8V92 Coach Purchase and Maintenance Prospects

[davidbrady]

FE,

You can go over here: https://techpub.prevostcar.com/en/manuals to get manuals. Try putting in a chassis year. For stuff that early, you may not get the exact manual for a particular bus but you can usually get something. If you can't find what you need, then go into the 90's. I doubt the chassis stuff changed much from the late 80's to the early 90's.

The B500 and the HD4000 series transmissions are good for about 300K miles. Heat is the big killer, and if you have a transmission retarder you have to be very careful to keep your temps below 250 deg F. (I personally try to keep it below 230 deg F and I change my fluid every two years). A one time run to 300 deg F and you need to dump the fluid and refill. Check with ATR Transmission about remans and pricing: https://atreman.com/transmissions/alliso...smissions/. Last I heard it was around $7500 for a transmission and around 15 hours for installation. It's always a good idea to have Allison run the codes on any bus you're considering. An Allison report can tell quite a bit about the transmission. Likewise for the Detroit Diesel. You're likely to get a DDEC III which will store codes.

(03-27-2019 13:21)fasteddie313 Wrote:  Thanks for the welcome guys!

Least complicated sounds good. The less automation and therefore crap that can break the better..

In the conversion years you're looking at you're not going to find any fancy automated house controls, programmable logic controllers, or fancy microprocessor control. I think you'll find mostly standard home style 120VAC romex.

(03-27-2019 13:21)fasteddie313 Wrote:  Is the plumbing protected enough to be usable in the winter if the coach is heated? Do they hold heat ok? Is it hard to keep the basement warm enough to keep pipes from freezing?

These bus conversions do very well in cold climates. Basements are heated with electric heat and usually a Webasto of sorts, and in some conversions Aquahot.

(03-27-2019 13:21)fasteddie313 Wrote:  Cost of rehab is proving to be the hardest aspect to research.
Things like brakes (pads-rotors/drums-calipers-chambers-valves), airbags and associated ride and leveling systems, wheel bearings, steering gear, U-joints, suspension bushings, whatever that usually needs to be fixed and is likely to need attention on an older bus..
Are these all the same in the 8V years range of busses or are their model year changes with different parts?

I don't know how often suppliers changed in the earlier bus chassis, but I do know that for my bus, which is a 2003 chassis, there were three different brake caliper suppliers. This is probably typical for any given chassis year. Prevost built the steel spaceframe chassis, all other components are off the shelf. For the years you're looking at, you'll get a stick axle up front, which is good cause it's simple and bulletproof. I once had Prevost replace my control arm rubber suspension bushings on my tag and drive axle. They removed one control arm at a time, pressed out the old bushing, started the new bushing and then swung the control arm like a bat against a table to drive in and seat the new bushing. Usually one swing is all it took. No special tools. These buses are easy to work on. Changing your own air springs, for example, can easily be done by the owner, likewise with most of the other chassis wear items.