More Reasons to Buy a Bus Instead of a RV

all right guys thanks to doug sewell with sewell motor coach uh i've had quite an adventurous week he asked me to drive his 2019 jayco greyhawk from my shop all the way to kentucky forum which i was glad to do but why am i standing here in the middle of a rest area next to fort bridger wyoming kind of in the middle of nowhere because instead of just taking the flight out of lexington like i would planned on doing just dropping off a coach you have a good ride had a great ride good to see you good seat buddy somebody's gonna have a great time with that one you're gonna have an even better ride back on the way back he asked me if i could drive this 2002 liberty coach from his dealership to wyoming uh let me go grab the keys oh it was an exceptionally clean 2002 liberty elegant lady he wanted me to do a test drive from his shop in kentucky all the way to wyoming do a shakedown cruise of it make sure everything was good for the potential new owner and then meet the owner here in wyoming and check their trade-in and make sure their trade-in was as good as they said it was and uh i don't think anybody's gonna say no to that especially me i'm only minutes away from the new owner showing up so i don't have a lot of time to go through the entire coach with you i will try to do a tour with it but what i thought would be interesting was that the first time i've taken a prevost bus conversion across country on a trip like this and i thought i might want to point out the things that i really enjoyed about it and maybe a few things that i was surprised about but you gotta know we gotta get on the roof of this if we're never gonna see this one again right so this 2002 liberty elegant lady is on a prevost xl2 chassis so just like every other prevos it is a monocoque construction and the roof is part of the actual structure it is a metal roof for the full body of the roof itself with fiberglass front and rear caps and man this paint looks really good back here so you can see where the fiberglass rear cap meets the metal roof it is riveted down onto the framing looks pristine if you look over the side here clearance lights all look good how is this this clean for 2002 just a radio antenna for the bedroom radio this is again this one does have zippedy window awnings on it and you can see they put a uh an awning track that so the awning can be received into it but all of this is gonna be part of the bus structure itself and man that paint looks really good there's really nothing to look at up here these zip the onions are usually pretty robust they work just like a normal carefree or dometic window awning there's just a strap right there to pull it down and lock it into place i mean look at this paint it looks so good it's had to have been either kept inside or repainted now the body of the the roof back here there's really nothing to look at those are again just rivet points that would have come from prevost itself in the factory put this together if you look over on this side i'm not seeing any issues over here either oh and one thing i will point out there's no roof ac's up here so that means there's at least four extra holes that we don't have to worry about there's no condensate drain holes that are going through the roof or the ceiling because this has four cruise airs in it see this is a fantastic vent we always want to check these anything that's got a little bit of a radius to it because these do tend to crack at the bases but i don't see anything wrong with these that looks really good so that was the first opening in the roof here the sewer vent tiffin's pretty fat tiffin uses this vent too it's got a built-in siphon to it to kind of help exhaust the sewer gases out of here man this roof is so solid it's not buckling this fantastic vent not seeing an issue there so we're looking pretty good up here that's not a crack that was just a a tail from sealant man look at this paint this paint is gorgeous got another sewer vent not seeing an issue right here i don't know why somebody painted it white because it does feel like a silicone over yeah somebody just decided they needed to paint silicone white it's not doing anything these are those problematic brawn tv antennas looks like it's probably at the end of its life but it still works in the down position i'm not seeing anything wrong with it this should be the dryer vent again somebody painted the sealant so i thought it was going to be auto body seam sealer but it's more of a a silicone based sealant but i'm not seeing anything wrong with it and then this great big huge patio awning now this is a zip the air electric patio awnings these uh i would definitely recommend before you purchase a bus that has a ziptie air electric patio awning on it to either verify that it works or doesn't work and talk to the dealer to find out if they're going to fix it or not if it works it's a pretty nice little unit if it doesn't work it can be quite difficult to service it get parts for it uh and most people just go ahead and take it off and put a manual zip tiani on in its place trying to put a box awning on the top of the roof is a pretty big expense because you'll have to put the box awning on here decide if you want to put a rear patio awning on and then because it'll look weird as a hump on the top of the roof you have to add caps to the fiberglass at the front and the back and then it'll look lopsided if you just have one side like that not the other side so you have to decide if you want to put two more just put the valance panels down so most people just go for the one option that makes sense and just change that out to a manual awning this awning works just fine this is something to be aware of if we move past here we'll find the wind sensor look at that that wind sensor is intact what are the chances i don't think it's the original one based on what i'm seeing over here but it sure does look good this has been track vision from kvh it's a very obsolete satellite dish now as you can see they manufactured a