8V92 Coach Purchase and Maintenance Prospects

[fasteddie313]

Yep, I'm that guy that thinks he wants to/can someday purchase and DIY maintain an old "affordable" Prevost. Ha ha what a sucker, right?
How ignorant am I, or how ignorant am I not? What really is within the bounds of reality?

Lets just say that I am confident in my abilities to come to an understanding of and work on almost any mechanical device, it is what I do, but I have no experience of working on a Prevost bus..

I have been doing some research on Prevost RVs focusing on the models with the silver 8V92, mostly forums, but their doesn't seem to be a wealth of DIY information on these at all.
Everyone just says something like "It is well worth the money to have the Prevost service center do it", which I would not argue with, and "You need a $20k budget for repairs on a new purchase".

Well, if you need to budget $50k to buy and $20k for repairs, it is what it is, but is that the whole truth?

Isn't most of the air system the same as any old truck made up of mostly standard parts? Are the airbags proprietary? The valves? The chambers?
Shouldn't the 8V92 drivetrain be common and relatively easy to maintain?

What is so especially complex about these, or is it just that the owners are mostly white collar and don't do that sort of thing?

What are the chances of actually having to rebuild an 8V92 if you do your best to buy a good one that isn't close to the end of it's service life?

I don't see much of anything about transmission work other than standard service..
Do they just never go? What are the chances of having to do major trans work and how bad is it to pull a trans on these?

What's the truth and what's the real budget to buy a 2-stroke bus and either get it to, or keep it in, serviceable condition?

I am interested in a Prevost mostly for longevity of use for the investment and future resale value compared to a "plastic" class A..
Where do you think the depreciation curve is on these? I think it's just close to right where I like them isn't it?

Compared to the rest of the market, say in the $40k-$70k range, of other RVs, how do you think an 8V92 Prevost would fair as far as servicability for another 10-15 years? And service cost for that amount of time? How about some return on investment value after another 10-15 years compared to the others?

The way I'm thinking, most other RVs will be worth near zero in 10-15 years and may even start costing more to maintain than a Prevost as they fall apart, and parts become NLA..

If looking specifically at Prevosts with silver 8V92s, what other model differences are their through the years that should be considered?



Hmm.. I hit the spam filter but have no links.. Testing Testing..
I was able to post a small portion and then edit in my original message..