Jeff Rowe owner of East Tennessee Luxury Coach is a former Liberty technician/manager and extremely knowledgeable. He does conversions on the converters older coaches. My understanding is that Jeff installed the wood floors and breakfast bar in our coach...excellent work!
We’ve only dealt directly with Austin Hicks. However, I believe Gil and Les and many other POG Forum contributors can better advise based on their own experiences. That said, I believe that any of the sponsors advertising on the Prevost Stuff Home page are reliable and will provide a quality product!
People liken the interior of many Liberty coaches to visiting a brothel. Having never visited such an establishment, I’ll have to take them at their word? In which case, brothels must be very impressive and beautiful inside. :-)
They do tend to have more glitz (stainless steel ceilings...which people think are mirrors; perimeter lighting around windows/under counters, etc. - which, for us, adds ambiance. Hmmm, maybe I’m more taken in by brothels than I originally realized? :-)
Fortunately for us, our coach was a Tommy Bahama themed design...so it made use of bamboo for the cabinetry. What we really appreciate is that everything has rounded edges/corners...less things to run into on a non-slide coach driving down the road.
Attached is a link to a YouTube video Austin shot a few years back of our coach’s interior...it will look even better after Olympia completes their updates - including removing the beige cloth on the valances and columns and brightening it with white fabrics.
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=...lSRb5eRyFZrKb3
FYI - Austin/Olympia also purchases a lot of Country Coaches, Marathon, Parliament, etc.
If you find yourself drawn to H3-45 Featherlites...then, I understand that Donnie Myers in Sanford, FL pretty much has cornered the resale market of that conversion. I’ve heard incredibly good things and reviews on his operations, too.
Les brings up a valid difference between Liberty and other converters. Liberty’s reliance on Cruisair air conditioners on older XL and XLII models...which are basement vs. roof mounted (roof = less expensive and, therefore, easier to replace).
That said, Olympia replaced one of our Cruisair units with a new; and rebuilt two of the remaining three units.
A big factor in our decision to purchase a Liberty Coach is their use of Over The Road (OTR) air conditioning...which is what you see on passenger (e.g., Greyhound) and tour busses - where the air vents are along the dash and down the windows throughout the bus. The advantage of this is that you don’t need to run your generator and two roof air units to maintain a cool interior.
On the plus side, by purchasing an 18-20+ year old coach...they are almost fully depreciated! However, unless you are as extremely mechanically gifted as Mike, etc. - this is why it is SO important to have your coach Zeroed out (including chassis and air/pneumatic systems) and a Level III service done. Also, verify age of batteries (replace house if older than 5-years...highly recommend Lifeline brand); DOT date stamp of every tire...Olympia replaces any tire over 3-years old.
This gets to your question about how much of the Total price is our initial purchase price, plus any added equipment costs vs. costs of Zeroing-out that Olympia is incurring. A great question!
If I had to guess...not sure whether Austin is going to realize any/much of a profit from all the work they are doing to our coach? We estimate $30-40K additional for what we have asked to be added (realize that Olympia is covering much of any added Labor cost, too). With other outside vendor costs (Inverter Services, etc.) we were able to purchase at Olympia’s cost vs. us purchasing as an individual retail customer.
We initially bought our coach in mid-August and hope to have it by end-January 2021. Or, at least in time to attend the POG Prevost Expo in West Palm Beach, FL - February 8-11, 2021.
Yes, this might seem like a long time (remember, we said they are doing a LOT of work upgrading our coach!). But, not when taking into consideration the nearly two months time lost when Olympia sold their LaVergne, TN building and moved into their new/larger facility in Murfreesboro, TN. Permitting for the building; construction of their mechanical, electrical, carpentry, Parts and Sales areas within the building took awhile. Believe they only paved their parking lot in the last week...so, most of their Inventory of coaches has been kept off-site at a new local campground where they were able to secure Power.
We told Austin all along that they could take their time...just ensure everything is being done right. Which is exactly what they have been doing for us...including sending some of the upholstery back to better match the seams; sending the coach back to the painter for a re-do - as Austin and Bobby were not satisfied with the first results and effort.
Deb and I are extremely happy with Olympia...even while we wait patiently for our coach to be done.
Then again, we’ve said that if we won the Lottery tomorrow - we’d be adopting Austin and Bobby (and their beautiful families) the next day.
Hope this helps.
Reply With Quote
Originally Posted by Joe Camper
