Out 'n About in Mr. SquarePants

[davidbrady]

We've been traveling in Mr SquarePants for the past month. First a trip to Harrisburg Pa, then a little sightseeing in Nasheville TN, followed by a Prevost Service in Goodlettesville, TN. All's well! The family has really grown into this new bus. Sleeping's a cinch, everyone's discovered their favorite cubbyholes, and try as she might, Suzana has yet to overflow the basement storage. Ha! LOL!

So far this year I've driven 6000 miles. I'm still learning, and probably will be for quite some time, but I've really gotten to know this machine. I thought I'd give you an update on what I've learned so far.

First, backing up took some getting used to. It's not like a BB where you can hang your head out the captain's window, not unless your head is smaller than my 4"x6" toll booth window! So I've had to relearn backing up with only sideview mirrors and my review camera. I got it down now, but it was dicey in the beginning. The bus is longer, but it has a shorter rear overhang, and it turns sharper, so I've really gotten the hang of placing the rear axle, judging the overhang, and cranking the steer tires. SpongeBob has a liftable tag via an air bag linkage. This feature really tightens up the turning radius. It's also very fast, as quick as I can throw the lever, the tag is up. Well it's not really up, just unloaded. If the bus wasn't close to 35,000 lbs on the drive/tag it would be up!

There are no leveling jacks on SpongeBob; instead, I rely on Prevost's Level-Lo feature which is a fancy word for air leveling. I can use Level-Lo to automatically level the bus, or I can do it manually. This feature also allows me to raise or lower any portion of the bus to clear obstacles. It works well and it eliminates a piece of complexity. Typically I pull into a CG and while the engine's running on fast idle I put Level-Lo in automatic mode and within a few seconds the bus is level and ready for slideout deployment.

The slides on SpongeBob are non-structural. It's interesting that the first generation of Prevost slides were structural. (Many of you have probably seen the six large diameter locking pins, three on each side. Prevost tried that setup for maybe 3 generations of slides but you'll notice that as of the '07 chassis they went to a non-structural slide with a single locking pin mounted at the center and bottom of the slide body. They also modified the chassis structure to restore strength. Featherlite Vantare adopted the non-structural slides from the very beginning. I have two locking pins at the top and a huge amount of steel (beams) in the sidewall and basement to restore strength. I have no pressurized air seals; instead, I have bulb style compression seals, which eliminate another source of complexity. I couldn't be happier with my slideout design and implementation - smooth, quiet, dry, and reliable operation.

The dual Trace SW (4KW, pure sinewave) inverters provide all the power to the coach, even when plugged into shore or generator power. Everything comes thru the SW's. There are no additional transfer switches or contactors upstream or downstream. Yet another source of complexity eliminated. The SW's incorporate an automatic generator start feature. No third party GenCon overseeing battery voltage and genny start. (another source of complexity eliminated). There's no battery dedicated to start the generator. I have a switch that allows me to connect the starter to either the house batteries or the chassis batteries. I have eight 4D AGM's and am pleased with their performance. Without Cruisair's running, but with ordinary use of all other systems including my 120VAC Jenn Air residential refrigerator, I can go 60 hours before the generator automatically starts.

My slideout's are electric motor driven as are the lock pins. My toilet is by Headhunter and is macerating via a jet of water, no air power. Pocket doors are electric motor driven. Dump valves are electric. I have an air accessory system but the only house items on it are the captain's air seat, a lock for the telescoping and swiveling steering wheel, and a slide out floor for the entry way. There's no entryway air door lock. My accessory air pressure system stays pressurized - it doesn't leak down. In fact Prevost owners are usually taught to run the engine at low idle for a couple of minutes prior to switching to fast idle. They do this to build air pressure in the accessory air system. Why? Because the belt driven engine cooling fan uses an air bag tensioning system to snug up the three parallel v-belts. Switching to high idle before the system is snug can sometimes throw a belt. Me... I throw it to high idle as soon as I see oil pressure, usually within seconds. This lack of interior air driven components (pocket doors, slide seals, toilets, etc), means I never run my aux air compressor. There's no need!

It's a complex bus with many complex components, but the elimination of hydraulically powered components, air powered components, and third party control devices like GenCon's, and not relying upon slide body's for structural support which eliminates jammed and sticking lock pins, is proving to me that Vantare has added simplicity where it counts. All this adds up to reliability.

The most challenging aspect of the bus is it's height. He measures 12' 4" at the top of the Gerard awnings, but then I have have a KVH dome that pushes me to 13' 5" at the center of the bus. The top has little on it that requires service - my four Cruisairs are in the basement, but I have learned that you can walk on a Prevost roof, and you can walk anywhere on the roof, not just at the roof bows.

So far we're getting a real kick out of this machine and I just wanted to share some of it with you.