Excalibur Coach: Prevost Coach Central...If they can't do it, who can?
 

Quietly located near Prevost alley in Sanford, Florida, just off exit 104 of I-4, is Excalibur Coach, operated and owned by Doug Stolfo.

Doug ramped up Excalibur in September of 2005, after 20 years of bus experience at Marathon Coach and Prevost Car Company, most recently as Branch Manager of the Prevost Car Jacksonville facility. There, he was responsible for the full service and parts support, maintenance and reconstruction of motorhomes, entertainer and seated coaches for the Southeastern United States.

"The Prevost chassis is robust and redundant. It's tough...and there are many things you can do with a Prevost chassis to make it your own," he noted.

Excalibur Coach not only performs all the usual and expected services of an independent Prevost service facility, such as chassis and conversion air conditioning, generator, electrical, appliance, awning repairs and installations. Excalibur Coach just happens to do Major interior remodeling, including complete reupholstery of dash boards, driver and co-pilot seats as well as sofas and all other coverings in a coach. Custom flooring like granite with brass inlay, custom cabinetry, and changing the dinette to suit the client are just some of the services they provide.

Excalibur just happens to build their own custom slideout rooms ranging up to 21 feet for a salon slide. Slideout rooms are custom built to fit any floor plan on any Prevost Chassis. Stolfo pointed out that the secret to regular maintenance and upgrades to a Prevost coach isn't just in the hardware, but in the people who perform the work.

"The employee’s are artists." Stolfo says. His staff includes people with many years of experience with conversions of all types.

"If you look at the framing of the H3 for example," Stolfo commented, "You'll see that the basic structure allows for a wide variety of enhancements and custom work. It's a awesome machine to customize and I’m blessed with the knowledge to bring people idea’s to reality."

This, coming from a man who had taken a seated H3-45 coach which had been broadsided by a train and brought it back to factory specification. Hmm.

Stolfo noted that many coach owners may not wish to sell or trade their current coach but choose to add custom or personalized features. "Why should someone give up their beloved Prevost that they know it’s personality, a coach that the owner loves when we can add slideouts, facelifts or upgrade the interior? Here at Excalibur, we believe that for a fraction of the cost of trading your coach, owners can get exactly what they desire. Want a 21-foot slide? We'll do it."

Evidence of Excalibur's high level of expertise is evident all around the Sanford shop. New front and rear caps for a Prevost H3-45 2003 Body Upgrade "FACELIFT", new, custom slides for an Prevost XL, change-out of a dash and seats in an Prevost H3-45, collision repair on an Prevost XL; new entertainment center for a Prevost XL. With suppliers running in with construction materials, 10 technicians busily working at coach modifications, Stolfo reflects on his 20 years experience in the bus industry dealing with slideout rooms.

"I have spent many years around slides which helped us develop our features. We found that by using a air seal gasket which inflates around our slide and a wiper seal, you get a better seal." Stolfo uses an aviation grade seal with stronger walls, which far exceeds other seals. The aviation-style seals are rated at a very high pressure, although Excalibur uses them at a far lower pressure.

"Our seal system can handle much greater pressure and gives the customer a tighter seal between the outdoors and their private space inside the coach." Stolfo pointed out that Excalibur wanted to build a product that offers features he has been asked about by customers for many years. "Our slides are up to 30 inches deep in both salon and bedroom and offer 24 inches depth for bedroom and third slide room applications. We use a linear bearing system and motioned by a rack and gear, operated by a 24-volt DC motor, which has the ability to be turned at the motor by a hex shaft and has a manual over-ride switch down below in the bay. On a Prevost XL and H3-45, the lift-up bay doors are refitted with café-style side hinged openings, providing full access to storage and generators, as the case may be." He noted that other supplied slides rely on a complicated computerized interlock systems. "Our slides provide a design which enables it to be serviced by anybody and have a smooth operation...and you can have them just about any way you want them," he added.

He said that the bedrock of the Excalibur business is basic service to Prevost customers, the company also provides surveys and PDI services for owner-to-owner sales.

"Bring a coach in here and we'll go through it, develop a list of what the coach may need, with costs calculated to bring it up to factory standards. We'll help the buyer and seller fairly calculate what needs to be done with a coach so both are happy. We're impartial. We want the owner of the coach to have a trouble-free coach going down the road."

The ingenuity of Excalibur's work is evident. While some service shops simply replace parts, Excalibur takes a fresh look at each and every job presented. In the case of an entertainment bay, the company was able to construct one which still provided storage in addition to giving the customer the outside audio-visual components requested.
 

Entertainment center sequence as coach arrived (left) to completion.

When looking at the many projects undertaken by Excalibur Coach, it's evident that the expertise offered by the firm provides the widest alternatives to the Prevost Coach owner, with ingenuity and experience, but the most personalized solution in response to the individual owner's requests.

Now there are bus people, but Excalibur's people are bus people.

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