custom base for it that's pretty impressive usually it should just be feet and tabs but because it's got a good uh but because the roof does have something of a crown on it they didn't want to use that well unfortunately i had to change locations here we're now in vegas get you set up on a tripod there so unfortunately the new owner showed up right as i was finishing up the roof inspection but where were we the front cap again this is the fiberglass front cap this seal i'm not even sure how vital this die core sealant is up here they did go ahead and add some to it we will walk it it is pop riveted down into the frame and prevost would have done that when it was a bus so everything looks really good there again they added paint to the sealant for some reason but as we've learned nothing sticks to silicone except silicone maybe and we'll go ahead and peer over the side clearance light is good clearance light is good windshield is not falling out gaskets are good look at this we have a pretty interesting looking cable entry port here i'm not sure i would have chose that method but i guess what works it works uh i'm going to guess gps antenna xm radio antenna i'll take a look on this side it also looks really good and this is glass it's not a fiberglass these are actually glass panels man that looks really good other than that this air horn that air horn looks good the search light actually has control spread in the dash and it works and that looks really good so there it was guys i guess i didn't note that uh some antenna has been removed at some point it might have been a cell phone antenna or cb antenna but other than that this thing looks gorgeous and wonderful condition but at any rate let's get down on the ground and talk about what's going on unfortunately the trade-in just did not work out as was planned so i went ahead and i drove the 2002 liberty elegant lady all the way here to las vegas then i get to end this trip with my daughter picking me up from las vegas this uh elegant lady is pretty dirty now and so so just got glory detailing he's gonna go ahead and clean it up for him so all that aside what did i learn about driving a bus compared to normal class a's well first and foremost is the most obvious um i drive a prius so i don't get any respect driving down the road and i get cut off quite a bit and this bus you get lots of respect either people don't know who you are and they just assume you're important or or they're they just respect the size of your vehicle and they give you lots of room probably number one reason to get a bus conversion compared to a standard class a or fiberglass production coach is that you really are basically floating down the road now i know it sounds like you don't have control but it's the opposite you're in good contact with the road you feel the road just fine the steering wheel but you don't feel the bumps it's almost like you're on a luxury passenger train uh and and you're riding like a cloud so if you're floating but you're not out of control you're completely in control uh and on that note most diesel pushers and class a gas units uh especially if you don't have a tag axle you get pushed around pretty well by both the wind and by semi trucks as you're passing them so when you're passing a semi truck you'll feel it kind of push the front end out of the way and as you're going past it you'll kind of feel the back end kind of get sucked into it and a lot of times you just feel like you're completely out of control you start acting a little bit squirrely where like you feel like the box is going down the road crooked and you don't have any control whatsoever and i never felt like i was ever out of control on this bus and that's even true on some production class a diesel pushers with a tag axle never an issue on this one so that's why probably the number one reason i would recommend the prevost bus conversion over a class a motorhome these really do ride exceptionally nice so i didn't find maneuvering to be incredibly difficult in fact it was almost like these things are meant to be maneuvered on roads really easily almost professionally that the most popular reason i get on my comments is that again this is a commercial passenger vehicle it's monocoque construction at that tubular construction which is why these things are so nice and so rugged means they are exceptionally safe in an accident so if you were to get hit head on right on or even somehow magically roll over you have a lot of protection in this that you're not going to get in most fiberglass rvs even the semi-monocoque construction of monaco's country coaches uh still a lot of foam this is a stainless steel superstructure on this you got safety so if you need one reason to be convinced i think that's probably the best reason now for me i've driven a lot of class a units both gas and diesel but my second favorite reason is that no matter the build quality of any of the production class a diesel units out there uh especially the gas units there is always squeaks and rattles they have a lot of plastic in them they have a lot of trim even a lot of that trim is put on with brad nails and there's a lot of squeaking and rattling driving down the road also driving down the road i did not have any wind noise these entry doors are big they're rugged they're heavy and they have an extra to lock on them to reduce all wind noises a lot of coaches you'll hear a lot of wind noise coming from the window here around the driver especially around the mirrors on the outside there's a lot of whistling and a lot of wind noise it's non-descript you can't ever pinpoint where the wind noise is coming from but that's not an issue on this and i think it also helps that when these bus uh when the bus shelves are converted they completely encapsulate the inside of them with the spray foam uh so that reduces a lot of noise rattles and it just makes the whole thing feel very very solid that was my favorite feature you do not get that on any class a diesel motorhome on the market that i'm that i know of but