2001 Prevost on Ebay

[davidbrady]

Item number: 261570553225

2001 Non-Slide Royale. The ad says it'll go to the highest bidder, no reserve. Currently at $75,100 with 24 bids.

[mpierce]

Now at $110,00. Nice!

[Arcticdude]

Those last 4 bidders definitely stepped it up. Not a bad rig, but without a slide, it's essentially my 96. It will be interesting to see what it goes for.

[mpierce]

One of the main reasons we bought our 1990 Smoke N Mirrors, is because it did NOT have a slide. We have enough room, and it is much simpler.

[cmillsap]

Buying a XLII off Ebay is a risky proposition due to the delamination issues of the stainless lower exterior panels. It could cost upwards to $50K to repair if there is major damage under loose stainless panels. I suspect that many potential buyers of this bus may not know of this serious problem with XL2s, especially older units as Prevost will not bear any of the cost to repair. Whomever ends up buying this bus should inspect it carefully before they spend the money. Sometimes a great deal ends up not being so great.

[patticake]

Nice, but first Prevost I've seen that has jacks, according to the ad.

[davidbrady]

If I bought an XLII that needed portions of its skin reattached I wouldn't spend $50K. If Prevost is unwilling to help financially, I'd simply have them reglue the panels. I think the $50K figure comes from the official Prevost fix to late model coaches which includes rivets and side body stainless steel covering strips, which require painting. If all you wish to do is reattach the skin using sikaflex, which was the original adhesive, the job can be done quite a bit more economically. Because of this issue XLII's are being discounted which is great for buyers!

[davidbrady]

Under "Item Specifics" the seller does check off the entry for "Level Jacks Included". I guess loosely speaking it does have leveling jacks, it's just that they're in the form of suspension air springs! When I went from my LXi to my H3, I thought I'd miss my jacks. I don't. My thinking was, "I won't be able to raise the bus to change a tire or work under it". Prevost has a built-in feature called level-lo which allows me to raise any corner of the bus. I can actually raise it high enough to insert jack stands. I then lower the bus and it's safe to crawl under or to raise an axle to change a tire. Camping is way simpler with air leveling. There's no issues with twisting the chassis or dropping the suspension on the bump stops as your retract the hydraulic jacks. The bus is very stable on the air springs and doesn't budge as people walk about. Plus, with air leveling getaways are quick.

[davidbrady]

Folks,

It's no secret why the interior if this Royale looks so familiar. As you may recall, Royale was formed by a husband and wife team. After a divorce they sold the company to Monaco. Monaco continued with the Royale conversion business for some time. A handful of 1990-1991 wanderlodge shells were actually delivered to and converted by Royale. Here's a good synopsis of Royale from a 2005 FMCA publication.

I was told, but need to have it confirmed, that Mary Cornish joined wanderlodge at some point. I think her interior designs can be found in some if the LX and LXi models. My previous LXi sported one of these interiors and I actually saw the exact interior down to the fixtures and wall sconces in a Royale Prevost conversion.

Royale is no longer in business or supported, but that wouldn't deter me from owning one. They're about as close to a wanderlodge conversion as you're likely to find. They have simple 120VAC house wiring, no fancy multiplexing, load management, or crestron/amx audio/visual controls. They have aquahots, twin Trace 4000 watt sine wave inverters, and roof airs. Good solid honest coaches. Any wanderlodge owner would feel right at home.

[cmillsap]

Sometimes a non slide coach can provide almost as much salon floor space as a coach with a front slide depending on the interior layout and furnishings. For example, if you compared the salon floor space in this Royale to a slide equipped bus with double sofas, they are fairly comparable. Obviously, a slide will add floor width between the kitchen cabinets and the table.

The dining chairs in this Royale are the same as some I’ve seen in a Wamderlodge. Also, the wine glass cabinet on the end of the curb side upper cabinets is almost identical to the one in my LXi.

It looks like those are cigarette butts in the ash tray by the driver’s right arm rest. It doesn’t take much smoking inside a bus to leave a lasting smell and turn off potential buyers..

Non-slide Prevosts are very reasonably priced nowadays, I suspect this one may go for less than $150K.