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This could be lengthy, cause I am wordy. I am commenting on a 99 Newell with two slides that I owned for 10 years and a 2007 Marathon with two slides that I have owned for almost a year. 

Synopsis. There is no clear winner. The Prevost drives far better. The Newell has far more usable and practical living space. The Marathon electrical work is superior but proprietary. The mid door entry floor plan of the Newell was superior in terms of living space and passenger comfort. 

Now, the long winded version. My only purpose in pointing out my observations is that no RV is perfect and each owner has unique use requirements and personal preferences. My intent to is provide hands on perspective to help you if you are considering either one. It would be a better comparison between an 07 Newell and an 07 Marathon, but alas my time and funding did not permit this. Also, my perspective is one of self maintenance. 

Starting with ‘why did you change after 20 years of Newell ownership’. Again, this is MY perspective, and the opinion of one person. As I contemplated the future, I could see that one of two things would take me off the travel road that I enjoy so much. The first was that I would become uncomfortable with driving a beast this size, or it would become too tiring to travel across the country. The second was that I would no longer be able to physically maintain a high end RV. To the first issue of driving, I drove a bunch of rigs, around 10 mid 2000 Newells, a couple of Super C’s, and a six Prevost based conversions. As far as the pure driving experience it was not a close comparison, the Prevost conversions were hands down winners. On the second note, I live less than an hour from both a Prevost Service center and a Marathon service center. That’s a little different than traveling to Miami, OK from where I live six months of the year. I wanted the option of throwing plastic at a problem instead of yours truly having to deal with the issue. That is the top line reasoning I used. 

In contemplating selling our beloved Mickey (Newell 512) and starting over with another rig, there were a number of must haves. The first was roof air. Basement air is great, I had reengineered the AC units to the point where they were effective and reliable, but with roof air, any RV shop in the country will pop a new one on the roof. Not such an easy task to find someone to work on SCS, Cruiseair, or RVAC units. The second requirement was to stay with the Detroit S60 engine and Allison transmission. If you are in the Prevost market, monitor the FB Prevost group for the folks seeking Cruiseair technical help. 

Rhonda had two requirements. Stacked washer and dryer, and two couches. 

Now that the prologue is finished. Here are some specific details. 

As commented earlier, the living space, storage space, and layout with the 1 1/2 bath two slide Newell is as good as it gets. The space in the rear bath and bedroom is really appreciated. The toilet in this Marathon and most Prevost conversions is cramped. If you are looking at Prevosts, I suggest you sit on the throne for a practice run. 

I enjoy the larger windows in the Prevost, but an 07 Newell will have larger windows also. Both Prevost and Newell have issues with those windows breaking the seal and fogging over time. I guess I am going to learn how to fix them. 

We have been in some hot and humid conditions this summer. Two AC units keep you comfy, three will have you under a blanket, and all four running will turn your lips blue.

One big difference I have noted is that due to the location of the forward roof air and the super large glass up front is that you WILL run the dash air while driving. It’s nice that the inverters will run two of the roof airs off the engine, but the air flow does NOT cool the cockpit. More about this in minute. 

The Prevost does not get the fuel mileage that the Newell did. Granted, I got a exceptional 8.3 mpg with the Newell, and the best so far is 6.0 with the 14L EGR engine. There are a number of confounding factors. One the Prevost is geared lowered. I turn about 100 more RPM at 65 than I did the Newell. The second factor is the dash air as commented earlier. The dash air automatically activates the engine fan on low speed. In the 99 Newell the condenser fan was electrically activated and separate from the huge engine fan. The third factor is the 50DN alternator is powering two 4k inverters driving two roof air units. The fan and the inverter take HP. In my Newell mileage I did not factor in the fuel the generator used to run the SCS units while driving. Bottom line, I don’t know if the mileage difference is as great as I think it is. This winter I will run the overhead on the engine and install a lower restriction exhaust. That was worth about 1 mpg on the Newell. 

The Newell is setup for living and easy access to the support systems like batteries, inverters, Aquahot, and plumbing. The Prevost is setup for easy maintenance. Changing shocks, air bags, suspension parts is  quick in comparison. After all the bus chassis is designed to stay on the road, downtime on commercial bus means the operator is losing money. 

Spare parts and documentation for the Prevost side is insanely good. On line electrical, mechanical, and pneumatic diagrams by serial number of the bus. It’s the same with parts, I can order by serial number of the bus either by phone or on line. Two days to my door. 

All though the slide outs are smaller and not flat floor, I prefer the Prevost slide mechanism over the HWH for one simple feature. If the slide faults, the system flashes a code telling you what is wrong. 

What problems have I dealt with? I had to replace a circulation pump on the Webasto heating system. I replace all the tie rods and drag links. I ran over the power cord which created all kinds of madness to access the cord reel in the center of the coach, and to repair the trap door which releases the cord and sewer hose. I had a noisey bearing in one of the electrical toe heaters. 

And there are still air systems to chase leaks. Sigh……..

And for the final commentary. There is NO forum for Prevosts like the gurus. Most of the Prevost owners do not have dirty fingernails. I find that most of the Prevost coaches are used as toys that come out of the shed every once in a while. Not all of course, but look at the older Prevosts in general you see for sale. It is highly unusual to see a Prevost coach with over 150k miles. 

If this one went up in smoke, what would I buy next time? Not trying to be politically correct, but that would depend upon the coach. Neither is perfect, both have really strong selling points.

