Liberty Coach Co.

[Imre]

Jon,

There has to be a grinch

I find your technical posts to be really good and they are absolutely helpful. I only attack the posts that are preaching in nature and judgemental without much basis. And since you seem to be the driving force behind this forum, I am especially sensitive when you start to mix the BS into your posts!

BTW, I do all the work on my bus (and fully intend to change airbags myself when the time comes, maybe not with 2 bottle jacks but one and some wooden blocks . My post was not about pitting "us poor folks" against the "rich" but to establish a common baseline among companies and to qualify the advice intended for a person that is specifically looking at the current state of affairs.

As far as friendship is concerned, I don't care much about being friends with you. It is more important for me to have a technically useful forum with variety and IMHO your preaching just intimidates people. So, I am perfectly fine to be the grinch

[glen schapansky]

About six months ago my dreadful sickness came back of motorhomeidiss and i needed a fix. I went through the first stages of justification and got through that in reasonable short order. After that, the reasearch started and in about one hour i decided that i must of been a bus diriver in my prior life and was drawn to the Prevost. I first looked at used conversions and quickly decided the smell of new really helped me feel better. So, i started looking at a few of the conversion companies and concluded quickly that they all had some real nice things that they offered that others didn't and also they had things i really did not like. I realized that the perfect Prevost conversion company has not been created yet!

I am getting ready to write a big fat check and i just wanted to question all you guys and girls out there to anything i need to know about Liberty that would change my mind?

In all fairness, I thank the dealers in advance not to comment.

Just can't say enough about the find folks @ Liberty. Just a couple of weeks ago I purchased a coach down in Stuart. We have been getting it ready for the ride home back to Alberta over the telephone with all the little things that needed to be done.They all want to help a guy out. This being our first coach & would buy again from Liberty.Great People

[rfoster]

Very interesting group indeed. People are recommending the $1.9M new coaches to clueless buyers while themselves driving 10 year old buses and being proud of single handedly changing $200 air bags with double bottle jacks! What is the definition of a hypocrite

What a dumba$$ remark. I have read and reread and I don't see anyone recommending a $1.9 million coach to Mr. Muller or anyone else for that matter. I think your signature should be changed to IRREVELANT as that is the way I view your post. It appears you are mistaken as the coaches I generally look at are in the are of 300,000 to 900.000, but regardless of that I am sure no one is going to take my word for it, even if it was 10,000 they will look, study, analyze, wring their hands, squint their beaty little eyes and be paranoid about the price and the purchase. In addition I don't use double bottle jacks, I use air assisted hydraulic jacks to raise my coach and I am damm proud of changing my air bags. Let there be no doubt that I changed them because I wanted to and not cause I couldn't afford to pay lewbucks to do it. I, as Mango wear it as a badge of honor. With that attitude in mind, I don't need your freindship either.

Peter - get your aquaintance into POG and as you know we will be glad to help in any way possible.

[MangoMike]

Glen,

Welcome to POG - regardless of what you drive.

Please keep us posted as to your escapades and adventures with your new bus.


Mike

[dreadnought]

Somehow my password got ****ed up & I could not log in for awhile. I got a new one so I could stick my .02 in.
As Yall know I bought an 05 Liberty back in October. We looked at everything out there before deciding on Liberty. We narrowed it down to Liberty and Marathon because they are the 2 biggest converters and we felt either company would be around for the long haul for service and this would protect the coaches value. We could have bought a brand new Thompson for less than the 2 year old Liberty and I think Thompson makes a gorgeous coach. If I'd had the money to write the check I might have gone that route. We're not poor, I guess you'd call us "working wealthy," so we borrowed the money and took the plunge. One thing that made me feel good about Liberty was their statement, "when you're through with this coach, we want it back. We build every coach with the intention of selling it 5 times over the course of it's life." It feels good to know that if we need to bail, a phone call would take care of it. I'm sure that as the worlds largest converter Marathon would be the same.
We wound up with Liberty because when we saw our coach we knew it was "IT." Liberty and Marathon are at the top of their field, they know it, and you freaking well pay for it.

[kmuller]

Guys..... a while back there was discussion about rules on the forum. Years ago I ran across some "rules" written by a bunch of old Pennsylvania Dutch men as it pertained to their hunting camp. It simply said " All members must deport themselves in a gentlemanly manner with the due regard to the pleasures and rights of others". They were and are wise words.

With that said, every decision has it's risk/reward that needs to be individually balanced. If we took the cost of a bus, new or used, annual maintenance, insurance, storage etc and divided by days used, we would all qualify to be institutionalized. The fact that we all don't live in double-wides and drive ten year old cars says there is more to life then being rational. Own or rent a RV lot, buy a new or ten year old bus, work on it yourself or have it serviced......these are choices that drive the free market. So let's just drive what we like, work on it ourselves or not, park where we want and enjoy our diversity of choice.

[Imre]

Mr. Roger That!

