New Member

[cmillsap]

David,

Al Perna said it best in a recent conversation we were having about bus repairs. Paraphrasing, he said “Chuck, I was just at Parliament having some repairs done on my Wanderlodge and the place was also full of Prevosts having repairs done”. Obviously, a Prevost needs maintenance and repairs just like a Wanderlodge needs maintenance and repairs.

The availability of Prevost and Converter Service Centers across the country just makes it much more convenient to let readily available skilled & knowledgeable techs and mechanics perform the repairs for you. However, that convenience is not cheap. Having spent a lot of money and a full month’s time at Prevost and Marathon getting service and repairs done on a newly acquired Marathon XLII, I can personally attest to that.

Conversely, finding competent and available Wanderlodge repair facilities is difficult particularly in the Northern and Western states. This has been caused by the closing of the factory in Georgia and the subsequent loss of Wanderlodge service facilities nationwide. As a result, many Wanderlodge owners such as myself had to resort to learning how to repair many of the components on their Wanderlodge themselves.

As I become more familiar with the Marathon, I am realizing that there is a lot of similarity between a Wanderlodge and a Prevost, especially in the chassis components. That being said, there is a lot of difference between them also, particularly with conversion items. Some positives and some negatives. I think some of the technical items such as the Crestron and Techlink/Techlon systems are probably more trouble than they are worth and have to be fixed at a service facility. So, there is plenty on a Prevost (regardless of the conversion) that a knowledgeable Wanderlodge Guru would be familiar with and can repair without having to take their bus to a service facility.

In the month I spent at Prevost and Marathon, I was amazed at the number of Prevost owners that I met that were previous Wanderlodge owners. The common reason that most switched to Prevost was the inability to find competent and convenient service facilities for their Wanderlodge. Adding to that, most owners that were looking to trade up to a newer model found that the later Wanderlodge models M380 and M450 were even more technically complex and dissimilar to the traditional earlier models which made them more difficult to fix at home or find a service center that knew how to repair them.

So take heart all you Wanderlodge Gurus, you can easily use your knowledge to become a Prevost Guru.