Not just Americans getting heavy --- but, busses too!

[Brian Diehl]

Read the article in my February 2008 Family Motor Coaching where they review a Featherlite Vantare H3-45 Conversion with the "gucci" interior.  I can hardly believe how heavy that rig is!  The wet weight is listed as 53,200 lbs!      My bus right now weighs around 30,000 lbs and when empty (pre-conversion) it weighed 26,000 lbs.  So, this 45' Prevost conversion is the equivalent of two of my busses empty combined!  No wonder they need a 14liter 515hp S60 to push it around.  Wonder what kind of mileage it would get if it were to weigh in at a more "featherlite" weight?

[Busted Knuckle]

Read the article in my February 2008 Family Motor Coaching where they review a Featherlite Vantare H3-45 Conversion with the "gucci" interior.  I can hardly believe how heavy that rig is!  The wet weight is listed as 53,200 lbs!      My bus right now weighs around 30,000 lbs and when empty (pre-conversion) it weighed 26,000 lbs.  So, this 45' Prevost conversion is the equivalent of two of my busses empty combined!  No wonder they need a 14liter 515hp S60 to push it around.  Wonder what kind of mileage it would get if it were to weigh in at a more "featherlite" weight?

Brian excellent point, and even better question!
  BK 

[TomC]

My 40ft conversion with full water, provisions, my wife and I on board added 3,000lb.  Even a 45 ft'r maybe 3,500lb.  Then what about the cost.  The 45 ft Prevost bus conversion shell is about $400,000.  That motorhome is just over $1.7 million!  How can you install $1.3 million into a 45 ft space?  If I had 1.7 million to play with, I certainly would not spend it on a motorhome.  Instead, I'd buy a limo, hire a limo driver, and stay at all the best 5 star hotels- and that on just the interest on 1.7 million.  But-- to each their own.  Good Luck, TomC

[makemineatwostroke]

Brian the Newell is about the same weight and with the C 15 625 hp it gets about 5 to 5.5 average


TomC your are right they can not put that kind of money into a conversion that is the reason if you offer 1 million you get handcuffed to a chair till the bank clears your check

[tekebird]

not hard to add weight.

keep in mind these things use marble and granite and generally are built well in excess of your average home conversion.

I also don;t know many home convertes that are throughing 15kw gensets, etc etc.

my Custom Coach converted MC-8 is fairly close to GVW

[HighTechRedneck]

Got to figure, 45 feet x 102in.  2 large slideouts.  230 gallon fuel tank.  171 gallon fresh water.   (I question the logic of combined waste tanks less than fresh though.  Although I doubt anybody with a $1.7M rig stays anywhere they don't have full hookups.    And as Tekebird pointed out marble/granite and a huge genset and probably a similarly huge house battery array.

Interesting disagreement in the article:

With full water and full fuel, the coach weighed 35,720 pounds at a certified scale, which means it had a remaining cargo carrying capacity of 1,280 pounds.

WET WEIGHT AS TESTED
front axle — 17,500 pounds
rear and tag axles — 35,720 pounds
total — 53,220 pounds
(weighed with full fresh water, fuel tanks)

And one more thing that sparks my curiousity.  How does a toilet with no moving parts work?  It would seem to me that something has to open, close, actuate water/air/vacuum or something.  Otherwise, something ain't going nowhere.  I'm sure I'm missing something there, but I just can't picture how it would work with "no moving parts".

[Len Silva]

That was one of the reasons I looked at buses in the first place.  At least back in the '80s, most of the motor homes on the market were overloaded when they left the factory.

When you start adding ceramic tile and granite counters, it drives the weight way up.  Then you have to add more fuel capacity to get the same range which adds still more weight.

I was recently looking at a motor home buying guide and the Winnebagos and Pace Arrows had a greater carrying capacity than a 45' Bluebird.

Personally, I like driving at 60-70% of GVWR, not maxed out all the time.

Len

[buswarrior]

Lots of power means less engineering.

As seen: bus weights, computer programming, etc, all more wasteful than in earlier times when the available power was slim.

Some commentary about good enough versus best versus profit in here somewhere...

happy coaching!
buswarrior

[Stan]

Did you notice that "Featherlite" coach has 365mm (14.5") tires just to stay legal on the road?

[H3Jim]

My H3-41 weighs in a little over 39,000 lbs, and I am mostly converted.  The GVW is a little over 52,000. I can tell performance and fuel mileage have dropped as I add more weight. The 41 ft has the same axles and capacity as the 45 ft of the same year.

Its nice to have some room between the converted weight and the GVW, as someone already pointed out, one reason to buy a bus in the first place.

[PP]

Do I detect a little envy in this thread. I think it speaks volumes for an individual with unlimited funds or excessive credit to spend it on a bus instead of the farm. That's a true busnut in my opinion, which like a-holes, everyone has one LOL

[Busted Knuckle]

My 40ft conversion with full water, provisions, my wife and I on board added 3,000lb.  Even a 45 ft'r maybe 3,500lb.  Then what about the cost.  The 45 ft Prevost bus conversion shell is about $400,000.  That motorhome is just over $1.7 million!  How can you install $1.3 million into a 45 ft space?  If I had 1.7 million to play with, I certainly would not spend it on a motorhome.  Instead, I'd buy a limo, hire a limo driver, and stay at all the best 5 star hotels- and that on just the interest on 1.7 million.  But-- to each their own.  Good Luck, TomC

It's all about bragging rights! LOL!
  BK 

[belfert]

I recall reading that article and not believing a converted Prevost would weigh only 35,720 pounds and have less than a ton of cargo capacity.  It is now clear that the author used the rear axle weight and forgot to add in the front axle.

My 43 foot bus weighed right at 36,000 lbs on the way home with 8 pairs of seats still in the bus.  I removed somewhere around 2,000 to 2,500 pounds of stuff based on weight tickets from the scrap yard and the transfer station.  I am guessing I have added back in close to 3,000 lbs of weight.  I have not had the bus reweighed yet as I need to find a public scale near home.  Weighing at a truck stop on a trip wouldn't help due to all the stuff we put in the bays for a trip.

[Lin]

I would guess that most here remember the old story about J.P. Morgan, but I will summarize it just in case.  One day a guest aboard Morgan's yacht liked it so much that he said to Morgan that it was wonderful, he would like to have one, and asked how much it costs to maintain.  Morgan's answer was the famous, "If you can ask that question, you can't afford it."  I think that these buses are in that category along with Morgan's yacht.  Of course, there is no financial sense to them.  It only takes a limited amount of money to live very comfortably.  When you have a lot more than that, it no longer makes sense to make sense.  Most just spend it where desire leads.

[HighTechRedneck]

Weighing at a truck stop on a trip wouldn't help due to all the stuff we put in the bays for a trip.

That might be the better weight to know since it would reflect the most important weight to know - the total weight while in typical use.