New member from Florida with questions

[Ray Davis]

I'll refer to this specific post http://forum.prevostownersgroup.com/...5152#post65152

[Kenneth Brewer]

Hold the phone. If that is the case, it is very unfortunate. But, I don't think the level of passion in point/counterpoint in that thread rose to the level that should cause someone to leave. I think I have had my head handed to me twice already, at least, but I undoubtedly brought it on - and learned something. Hopefully, if indeed he left as a result of the thread battle, he will cool down and come back. I think many of us have retired from a lifetime of work and the high stress and/or blood pressure it generated, but miss lighting the fuse and having it lit under us at the lunchtable or coffee pot. Come on back please, Donnie, if this development is true, so we can find something else to fight about. I don't think any comment was meant to be personal, just heartfelt based on personal experience.

[Jon Wehrenberg]

When we cannot debate a topic and make our true feelings known it will be a sad day. If everyone liked rivet coaches, with OTR and no slides and drove 62.5 MPH this would be one boring forum.

At the end of the day no matter how strongly I feel about slides, Libertys, OTR, rivets, Chinese Tires, driving speeds, etc. I still respect the folks on this forum, I like everyone and consider everyone my friend, and expect to get spanked if I cross a line. I hope the newer members who are sitting back watching this runaway freight train we call POG know and understand this is like a big family and while this bunch may argue, debate, discuss, or beat a topic to death, this bunch will stop the horseplay and get serious in a big hurry to help anyone that expressed a need for help.

This bunch also may intimidate people who have not yet seen and understood how we not only participate with one another on the forum, but we also take advantage of the friendships we developed here to get together on a spur of the moment, to visit with one another, to pick up the phone and call one another, or to help one another physically by working on someone else's coach. Because of those close relationships new members may not yet recognize there is a certain amount of ball breaking that when viewed out of context for the first time makes some of us look like nasty people and that may be intimidating. The truth is when we break someone's chops on the forum we are kidding around. (actually we are not, but we can pretend).

The only draw back to this site is if someone is not used to the discussions on the internet, and does not understand comments in the context in which they were made, because we cannot see facial expressions we sometimes fail to appreciate the intent of a post. I think Ken has said it well.

[truk4u]

When you meet face to face, all this typing fades into the background and this is what it's really like

truksheep1..jpg

Do you really think you'll get any respect here?

[Roadpilot]

I agree Ray.

[dale farley]

I certainly hope Donnie comes back on the forum. I'm for anybody that can get all the Liberty guys stirred up about anything. It gets their minds off of bashing CC.

I had 3 cruise airs in my last Marathon and all three had been replaced. I now have three 10-year old roof airs and they are all still working and have never been replaced. Cruise airs or roof airs would not be a deal breaker for me if I were purchasing another coach.

While I agree that theory and common sense tells us that 400 lbs on the roof will impact the center of gravity from a laboratory perspective, I do not agree that it makes a noticeable difference in driving a 50K bus. "Never" have I heard of anyone with roof airs or cruise airs having problems with the handling of the bus that could be directly attributed to the placement of the AC units. Theory often has to be tempered with common sense. I'm a farmer. That should be close enough to being a pilot to get in this conversation.

[Kenneth Brewer]

Here we go.

[garyde]

I thought more about this last night . If we have owners who are tallking and discussing opinions its generally accepted everyone has their own opinion and they are welcome to it. But if we have a member who makes their living working on these Coaches and someone questions their ability, opinion, expertise it may not go over so well. I could see being sensitive to someone questioning my judgement or ability when it came to how I make my living. Just a thought.

[billbunch47]

We can't afford to lose any one from these hollowed pages, especally a person with the hands on every day knowledge of a guy like Donnie. I have never had the pleasure of a face to face meeting with this guy but when the person I think knows as much as any one about our busses (Rick May) picks up the phone and calls Donnie to ask a stumping question that should tell ya'll something, the guy knows what he's telling us. Have a nice day

[Ray Davis]

So, I may be completely wrong in these calculations, but I thought it would be fun to try to calculate the change in center of gravity of a 45,000 lb coach. So, my assumptions are this.

* 45,000 coach (that is without any A/C)
* assume that CG for that would be at 4 ft (the center of the engine is roughly up that high. it's a guess at best)

* adding 1000 # of A/C on the roof (estimate 12 ft) adds a 12,000 ft-lb torque which equates to a 4.17 ft CG (a raise of 2.087 inches)
* adding 1000 # of A/C at bay height (estimate 2 ft) adds 2,000 ft-lb torque, which lowers the CG to 3.96 ft CG (a lower of 0.5 inches)

So, it seems that a change from basement A/C to roof airs would raise the CG about 2.5 inches.

Does it make a difference. I don't have a clue, but I thought the numbers might be fun.

Ray