Sway Bar Bushings

[Jon Wehrenberg]

Gary,

The last times I was in a Prevost shop they did not prohibit anyone from watching the mechanic. I have been in the NJ, FL, and the TN shops and all allowed the customer to watch the work.

The only time they prevented owners from being in the shop was in 1994 or 1995 when Prevost moved from the old shop on Wilson in Jacksonville to the present one. As soon as I was prevented from being with my coach to observe the mechanic I decided to never again allow that to happen and from that point on I have done my own work.

They have since changed that policy. BTW It drives me nuts when people claim they cannot allow anyone in the shop for "insurance" reasons. What a bunch of bullshit and lies that is.

[travelite]

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BTW It drives me nuts when people claim they cannot allow anyone in the shop for "insurance" reasons. What a bunch of bullshit and lies that is.

Jon, please explain. If a customer happens to fall into a pit there can be some serious liability...

[truk4u]

I have never been unable to be involved with the maintenance at Jacksonville or Nashville and Nancy has never left the bus while it's up on the lift with shore power connected. I think they do a fantastic job of allowing customers to watch and learn. You do have to use common sense and not drive them nut's. I set a chair up just outside the service bay door and stay out of the way, but they always allow you to look at work being done and interact where needed.

[Jon Wehrenberg]

David, life is a risk. I have owned a number of shops ranging from a precast concrete facility with bridge cranes to my last one a 165,000 square foot facility with presses up to 300 ton and many fork trucks, finishing facilities, lots of welders and all kinds of hazards to the careless. Not a single insurance policy forbid me from allowing visitors in our buildings, either customers, sales reps, or any other invited guest.

As a policy we did not allow people to just go in the shop and wander around (unless they had to be in the shop such as servicing a machine) unaccompanied. Prevost is no different. I will guarantee you 100% of the people who have told me they don't let people in the shop for insurance purposes have never seen a policy much less read one.

[GSwaim]

Settin at Prevost, Nashville waiting till the morning when they are going to install new Sway Bar bushings. I'm going to go with the OEM rubber style instead of Neoprene unloess someone can tell me that the plastci are better than rubber. I had plastic but they crumbled and fell out. Unfortunately I have no idea how old they were but the bus is an 02 with 65K miles. Anyone have experience with rubber vs Neoprene?

[Jerry Winchester]

I'll be curious to see how this goes. In doing my walk around the bus on Friday before we left for Dallas, I noticed that the right front tire had some serious abnormal wear on the outer edge. I got to Dallas late Friday but had the bus over to a tire shop on Saturday where I discover that it appears the sway bar bushings are shot as well as the upper control arm bushings which may have caused the wear because of too much camber.

So now I get to replace them all, buy a new tire and have the front end alligned. I thought I had heard the sway bar rattle, but didn't think the bushings would be shot at 80K miles.

[Kevin Erion]

Jerry, it's my opinion that the sway bar will not effect the tire wear but the A-arm bushings will. Sway bar bushings are easy, the other is not!

[jack14r]

Jerry,I would think that when the upper a arm bushings are replaced that the camber will be correct.

[BrianE]

When camber adjustment is needed, shims are installed between the A arm and frame on the mounting bolts.

[Orren Zook]

Settin at Prevost, Nashville waiting till the morning when they are going to install new Sway Bar bushings. I'm going to go with the OEM rubber style instead of Neoprene unloess someone can tell me that the plastci are better than rubber. I had plastic but they crumbled and fell out. Unfortunately I have no idea how old they were but the bus is an 02 with 65K miles. Anyone have experience with rubber vs Neoprene?

Neoprene is a synthetic rubber developed by DuPont back in the 1930's. Most "rubber" bushings used in suspension applications are of this type material, polyurethane replacements have been giving better service life in truck applications, but at a slightly higher initial cost.