I don't think there is anything wrong in being a scrupulous overthinker. My wife feels that I overthink things at times but then she admits that I am just being frugal and thorough before spending money. As for caring for our assets, I agree that people like us are in the minority but if more people would just give a fraction of the thought that we do to a purchase beforehand and then a fraction of the care after the purchase they would be surprised at the outcome and how much better of a situation they would be in. Instead, people have a tendency to make impulse buys on large items and then cry victim when **** goes south, which is generally does.
Case in point, we love our 2003 Monaco Dynasty motorcoach. It has just passed the 20-year old mark and we have had it for 16 of those years in a couple of months, but we are nowhere near ready to purchase another coach for our retirement, yet. However, I have been reviewing data and storing things away in my noggin for when the time comes that we do decide to upgrade coaches. When we go to RV rallies or gatherings, I am always one to talk to owners of various coaches to get their thoughts and/or opinions of their RV. The downside to that is that most can't answer the questions I ask nor do they really have any idea what I'm talking about. They may know the big talking points or what the brochure said, but not much beyond that. I get the feeling that many merely shelled over the money and hopped behind the steering wheel and blissfully drove onward. I have worked on a lot of mid to upper tier coaches over the past 30+ years and I have found that there are pros and cons to ALL of them, there is no one perfect coach that has everything Including ease of maintenance.
I think I've mentioned multiple times throughout my thread here that I would love to have a Newell or Prevost conversion in our stable some day. My wife and I were on a drive over the weekend and after passing a very nice newer Prevost Liberty conversion we got into a lengthy discussion about what we wanted our next coach to be and she was shocked when I brought up a couple that she hadn't heard me mention before. She said "I thought you wanted a mid-2000's Prevost conversion for our next coach?" I replied stating yes.....but....... Seems like there's always a but doesn't it?
I explained that I feel the Newell coaches as well as the Liberty conversions (Marathon close second) being probably the best on the highway, however, they are loaded with so much technology that it makes them near impossible for the average owner to diagnose and repair. Many require the coaches be connected to the company's proprietary systems for diagnosis whenever something in the multiplex system acts up. Also, similar to the Newell coaches, the Prevost conversions use a bladder system for the seals of the slides. These are air bladders that are perfectly timed to deflate prior to the slides being extended and then reinflated once the slide is in position. Also vice versa when retracting the slides. These provide a very positive seal from the outside elements but like everything else, they don't last forever. These air bladder type seals deteriorate and need replacing over time. When that time comes the entire slide must be removed from the buses shell in order to replace the air bladder as an assembly and I simply don't have the capabilities to remove a Prevost or Newell slide room at my home shop. Therefore, I view that as one of the drawbacks to these upper tier coaches in my opinion. The shell and powertrain of the Prevost or Newell don't bother me as they are very repairable and merely nuts and bolts. Granted high end nuts and bolts, but nuts and bolts nonetheless and the service on a 515 HP Detroit Series 60 or a 605 HP Cummins ISX is the same basic service as on my smaller 400 HP Cummins ISL. An overhead is an overhead and a Jacobs compression brake is a Jacobs compression brake. Replacing an air spring or a brake chamber on a Prevost is no different than on my old Dynasty. It's the proprietary items that make me nervous. I feel that the owners of most of these high end coaches that carry a price tag upwards of $2.5M when new don't think about such things and plan on having the factory address any and all issues but that's not me. I don't begrudge them of that, I admire that actually, but I am in a different camp altogether. I feel we will be at a point by retirement that we could afford one of these in the used market running in the $300k-$400k range, however, my fear is that I don't want to purchase something that I cannot maintain. The cost of the coach is merely the price of admission and I have seen the repairs and maintenance items go well beyond what some people budgeted for nor can afford, especially for those who have to hire this work out and are unable to do the work themselves. I don't want to be "that" guy, nor do I want to have to rely on taking it to a factory repair center for work. It's pretty simple, if I can't perform the work, I don't want the coach, regardless of how nice it is.
Our coach has standard bulb type seals at the slides and although are kind of a pain in the *** to replace, they can be replaced with the slide room still in the coach, just takes some time and care. My main entrance door does have an air bladder style of seal but can be replaced relatively easy by removing the door then the air bladder. The multiplex systems on many of the newer upper tier coaches make me nervous as they are so reliant on technology and are proprietary but there are converters such as the older Royale and Country Coach conversions from the mid-2000's as well as the newer Outlaw and Emerald coaches that I have found to be quite user friendly when it comes to working on so one of those may fit the criteria but the Prevost slide seals would still worry be a bit. Then I mention about maybe settling on something a bit more realistic such as a slightly newer model of Monaco or Country Coach similar to what we already have or I have been relatively impressed with the 2013-2017 Entegra Cornerstones but the 2018+ Cornerstones have fallen suit and have put a lot more technology in them that are only accessed via proprietary software and therefore difficult to impossible to diagnose without a factory service center. I follow several RV forums and one common theme amongst the newer Cornerstone owners is the amount of software updates their coaches require. That doesn't give me the warm and fuzzies one bit.
My wife feels as though I am overthinking this, especially seeing as we are still a few years away from our next purchase but I tried explaining that I am gathering information now so that when the time comes I know exactly what we will buy without having to start doing the research then and may have a harder time of finding older data.
But yes, I think I know what you mean by being a scrupulous overthinker.
Who knows where he was actually asking to be sent because I can't think anyone would request to go to Superior, WY. It may not have been the middle of nowhere, but you sure as hell could see it from there.
