Prevost Le Mirage weight distribution

[BELMARR]

I'm in the planning stages with my 1981 Le Mirage. Are there any good resources for laying out the optimal weight distribution of holding tanks,house batteries and genset in the basement?

[buswarrior]

Count fluids as weighing 8lbs per US gallon.

Envision an equivalent weight of bums in chairs upstairs...

It really doesn't matter where, the greater goal is stuffing it in as tight as you can to maximize your free space for non-utility stuff.

happy coaching!
buswarrior

[robertglines1]

your coach was designed to haul prob 40 passengers X 250 lbs   with baggage each. aprox 10,000 lbs.  plus weight of seats removed aprox 2,000 lbs  . Tedsoldbus has a factory prevost conversion and could prob post their layout.  Toilet usually drops straight into black tank.

[luvrbus]

All the heavy components should be towards the rear those buses are front end heavy to begin with and are easy to over load the front axle.Weigh the bus then read the GVW - the empty weight from the GVW and that is what it designed to carry  and you should have a axle carrying weight on the plaque

[Tedsoldbus]

Hello BELMARR,
I can take pictures. send schematics, anything you think might help. My bus was converted from the Prevost line by Foretravel and it does make very good use of space. However, I am a "shorty". 35 feet long and no tag wheel.
\
There are a couple of guys on here with same year (ish) as your bus that are 40 and I am sure they will chime in when they see this. Perhaps a better resource for you since you have 5 more feet to play with.

I agree with front heavy. I only have 3 bay doors on each side. Left front is a the mongo sized Kubota generator. Right side is house batteries. The 200 gallon fuel tank sits between those 2 things. They also squeezed the inverter, 35 gallon propane tank and other things forward of those bay doors. There is a deck under driver seat made to carry a spare tire you access by dropping the bumper. My axle weights do not match up front. But....I guess it was made to carry all of that. But that is a lot of weight up front. Probably because I have no tag wheel in back.

My middle bay doors are pass through for storage and access to propane fill and inverter. Back bay doors are my wet bay on driver side, tool box on passenger side.

Your bus also already has some of that stuff in place.

Most layouts are Bed in the back, bathroom (and I strongly agree with Bob on have your toilet pipe drop straight down), then kitchen, then sofa/chairs etc.  Not telling you anything there you have not seen, but the trick is use of that space. Converters figure every inch of placement.

So...if you want pictures of my inside or any schematics on wiring, plumbing, how they hid wiring bundles behind window sconces so you can still access them etc, Just pm me and I'll send whatever you want. I can also do "face time" with you on the phone if that helps you look at cabinet and storage placement.
Best regards and best wishes for you as you start your journey.
Ted

[luvrbus]

The air bag locations on the early 80's Prevost require some planning,in the late 80's Prevost moved the bags outward for better handling and weight distribution.You need to do a good rust inspection on a pre 1985 Prevost you may be lucky and have solid chassis but there not are many pre 1985 left around anymore because of rust problems

[windtrader]

I'm in the planning stages with my 1981 Le Mirage. Are there any good resources for laying out the optimal weight distribution of holding tanks,house batteries and genset in the basement?

This is the layout on mine. MCI. I do not have weight for each wheel.

[RJ]

I'm in the planning stages with my 1981 Le Mirage. Are there any good resources for laying out the optimal weight distribution of holding tanks,house batteries and genset in the basement?

Belmarr -

I have a '92 40' Prevost XL, which is basically the same chassis as yours, except 11 years newer. It was converted on a new shell by marine yacht builder Vantaré in Sanford, FL (yes, it's built to USCG standards, nor RVIA.) It follows the common professional basement layouts for 40' coaches of it's era. The basement layout is as follows, starting with Bay #1 behind the front axle and working back to Bay #4 in front of the rear axle. DS = Driver's Side, CS = Curb Side

Bay #1

DS & CS - Open all the way across for storage, aka "stuff."

Bay #2

DS houses the 15kW Martin diesel genset with a squirrel cage blower for ventilation when running, taking up the entire DS half of the bay. CS is split cross-ways, with the bedroom CruiseAir's compressor/condenser unit, a 20g Rheem 120vac electric water heater taking up the rear half, with storage in the front half.

