Periodically Exercising the Bus

[cmillsap]

(04-15-2017 13:05)davidbrady Wrote:  Guys,

What are your opinions on long term parking and periodic exercising of the bus? I've always shot for every 30 days by scheduling in three week intervals knowing that my schedule is bound to slip a bit. Seems like a great way to keep the upper end lubed and the transmission seals in good shape. With a retarder it takes no time to warm up the transmission fluid. My route is about 60 miles and takes an hour. What's your approach?

David,

I just try to use the bus periodically. We use it about 4 times during the winter months on short trips and live in it during the summer months. I do exercise the drive train to some degree while it sits in the garage. My suspension drops to the bump stops in about two weeks so I crank the engine and let it run for 20 or so minutes to allow the bus to rise back to road height and cause the air dryer to spit a few times. The tranny get warmed up in the process. Low humidity here, so no problem with moisture in the engine or air system. I keep an on-board smart charger running on the chassis batteries while the bus sits. I also check the tire pressures occasionally to make sure they stay fully inflated as the bus sits. I think it takes a considerably longer period of time than a month for the seals and rubber components to dry out and deteriorate.

I exercise the house related items periodically such as operating the water pumps, flushing the toilet, operating the air doors, running the ACs and TVs just to exercise the Techlink & Crestron by operating some of the items they control.

This seems to work for me.

We all love our Prevosts and try to keep them in tip-top running condition but sometimes I think we just baby them too much. They aren’t that much different than a car or truck. My F150 sits for months on end while we are on our summer trips and it doesn’t seem to hurt it.