'Dega Bound!

[Depewtee]

Hi Fellow Nuts,

I am taking my first official trip in the new-to-me 1981 Prevost.  Me and my buddies are making our annual pilgrimage to Talladega for what always proves to be a good weekend.  Last year I took the MC-9, but we are using it for something else this year so the Prevost is making the trip.  I spent much time and money in the last couple of weeks ensuring it is roadworthy (it basically sat for five years before I bought it).  I bought all new batteries (5 new 8Ds), four new tires (the steers were good and I moved two of the drives to the tag), a new refrigerator (18 cubic foot home fridge), a Xantrex Prosine 2000 inverter (temporarily hooked up, i.e., running extension cords to the fridge and television), $1,700 worth of preventative maintenance at the local diesel shop (all fluids, filters, belts, grease, lights, inspection, et cetera), and the fuel tank is topped off.  I know I have prepared the bus the best I can, but I must admit I am nervous about this first trip.  Perhaps because it is so high stakes - me and four of my buddies have spent big money for a spot in the infield and tickets.  Anybody who is going look me up, we are in the Frontrunners Club spot 263.  Wish me luck and I will report back after the trip.

Brian S.

P.S. - My CoachNet account is up to date.

[FloridaCliff]

Brian,

Best of Luck on your "Maiden" voyage.

Sounds like you have all the basic's covered.

Sit back, drive and pick up a roll of duct tape, just in case.......

Cliff

[robertglines1]

take a coat  looks like a cool one. enjoy! 39 sat morn   mid 70's afternoon high

[Busted Knuckle]

Good luck and enjoy the trip, the races and the company.
  BK 

[Van]

Have a great trip, and take some pix . the jitters will be forgotten as the miles roll by, enjoy your selves!

[Depewtee]

Hi All -

We made it back from Talladega today.  What a great weekend!  The bus ran really good and we averaged 7.2 mpg.  We only had one problem and I will troubleshoot it soon to find out the source/fix.  In short, I started the bus last night as part of my pre-trip inspection (I knew we would be leaving before 5:00 a.m. and wanted to be awake while checking all systems).  I noticed that after starting the bus the air pressure rose to 60 p.s.i. and stopped there.  I let it idle for a while longer and throttled up to 1,000 r.p.m.  I shut the bus down and listened for leaks and inspected all air lines I could see (I did learn during this inspection that the valve on top of the governor(?) was leaking a small amount of air).  I could not find anything obvious and decided to try again in the morning.  After starting the bus this morning it did the same thing - went to 60 p.s.i. and went no higher.  I revved the engine and no increase in pressure.  There was plenty of room in the infield, so I decided to release the parking brake and see what happened.  The bus began to move, so I drove carefully to the infield oval track and decided to make some laps and try to get up to speed (I know there will be plenty of naysayers here, but I was on a closed track and felt comfortable with less than optimum air pressure.  Additionally, the bus was "free rolling" so I knew the parking brakes were released.).  The air pressure quickly began to build and soon I had 90 p.s.i. (less than a minute).  I decided to drive out of the infield and into the outside parking area (my thought was that if I needed to call for service I would be on the outside of the track and accessible).  Once outside the track there was plenty of parking area/access roads to drive on.  I brought the bus up to about 35 m.p.h. and the air pressure continued to build.  It reached 105 p.s.i. and I decided to hit the highway.  I watched the air pressure gauge closely on the entire 300 mile trip home and it never fell below 105 p.s.i.  This was my first trip in the bus and I had noted on the way up the air pressure remained between 105 p.s.i. and 110 p.s.i.  I remembered it normally being between 115 p.s.i. and 120 p.s.i., but maybe that is the reading I have on my MCI.  So, any thoughts to help me start my troubleshooting.  The only thing different than normal is I tried using the factory parking/leveling valves at the track.  This system was installed by Liberty Coach (I don't think it came from Prevost this way, but maybe it did) and is mounted on the curbside of the dash.  There is an "on/off" toggle switch and three dump valves - one for the front air bags and one each for each of the rear air bags.  I do not remember where the on/off switch was originally, but we moved it from position to position - I think we have it in the "on" position now.

Anyway, here is a short video of our first morning at the track... 

P.S. - disregard the ugly mug shot, I had worked all day, drove all night, and only had about 4 hours sleep.

Talladega - First Morning

Brian S.

[Eagle Andy]

Glad you had a great trip Brian ,just a thought check your air dryer and make sure it's not leaking out the exhaust port. I had that happen to me , I held my finger on it and got the valve to close , just a guess. anyway you made it home safe and had a great time 
Nice viedo

[Van]

Nice goin! sounds like a success other than the low air situation you'll get that straightened out in short order I'm sure . CONGRATS!

   Van

[niles500]

Replace your air governor for $20 and see if that doesn't float your "boat" - HTH

[redbus]

I had the same problem in the Spring so I changed the governor and thought it fixed the problem. On a 5000 mile trip it started not building air right again so I rebuilt the air dryer and solved the problem. Like Niles said, put on a new governor first (cheap) and rebuild the dryer.