[garyde]

Someone in our group has replaced their handle with the upgrade. It does involve cutting out some additional metal on the door I believe. Other than that, I can't see it being very difficullt to replace.
The time may come in because you have to take the interior siding off. On some coaches that might not be easy.
I thought Prevost was covering the repair as a recall issue. Maybe not.

[Kevin Erion]

I did the upgrade, this was about 2 years ago. The parts where covered FOC and I did the labor. Bill Jenson had to approve of the freebe parts, which he did no problem, but that was 2 years ago when they also paid for all the side panels to be replaced, including paint and polish. Good luck today with that, and I would guess you won't get the parts for free now either! I know this is a very sensative subject but I own some commercial trucks and the customer is not the R&D department, whats up with the best bus ever built? Can't open the door, have to replace the sway bar bushings, a-arm bushings and this is just a few things that we are talking about at the moment! Please don't misunderstand, I like my bus but I don't drink the kool-aid. We won't go to the factory service centers becauce they rip us off, come on...700 + for an oil. filter and chassis lube! You must be joking, I am sure that this is not something that most of us don't feel, just kinda don't want to say in public because we might need some help in the future, sounds like $1000.00 to fix a problem that the mfg knows they made a bad part but we need to smile when they say, I can take care of that Mr. Prevost owner, as Jon has said in the past, we did not have the CFO send the ck in for our bus, we worked very hard to own it and the Co. needs to step up and fix the bad design problems that we now have to deal with! OK, I will step off the soap box and be quiet again, I just read some off this stuff and it makes me mad!

[HarborBus]

Well said Kevin, I'm sure there are a number of people out there that feel the same way you do.

[sawdust_128]

I hope no one has encountered this problem on the H's?

I wish I hadn't encountered it.

http://forum.prevostownersgroup.com/...lockout-issues

[sawdust_128]

Gary:

You stated "What ever happened to an ounce of prevention being worth more? I have an 02 XLII that still has it's original handle and before I'm locked out I've decided to learn what it takes to prevent this handle mechanism failure."

I don't think that you can prevent the part from failing. I think you can do something to prepare yourself in the event of a failure. I think that you can replace the original with something better and reduce the chance of a failure. I think that these doors require some attention/inspection/cleaning/lubrication on an annual basis to reduce the strain and wear that causes failures. But, I don't think that you can eliminate the possibility of a failure.

The original on my H was pot metal. It failed. The new one, the improved one, is pot metal. I am sure it will fail as well.

[grantracy]

I spoke to Prevost Jacksonville about installing mod and they had no idea what I was talking about.