Let me translate my sentence for you:

People are recommending the $1.9M new coaches to clueless buyers while themselves driving 10 year old buses and being proud of single handedly changing $200 air bags with double bottle jacks! (

You are recommending someone to buy a new Liberty coach (lists for $1.9M) not because you are aware of its current technical features (the only thing that would differentiate it from the competition) but because you own one that was designed and built 10 years ago with different components by different people. And you recommend the excellent service to the prospective buyer while you are proudly blabing to everyone that you yourself repair everything on your coach. Repairs as cheap as a $200 airbag replacement and as involved as an airbag replacement on a 50,000 pound coach. And you do that while disregarding the most elementary mechanic's rules, that is you use bottle jacks (double, that is 2) to hold the bus up (bottle jacks were designed for lifting and not holding). So what is the value of that advice?

Roger that?

[Petervs]

Hello All,

Well, this thread sure got a fire lit under it after my post this morning. A couple of comments:

1. Jon, Yes a coach is complex, but in terms of getting things worked on, my house is not in the same league. Things cost less to get done, there are people all over that can do it, and rarely is much needed. OK, so every so often you decide to replace the carpet and it costs more than a coach, but geez, we are talking 3000 feet of carpet for my house and only 300 for the coach.

As for working on my plane, well I do it all myself because it is such a pain to take it anywhere and have it done right. But that is just me and I live on the airport so it is pretty easy for me. Plus, installing a new 300 hp engine at 300 pounds is simple compared to installing a 3500 pound Series 60 in a bus. And avgas smells so much better than diesel on your hands.

2. Jon, as for the proprietary information, I have had some questions of Marathon that were wiring related, and they were immediately answered by them giving me a photocopy of the diagram for the item in question from the build book of MY coach. They do not hand out the whole book, but they are perfectly willing to give me the portion that will solve my problem. Liberty does not do that, according to my friend Brian.

3. Sure, each converter copies the good ideas of the others. If the ideas are really special they can patent them. Some systems are complicated enough that you can only justify the engineering if you can amortize it over a larger number of coaches which would limit those things to the bigger converters. Marathon's Tech Link is an example of that.

4. I have not changed any air bags yet, but I have changed a windshield, door seal, some electronics, house batteries and a host of smaller repairs. After 5 years my Marathon has not needed much else. Yes I could hire it done. Yes I have fun doing it myself. Yes, the POG group helps guide the process so you can decide if you want to tackle it yourself or get professional help.

5. Mango Mike, please do not start suggesting that Poggers ask the wives about their husbands. We do not want this site to devolve into some kind of cross between Oprah and Jerry Springer!

6. Friendship among the group is important. If someone feels alienated they will simply stop contributing and that helps no one. Besides, the fun of the get togethers ( Santa Fe, Kerrville) would be nowhere without the friendships. Now, that does not mean we should not rib each other as much as possible!

7. RFOSTER, you mentioned I should get my acquaintance into POG. Actually, he is a member and he got me into it. He has been working on his Liberty so hard for the past 8 weeks trying to get it ready for a long trip that he has apparently not had time to post lately. Now, my Marathon sits in the garage and all we do is add food and off we go. With Liberty coaches it seems to require more polishing, dirt removal from the wheel wells, and general bling elbow grease.

8. Which brings me to my last question for this post. What is the story on the POG membership. Most names are listed as "Senior Member", and some are listed as just " Member" or "Junior Member". When I joined, without having to show my AARP card (Which I do not have!) or anything else, I was instantly a Senior Member. What's up with that?

If we are to have more than one 'rank', maybe we should get some better choices like GeneralAdmiralissimo, WagonMaster, SuperMechanic, MultiBusOwner or some such.

Peter VS
94 Marathon XLV

[Jon Wehrenberg]

"There has to be a grinch "

That is Lew, and Harry is his backup. Until they give up their posts it ain't you.

"And since you seem to be the driving force behind this forum, I am especially sensitive when you start to mix the BS into your posts!
"

This is a two-parter. Everybody is the driving force behind this forum, and it exists and is successful because everybody contributes. Its originators created this device to allow those of us with common interests to come together and share our opinions, experiences and common interests.

As far as mixing BS in my posts, I will make no secret about my high regard for Liberty, or more precisely the folks at Liberty. I doubt if there is a soul on this forum that does not read my remarks as biased. With a single exception however, I also have never said anything contrary to the interests of any other converter, and in fact have made numerous comments of a highly complimentary nature about most converters. I feel entitled to express my opinions and you are equally entitled. I do not feel entitled however to characterize someone's opinions as BS. As JDUB would say, that is way harsh.

"As far as friendship is concerned, I don't care much about being friends with you. "

Thank you.

"It is more important for me to have a technically useful forum with variety and IMHO your preaching just intimidates people. "

Do us both a favor and don't read my posts. I'll stop reading yours.

[MangoMike]

Point of clarification:

Roger's and I double bottle jack use is always backed up by wood blocking.

Mike