OTR - Prevost Nashville

[Coloradobus]

Neal and Carla, Whoa, cool your jets and seek out dry cheerios!!.

We went to Prevost and Nashville for a couple reasons. One, of course was to get the OTR sorted. We visited the Wehrenbergs for their hospitality and friendship. Thanks to Jon and Di, we have a greater understanding of the Great Smokies area. We are big boys and deal with our repairs. We could have replaced the seal ourselves providing we had the RoBinAir machine to evacuate what Freon R-12 was still in the system and the nitrogen to charge the system to 250 psi for the leak check. and the RobinAir machine to add the new freon R-12 after pulling a vaccuum to remove the nitrogen and anything else in the system once the clutch pulley seal was renewed.. We could have done all this when we got home and gone to the shop we use.. But we didn't, nor did we have the time to do the repair if we had all the equpment. We weren't carting around enough spare change to go to Harbor Frieight and buy it, the best option was Prevost. We do service visits at Prevost Ca several times a year. Sure, I could change our oil, or tranny fluid at home, but what DO you DO with the used fluids. AutoZone frowns upon a customer bringing in 10 gallons of oil from a Change all at the same time.. I know, I tried once.

We have had 3 Prevost Conversions equipped with Cruise Airs and one with rooftops. Our first bus was a 2001 Country Coach XL 45 ('99 Shell) with slides had 4 rooftop units. We had no qualms about roof airs! They certainly are easier and less costly to replace or repair. The CC had rooftops, and the next coach had Cruise Airs, later on personally we just like them. We don't require under bay storage where we could transport the contents of the Biltmore.

My biggest gripe that precipated this thread was the fact having made the appoinment 6 days in advance of our arrival and Nashville falling short., During my call I had indicated that our coach had an R-12 Freon system on board, and I was assured Nashville had enough R-12, (24 pounds) to completely refill our system once deemed leak-free. Between my appointment call (7-25-2011) and our arrival (Aug 1st), the R-12 they had instock was used for someone elses needs, with no re-order for us. That's what this was about, nothing more.
Mostlly, reading all these threads is time consuming yet informative, so much so most of us have gleaned information, whether we do the work ourselves or not for whatever the reason, time, location, available equipment etc, we have knowledge to intelligently watch our coach's backside..
No one is bashing one converter over another, it has been in jest in the past. Just ask Fast Roger. Heck, if you want, pm me and I will tell you a hair-rasing story about our XLII!!..and it wasn't a Country Coach!! Every bus out there has its issues whether someone is wililng to admit it. Man built the bus, and the bus will break!!

The newest Prevost techmology is a tremendous step forward to aiding the owner/driver's knowledge of the bus. Being informed is the most important thing when it comes to the operation and maintenance and safety of our coaches. The new Multi-plex system does just that, it INFORMS.
Some on this forum who are great people and great friends enjoy working on their busses exclusively. We do some, but the really big stuff we hire out. Its about pacticality and efficientcy, and having this resource to float a quesiton about a particular item of interest.

As memtioned, we have gone to other Prevost service centers with glowing results. But I feel the point to be made, there are other service operations that work on Prevosts who are competitive to Prevost and dont require a special 1000 mile trip to get to them. If our OTR issue had cropped up before we took our trip, I would have dealt with it locally.
In our case, we drive 12 miles to Stewart and Stevenson. I just bet someone out there has an "S and S" horror story. None are perfect, we were caught with our guard down, and didn't ask the necessary questions to CYA when we had our appointment.
We were hot, and were hoping for "instant cool" altho the final outcome with R-12 if Prevost had it, would have been very spendy after the appointment. It was a lesson learned.
By the way Prevost did right by us when the bill arrived yesterday.