Bus Road Air Cost per Year

[luvrbus]

Guys, I spoke with Steve Busskohi a friend and x neighbor of mine also one of the family that owns  Arrow Stage Lines.
Reading all the post to keep or toss out the road air I ask him if they keep records on how much maintenance and costs were with keeping the air going.
Keep in mind now these folks use buses that are no more than 5 years old then they are transferred to another division.
They  use MCI, Vanhool,Prevost and Setra here are the numbers he gave me from the shop in Phoenix per year of service

year 1 0
year 2 600.00 to 800.00
year 3 1500.00 to 2000.00
year 4  2500.00 to 5000.00 +
after year 5 ( per him) God help you  
He said the Setra S417 has the most trouble free AC followed by Prevost,MCI and Van Hool the worst.
Just food for thought guys I found it interesting year 3 and 4 would buy a lot of generator time for us        good luck

[John316]

Clifford,

We were at the "after five year" God help you, category. We sold ours .

BTW, when is the EHP coming? Thanks.

God bless,

John

[luvrbus]

John, I have it packaged and will try and go to Bullhead on Friday for shipping I wish those guys open before 10 AM at that time it is already over a 100 degrees here     

good luck

[loosenut]

Is the road air in most buses similar to car air with a compressor on the engine, condenser and fan?

[John316]

Clifford, Thanks. I thought that you guys from down there always say, "YUP, it's hot, but it is dry heat....No big deal." .

Loosenut, They operate similar, just magnify that by, oh, say 200 percent at least. Add tons more fittings, lines, bigger compressor, bigger condenser, three huge fans (in ours) that draw sixty amps each, and a major headache (for us), and you just about get the picture. Oh, yes, one more thing....Add a ton of money and you have our old system set up and "drinking" (money and power) .

All that to say, "If it is working don't mess with it." We wanted ours to work, and that is why we spend so much $$$ on it.

God bless,

John

[NJT 5573]

Wow.

Well, they likely use the air any time the unit is rolling in Phoenix. My over the road air in Seattle runs about 50-100 hours a year, even this year that's been hotter than most. I have a Thermo King unit, that's not made by a bus company. I trade with Thermo King here in Kent, Wa. and they inspect my unit and top off the referigerant every other year for $90. I have had this bus since 03, so for 6 years use I'm a little under $300.

My Eagle is well insulated and well ventilated. Anything under about 85, we are pretty comfortable using the roof vents and windows. When parked it is about the same temperature inside as it is outside in the shade. In the heat at Rickreal our bus was still comfortable without air.

We use the over the road heat alot more than the air, but its not to bad even below 30 degrees just using the defrost and drivers heat. If the coach heat is on very long someone will be yelling at me. Its still nice at the ski areas though to be able to throw alot of heat when everyone is cold.

I couldn't take mine out for no more than it costs me in the area that I live in and when I really need it, nothing else even comes close to the BTU's of the Thermo King Unit. Most of us probably will never use our over the road air in our life times as much as a bus company in Phoenix uses theirs in a year, I know that I won't.

I took the over the road stuff out of my first bus and I will never do that again, that's just what works for me.

[Nick Badame Refrig/ACC]

Hi Folks,

My personal coach.

Year 1- $250 for a used condencer fan motor.
Year 2- .30 cents for a "O" ring and $80.00 worth of R-134A
Year 3- $0
Year 4- $0
Year 5- $45 worth of R-134A to top off.

Hummmm? Goes to show you how much less wear we assume as private owners.
Nick-

[belfert]

Nick, you also have no labor costs.

[MattC]

And, gee Nick, what do you do for a living? 

I'd bet your OTR got a excellent rebuild and receives expert service on a regular basis. If nothing else you know all the tricks to keep them happy and running about which an average Joe has no clue. 

But I won't argue with the hours on the road compared to a coach line like Arrow.  That definitely had a LOT to do with the maintenance numbers. 

[Nick Badame Refrig/ACC]

Nick, you also have no labor costs.

Hi Brian,

Neither would you. Don't most of us do most things ourselves?

Hay, you guy's have a guy on this board that likes to help out with HVAC systems for free... Take it for what it's worth.

I don't think I have ever charged $$ to anyone on this BBS for guidence.


Nick-

[Nick Badame Refrig/ACC]

And, gee Nick, what do you do for a living? 

I'd bet your OTR got a excellent rebuild and receives expert service on a regular basis. If nothing else you know all the tricks to keep them happy and running about which an average Joe has no clue. 

Hi Matt,

I did list everything I have done to my system..

Nick-

[Busted Knuckle]

Well I see it costs more in AZ than it does in TN to maintain A/C. Of course Arrow's bus are out on the road day after day and in HOT climates too!
Our coaches probably see 25%-50% of Arrows use time and of that the A/C time is probably 70% so our A/C systems might see 25% of the used time that Arrow's do!
I agree with the run down as far as;
SETRA having the BEST A/C (yes S417's are better than 215 & 217's both they all are great)
Prevost is close behind, but when a prevost has problems just write 3 blank checks (it'll cover it!)
MCI is not as efficient as either SETRA or Prevost but cheaper to repair!
Van Hool if it works great! If it don't work bend over and leave the check book behind you!

  BK 






.

[cody]

We use the fans on our a/c units to grind up mosquito's.

[belfert]

Nick, you also have no labor costs.

Neither would you. Don't most of us do most things ourselves?

You have the tools and expertise to do the work.  A lot of us don't even with help and we end up paying for someone to fix our A/C systems.

I'm a computer guy.  If I need additional help with a computer problem I will call support for help.  I will understand the lingo the support guy uses and have no problem getting the issue resolved in most cases.  Now, if I called someone for help with A/C I would have no idea what he is talking about for the most part and be really confused.

I have no over the road A/C in my bus because it would have been big bucks to get it working.  All of the condensor motors were shot which had caused the system to overpressurize at some point and it blew all the R134A out of the system.

Trying to do some stuff myself has ended up costing me big bucks in the long run.

[lostagain]

We've had a pesky slow leak in our hockey team's bus A/C, MCI 102A3, and it has cost about $1000 a year to keep up the last 3, 4 years.

I took it to Esquimo Refrigeration in Calgary this spring, and they seem to have fixed right this time. So hopefully, it will be good for a while.

You can't beat the OEM A/C in a bus for getting it cold, but it can be expensive to maintain.

JC