Welcome to the site Peter - hope you enjoy it - quite a few on here have Coasters - use the "search" at the top of the screen - sure to find some help there.

Another thing it has 400000ks on the clock. I;ve heard that they run for ever. true or false. shero 

Welcome shero, enjoy here and out in the playground.

Being a fleet manager in my previous life and having 8 Coasters in a very large fleet I can say yes they are good and reliable but like most things they can go wrong.

Check out 'Yeoeleven' in the Solo section of this forum as he earlier this year went through the process of setting up a Coaster and is now enjoying his hard work.

What ever you do and decide on, enjoy and,

jules47 wrote:

---

Good thinking Dougwe - now why didn't I think of that??????!

---

 Being a woman , would be one thing....................Billeeeeeeede

billeeeeeee wrote:

---

jules47 wrote:

---

Good thinking Dougwe - now why didn't I think of that??????!

---

 Being a woman , would be one thing....................Billeeeeeeede

---

 

Can't let you get away with that Billeeeeeee.  I'd already PM'd Peter last night, to get in touch with John.

Cheers,

Sheba,

 

-- Edited by Sheba on Tuesday 27th of August 2013 07:25:46 PM

Is that 400,000 on its first engine? If so, it is getting up - so have it checked thoroughly. Prior history could be important too - presume it was a bus before conversion? If so was that in metro or country area (affects things likes brakes, clutch wear). Does it have a continuous service history?

What type of engine does it have - ours has the HZ engine (same as Troopy). I believe they are good engines to have.

When we bought ours, I had quite a list of desirable features - not all of which we got - but 2 important things, because they affect resale value, were that it has a shower and toilet, and the conversion was a professional company one.

We wanted a Coaster because of having worked in remote areas up north and seen the types of roads they handle - tough as. Also, because of being such a widely used vehicle, mechanics tend to know them.

Good on ya Sheba - beat him to the punch!!!!

Rust.... and more rust.

They do run forever in as much as the term dictates. They will plug along all day in searing heat and still keep going.
So mechanically they are pretty reliable.

Although most of the coasters all suffer the same fate (I did say most), where they tend to have a fetish for rusting along the gutter lines and window sills.
Once the rust starts it's a reasonably quick progression from there on in, if you attack it (properly) when it first pokes it's head out then you probably will do ok, leave it at your own peril they can end up been in a miserable state very fast - oh and they don't take to well to Salt air, this seems to enhance the rusting properties immensely.

We have an old coaster only a diesel without the turbo.. so she goes slow and does not like hills much, but she keeps on going and will actually get up a hill eventually.. I'd pick one with a turbo if you want the extra power, hubby keeps on top of the rust every time we stop but then again she had some when we got her so when we get home we're going to give her the once over before we go again. I like the fact that we can park in normal car parking spaces when we need to shop and if we are going too slow for other peoples we can easily pull over to let them by (which we do often)... we did not have a lot of $$ and coasters can be pretty cheap to buy ours cost us 10,000 and we put in what we needed (solar etc).... so far she's been on the road for 1.5yrs and we've only really had to replace the water pump.. they are pretty hard to kill and the parts are readily available around Oz (another reason we picked a coaster)...

I bought mine very cheaply without rego or roadworthy certificate, didn't know much about compliance certificates and sure enough it needed one to get the GVM down under 4500 so that it could be driven with a C class license and have it registered as a motor home.

I had quite an experience getting the 1980 4cyl petrol coaster registered but in the end it has taken me from Frankston Vic to Babinda N. Qld without a problem. As has been stated it is a slow ride but then where am I going in a hurry, my schedule is in months not days and certainly not hours.

http://yeoeleven.blogspot.com.au/2012/12/update-to-my-new-12-month-plan.html

The above is a link to pictures of the coaster from the eBay advert, it has no shower and toilet built in but neither does it have any rust. At the end of the day it is all about dollars and I put a $3000 non refundable deposit down and saved up the $3500 balance whilst touring Tasmania for 3 months.

I am very happy with the coaster and the help I received in Frankston, we did more than get it registered it was overhauled thoroughly and I was able to strip the Hi Ace and set the coaster up for free camping by using the previously acquired gear.

If I can get a good coaster with only a small deposit whilst living on a pension then others with more funds should with care and diligence do even better.   John