those are the reasons that i came up with for trying to convince yourself or somebody else why to get a bus conversion as opposed to a diesel pusher i'm not on the sale side of it these also do tend to hold their value a little bit more so after 20 years this thing is still worth in excess of a quarter million dollars whereas even the nicest king air out there probably won't be worth two a quarter million dollars in 20 years and if those reasons aren't enough for you there's still this one everybody loves a train whistle but those were kind of my list of things i put together about why to buy a bus conversion as opposed to a motorhome but let's go ahead and take a look at the inside of this thing really really fast because we got glory detailing cleaning up the outside of this working really hard and i don't want it to get too noisy inside come up the stairs here you'll notice the wood plank flooring that's been installed at a kind of dramatic angle what i like best about this coach is there's no slide outs and the decor for 2002 is timeless even though i think doug did say he upgraded all the cabinetry so with the new wood grain veneer on it it looks timeless like the only thing that i think probably does it a little bit is just going to be that palm tree uh fabric on the sofa but other than that wow just absolutely good choices with everything they did the passenger and the driver's seat is uh leather it is in good condition especially for 2002 the driver's seat is an air ride seat that really did make driving this even more wonderful so already you're driving on a cloud and you have a cloud on another cloud don't feel anything on that this has automatic air leveling the dash was laid out really well i like being able to control all the uh functions from the dash right there even though i'm not a big fan of power shades it was really nice being able to operate the shades from the dash like that and of course operating the four cruisers from the dash was really nice too including starting the generator again it has a really nice built up corian countertop we have a corian desk right here for the recliner that ottoman can be removed moved wherever you'd like it to be this is just going to be a printer bay down there with your all-important vcr and bose surround sound lifestyle radio it is all integrated and built in up there this is a massive almost king size and length sofa it does turn into a bed but it's a leather bottom and a fabric top again like i said all the shades are going to be power shades i'll go ahead and open those a little bit there also has a the crestron system in here now signature to liberty elegant ladies is going to be their dramatic countertops you can see the build up of that corian countertop exists here too with a really nice stone backsplash and i didn't mention this thing does have bus air and that bus air was cold and the bus air is going to come it's driven by the engine itself and it will come out of the windows front to back through those grilles all the way to the bedroom then a galley countertop right here you have a very big huge single basin sink which i do like it's very deep the one single handle faucet with a drinking faucet over there but i think liberty coaches do the countertops the best of all the bus converters there's no dishwasher here but there is a trash compactor which is something of a selling point a lot of people do like having a trash compactor and this j lounge dinette booth it's designed because there is no slide out on this side to collapse out of the way so we can just go to back and hit galley slide table and so it'll move out so when you're living in it and back in when you're driving down the road all the cabinetry has all been upgraded too to this wood grain veneer on it there's going to be one more cruise error there and another one right here the controls for there is going to be is going to be located in the control panel right here from liberty coach this is kind of how they operate these are just going to be the 110 circuit breakers make sure i have the water pump turned off those are the cruise air controllers and the monitor panels i did just dump the tanks so we're looking good there and it's not important to know but you can dump these lights on a liberty coach across from there we're going to find the two burner electric stove top this is a galgano stove and i like how they do hide the shameful convection of a microwave for some reason but it is a sharp carousel convection oven microwave sure doug already did a pretty substantial video on this coach so i'm gonna try to rush through it as fast as i can but hidden right here is the freezer so it's a two drawer subzero freezer by the freezer down below too because over here is a refrigerator and the refrigerator is a sub-zero refrigerator and one thing you don't normally see is a refrigerator drawer down below it so it's pretty rare to see on a bus conversion through here i can operate the galley door through that panel it'll open up to the bathroom which might be the coolest part of the uh the bus now you can see the stone tile carries on all the way through the bathroom area right there now you can operate the galley pocket door from here hello now it's really matte really good size corner shower here has a stone tile shower pan stone on the walls itself and then a really nice bench seat right here very substantial it's made out of corian has a little bit of a pitch on it so water doesn't so water doesn't stay on it and it also has a pitch in the shower pan right to the shower drain and we did see on the roof it does have a fantastic vent i don't think we really need to do it but it's probably about a six inch step up right here all right i'm six foot ah that was close i didn't have to duck down but of course obviously to step out i will but i did take two showers in it and there's ample room and it's a good shower the water's hot too i think what i really liked about this coach is how much closet space there is in it we have this closet right there with a closet