Hello all,
just joined up and thought we would say hello. Our story is that we are in our 40's and have always enjoyed camping and after years of tenting / off roading we bought a 5th wheel in 95 and have enjoyed using it since (other than living in it full time for two years while building a house), we had no electricity at that point so put a bunch of solar on the roof and an inverter a four big trojan batteries and did what we had to.
Soooo we decided to up grade to a coach, and after looking at all the plastic ones, then one day looking at a used Marathon, came to the conclusion that we would rather own the latter and the search was on.
Got a lesson in Prevost 101 from Steve at California Coach Company in Costa Mesa Ca, and if you ever have a chance to do business with them, I think you will be pleased as both he and his wife are good people and square shooters. We almost bought a coach from them, but needed to do a bit more research and wasn't quite sure it was good timing at that point.
Kept looking at ads and what not and keeping track of what Steve had in stock. Ended up flying to Bellingham Wa to look at a 45' 98, and then to Newnan Ga to look at a 96 40' Marathon.
Ended up pulling the trigger on the 96, and got a real lesson in driving it from Ga to Ca, with a stop in Dallas at Marathon to get some issues with the Webasto and a few other things worked out.
I will be taking it to Prevost Mira Loma this weekend for an inspection of the engine/trans chassis etc and hopefully clear up some coolant leaks etc.
All in all I really like the bus, it was garaged and kept in great shape from what I could tell. I made a stop at a friend's house in NM on the way home, and when he pulled up his comment was "wow, got a 2007 eh"?
At any rate that is the short story of our Marathon quest so far. I am sure I will have lots of dopey questions, but from what I have read so far, this looks like a friendly bunch to chat with.
To whomever runs this operation, thanks for your hard work, I know these things can be time consuming at best and be a real pain at worst.
Thanks for your help in advance.