Bay #3 - the narrowest of the four

DS houses the utility bay, which includes the genset's radiator and squirrel cage blower, the fresh water intake hose reel, the Glen Denning power 50amp umbilical cord dispense/retract unit, the plumbing system's accumulator tank, as well as three water filters and the engine radiator's misting system's pump.

The CS houses the cantankerous, very-early-production AquaHot diesel-fired heating system and it's associated plumbing for cabin heat, engine pre-heat, and domestic hot water.

Bay #4

DS is the wet bay, taking up 2/3 of the space. It houses the 150g fresh, 90g grey, and 60g black tanks, the water distribution manifold, a macerator pump, a hot/cold faucet, and the tank drain valves, which exit thru the floor, using marine deck plates.

The CS has the electrical bay, with four 8D deep-cycle marine batteries, the automatic transfer switch, two inverters and some other small miscellaneous components. I should mention that ventilation holes have been cut in the bay doors on both sides, hidden by the door handles when the bay doors are closed. These vents are on Bay #4's doors only. (There's also a rack CS in the engine compartment where the factory HVAC compressor would normally sit that is set up for four additional 8D house batteries, altho I find the basic four to be adequate for my needs.)

Some other notes: The toilet sits over the black tank in Bay #4 on the DS, with the shower adjacent to the rear. The Splendide washer/dryer combo is opposite the shower, sitting basically over the drive axle and draining into the grey tank. The longest plumbing runs off the distribution manifold are to the Splendide and the galley sink. The overall longest supply water lines are from the Rheem hot water heater CS in Bay #2 back to the distribution manifold DS in Bay #4. There are two mushroom-capped roof vents, one for the grey CS, one for the black DS. Their verticals are hidden in the back of closets/cabinets.

So, as you can tell, the weight in the bays is biased toward the rear, since the drive and tag axles can easily carry the weight. The only weight up front are two CruiseAir units for the galley and front salon tucked into the spare tire compartment behind the front bumper, plus whatever "stuff" I carry in Bay #1. My coach does not have factory OTR HVAC, altho some other converters retain it.

It should also be noted that all of the bays are heated, both with 120vac ceiling mounted space heaters and small radiators from the AquaHot system. I do not have roof A/C, but three marine mini-split CruiseAir units that are also heat pumps. The AH rarely gets used, since I'm normally hooked to shore power.

FWIW & HTH. . . 

RJ

[luvrbus]

The toilet dosen't necessary need to drop straight into the tank if you can get slope on the pipe you see a lot of those mounted 3 or 4 feet from the black tank

[Jim Blackwood]

Is it true that the DL3 can hydroplane if there's not enough front axle weight?

Jim

[luvrbus]

Is it true that the DL3 can hydroplane if there's not enough front axle weight?

Jim

Don't worry about that the DL3 are heavy enough on the front axle to prevent that, with 365's on the front maybe they could

[buswarrior]

Is it true that the DL3 can hydroplane if there's not enough front axle weight?

Jim

A DL is not your friend in slush, the J even less so.

When they were running Toronto to Montreal on the line, with religious fervor, the bagage was piled up hard in the front bay in the winter time.

Snowy parking lot, both of them could be readily slid with sharp steering wheel inputs.

Some confusion, loaded in service, the DL put the front axle into questionable overload territory, hence all the utilities migrating all the way back in the J.
Empty, they are both relatively light in front, as far as balance within the vehicle is concerned.

To add to the confusion, tire width creeps up, a 315 is a bit more contact than a 12R, spreading out whatever is riding on it a little further.

Removal of the stock hvac equipment will change some of this.

For bus conversion purposes, don't be afraid to load the front, don't avoid it either.

Proper tire inflation, according to the weight the axle is carrying, is an important part of proper tire contact with the road.

Happy  coaching!
Buswarrior

[BELMARR]

Thank you for all the replies! That helps quite abit. As this progresses I'll post some pictures of the project.