rod here we'll see the additional closet double wardrobe in here again kind of a full length closet it does have a built-in dresser and hamper that pulls out for dirty clothes and of course speaking of dirty clothes this does have a washer and dryer and in one of the videos that doug did do he found the washer and dryer for me just the air pocket door right there they've conveniently located it behind this pocket door that's the ingenious thing of working with the floor plan without a slide out it makes you have to manage space really well look at that washer on the bottom dryer on top it's a 220 dryer so it dries really well too and then here you might get a better look at the wood grain that they went ahead and upgraded all the cabinets in this is one of the vanity sinks it has that corian countertop with a big buildup on it here a mirror right there a medicine cabinet right above and across from that i did open up the door you'll find the headhunter royal flush porcelain toilet absolutely the best toilets on the rv industry that flush is unparalleled not a macerating toilet there's no moving parts on it that just uses water pressure with a jet of water and siphon to get everything into the tank and right in here you should be able to see the bus air vent in the bathroom there too and this is almost like a quilted leather wall paneling kind of reminds me of the millennium falcon a little bit it has one more medicine cabinet in here and a third one so that's three medicine cabinets another vanity just strictly for the water closet here same countertop no backsplash in there it's just got that wood grain for a little bit of contrast right here's going to be the bedroom we'll access that through that pocket door there are no slide-outs on this bus conversion which i think is an incredible selling point because you don't have any mechanical problems no water leaks problems and with the right floor plan it's even more useful because you don't have to worry about setting up or tearing down every time you move the coach in fact if you were driving from kentucky to las vegas you just parked the coach put auto level and then you're already useful you don't have to do any sort of setup or tear down it was really nice here we'll see where the stone tile meets that wooden floor again at the dramatic angle really big windows in here did i forget to mention that big windows are an incredible selling point on the bus conversion too i mean the visibility out of all these uh these side windows you can't beat that compared to a normal rv a lot of class a gas and diesel motorhomes have very little visibility out the windows and that's not an issue with these you can actually see all the way around you especially at the front just incredible visibility driving down the road even looking behind you from the driver's seat again you can see that bus area that comes out the vents right here they did add on this window little on that on the window sill it is that corian countertop material again from the bed you can operate all the controls again which is really nice feature again if you're laying in bed and you want to turn all the lights on or off or even open up and close the pocket doors so this is what's known in the industry as a north-south bed that means the bed runs parallel to the bus itself really nice walking around area right there this bed does lift up for storage underneath it has great tv viewing perfect tv viewing now of course this tv and the front tv right there have already been upgraded to nice modern tvs with uh roku's built into them too or vanity right here that you can set up the bed and take a look at hello and even that dramatic countertop edge right there instead of going all the way across with it they dropped it down to give a little bit more useful countertop space to differentiate even these are little cubby holes that they have found space on and of course we'll get over here to my favorite part which is going to be the intercom you can look outside at the front door i told you never to call me here and the rear cruise air is going to be located the air jumps out right there through this mirrored ceiling this is a soft padded material up here and this area gets really really cool really fast remember i told you you had a lot of closet space on either side you're going to have a hanging closet space and hanging closet space again does have power shades in the bedroom [Music] a lot better much better but that was it guys i hope you enjoyed this very very quick almost uh laughable tour of this 2002 liberty elegant lady on a prevo xl2 chassis if you have any questions or any interest in it just go to schoolmotorcoach.com and doug will be happy to answer it for you i stopped to close this up so that it's safe until doug comes and picks that up but thanks a lot for watching guys and um i'm gonna go home that was an incredibly fast adventure from kentucky to wyoming so las vegas i'm kind of tired i'm kind of exhausted now this is the same jayhawk this is the same gray hawk now this is the same gray hawk that we picked this is an exceptionally clean 2002 this is an exceptionally clean this is a this isn't exceptionally clean to do a shakedown cruise uh do a shakedown tour do a shakedown cruise of it this is the first time i've driven a prevost across country or any real crowd this is the first time i've taken a prevost this is the first time i've taken a prevost coach this is the first time i've taken a that's just going to be a bedroom right that's just a better that's just a bedroom it's just an antenna for the that's just an antenna for the bedroom my my foot my most favorite reason but my most favorite reason is and especially around the uh when especially around the wood and especially around the mirror but i did run very similar to moscow so this is gonna be the um i'm exhausted

Channel: AZ Expert

Views: 155,045

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Id: mROcpTZswo0

Length: 26min 34sec (1594 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 11 2022