After I posted, I realized that I had left out a very important consideration for me. The Prevost came equipped with an iPad/Crestron system which is not working well. Lucky for me there are discrete controls for every function. All the high end stuff has this gimmickry today. For the life of me I do not understand why I need the ability to lie in bed and configure the DVD to play sound through the outdoor speakers. The switching boxes and cabling to enable the connections between every TV, the satellite system, the AV system, and the Crestron is substantial. Here is the rub, streaming, Starlink, and wireless has made all that mess obsolete. I am going backwards towards simplicity. Firestick on the TV’s, one HDMI ARC cable to a capable AV receiver in the rear allows me to ignore the Crestron control. And I can change the channel with the remote. Yeah I know I sound like a retrogrouch, but I can’t imagine throwing 10 to 20K to bring that system up to date.

And one more big change I made to the coach. I removed the outdoor entertainment center which occupied half a bay, and replaced with a nice rollaway tool chest.

https://www.racingjunk.com/rvs-and-motor...-sale.html

I’m not certain I’ve posted about this topic before, but I have some experience that may help others, so I posted this onto the VIP group on Facebook and want to do the same here.

When you know how to make lemonade…life can be cooler…with a few precautions.

Hey…may not be engraved aluminum, but for that rare occasion of Dual 30A, my little flags will work great to keep things under control!
   

So, when you have dual 30 amp outlets, and have tested them to make sure they are wired out of phase, then you can enjoy having 240v service at 30amps!
   

I made a video on this topic, and plan to do a part 2 in which explain the proper way to test the outlets. Of course, by not knowing your park and its electrical wiring, you take the risk of something not going well.

How To Get 240v Service For Your Rv Using A Dual 30 Amp To 50 Amp Adapter
https://youtu.be/XkTdkaTWw-k

So, after a long year recovering from freak accident wherein I broke my first bone ever, and had a full hip replacement, I was finally able to spend a weekend in Gettysburg in the coach. Only thing I've found not working are chassis batteries and the Watts water pressure regulator. 

I capped the line back to the regulator, so I at least have water, but the shower interestingly, which started fine but, within first minute or so lost almost all pressure, almost like draining the lines after turning water off, just gradually lost pressure to a steady trickle. if this makes sense to anyone, I'm open to any and all suggestions

Anywho, after calling Cambri for suggested replacement, she said they have the same part (2A645) in stock for $279. So, I figured if I'm investing that much, I might just reconfigure things to better suit our needs/use. I still am considering new plumbing configuration (so any suggestions are most welcome) but in the meantime time I dusted off and fired up the good ole ebay machine and voila, found NOS shipped for 100bucks. This is the actual reason for this post. They seem to have a good inventory of parts. Hope this helps someone

https://ebay.us/m/hjf0YF

   

When I first got this coach, I had low voltage coming to the AC clutch on the engine (and this was burning out my compressor clutches), so I added a time-delay relay connected to a reliable 12v source. And activated the relay by the lower voltage wire coming from the front of the coach.  This worked for 6 years, but now I have NO voltage coming down the wire from the front of the coach. So nothing to activate the relay and engage the clutch.

At front of coach, in front of passenger seat, I have found the relay that sends power to the clutch when the Dash AC switch is turned on. The relay works, and I have 12v coming out of the relay, presumably going from there to the back of the coach. And I do not see any fuses identified for the AC... but since I have power coming out of the relay, I assume wherever the fuse it located, it is ok.

At the rear of the coach, curb side access door, there are wiring terminals, I found the wire marked for AC clutch. 0 volts.  

My questions:
1. Would there be any connections between where the wire leaves the relay located in front of passenger seat, and goes to the wire terminal at the rear of coach? The wire color, orange w/ yellow stripe, is the same at front and rear of the coach. Would the wire leave the relay and travel to a terminal post in front of passenger seat, before going to the rear of the coach? (I do not see any wire terminals identified as something to do with the AC at front of coach). It seems unlikely that wire got severed somewhere. It seems MORE likely there is some bad connector (that has been corroding and losing voltage). But I don't if there would be any other connection points... or where they would be before they get to the rear of the coach.

2. If I can't find this bad connector, I suppose I need to run a new wire from front to rear. Ugh. What would be easiest way to route a new wire? 

I hope I my description of the problem makes sense. Thanks as always!
Alan Johnson

Hello all,

One of our outer drive tires has started to crack from dry rot and I'd like to get them all replaced before a trip we have coming up. 

 I was wondering if anyone had recommendations for tires ? 

The size is 11R 24.5 with 149/146L load rating.

I've seen prices from $400 to over $1000 for each tire.  I'm sure they won't get a ton of miles on them but I'd still like to get some decent ones regardless. 

Thanks 
Tyler Phillips

Hello all,

One of our outer drive tires has started to crack from dry rot and I'd like to get them all replaced before a trip we have coming up. 

 I was wondering if anyone had recommendations for tires ? 

The size is 11R 24.5 with 149/146L load rating.

I've seen prices from $400 to over $1000 for each tire.  I'm sure they won't get a ton of miles on them but I'd still like to get some decent ones regardless. 

Thanks 
Tyler Phillips

Can anyone give me directions on how to remove the radiator on Coach #375. Used Fleetpride radiator flush and it uncovered several leaks. It looks like if I could remove the rear center panel I could get to the bolts holding the radiator frame. I'm currently at a RV park in El Paso, TX.  Any help would greater be appreciated. 

Jeff Rahn

Contemplating travel on CO 14 from Ft Collins (Bellvue) to Walden and US 40 over Rabbit Ears to Steamboat with the coach towing a pickup.  Any length issues I should be aware of?  I have traversed many of the other CO passes, FWIW.

I looked at CO Trip and cannot even find the Independence Pass 35' restriction on it even with the truckers version.  That made me wonder how anyone would know in advance. 

I’m having a bit of a problem using the search function, so please forgive me if this is out there, but I’m looking for part numbers for the main drive brake rotors the front brake rotors and wheel seals and pads for both. 

Anybody have the part number is handy? I will call Newell on Monday, but was hoping to get the parts ordered before then.