Foretravel Owners' Forum For owners and Fans of Foretravel Motorcoaches September 12, 2025 ...

I will have to post photos later as I am not near the coach. :sat trip to NAC spent ample time at FOT, MOT and MCD (on the way home - didn't buy anything but had them measure all windows for possible future purchase.)

MOT - was all about leaks in the air system - WOW was there a bunch - also learned a neat trick on how to diagnose where challenging leaks might be - that will be subject of separate post and pictures.

FOT - After all the new flooring (Armstrong Dura Ceramic) and upholstery work last year, had to go back because pilot seat just didn't seem to sit right.  David and his team took out the seat and made some adjustments which got me closer to comfortable but still not as good as I would have liked.  more on that later

Back to the flooring - I really didn't like the stock step covers (original to the 2000 year coach - so ad David Flanigans recommendation, I had bought "chilewich" flooring (Chilewich : Floor : Woven Floor Mats : Basketweave : Black/Gold) basket weave fabric

(stuff is expensive, I found overstock on Ebay - here is a similar size and style available today - about 1/3 of normal price - this amount will almost do two coaches -

 Chilewich Kono Midnight 3' x 4' 4" Plynyl Mat | eBay

ANyway, Davids guys pulled out the old and put in the new in basically a day - the carpet on the sides of the steps going up was original too (matched bedroom) and was tired - so off to East Texas Carpet, and $40 later I had a sweet remnant that went awesome with the tile in the salon.  So the old girl got new bedroom carpet, and all the lititle "bits" of carpet trim that are all over the coach (driver foot well, cabinet bases, in the bathroom and a million other places -  LOVE the way the entry steps look.  Carpet in the bedroom is awesome - a little trick that David and the team did in the bedroom - instead of replacing the padding in the bedroom (padding is sound deadening and is also very expensive (think $400 for the bedroom alone) he left the old sound deadening padding in place and put a new layer of standard big quality padding on top before installing carpet - net, I have even more sound attenuation, a very luxurious feel AND low cost!  Nicely done David and Team!

I also had some discoloration in the  headliner in the slide room, having to do with a combination of prior bladder leaks and delamintation repairs to the slide unit.  Was going to be 12 hours labor to replace.  Mike on Davids team suggested cutting a piece of 1/4 luan and covering that with headliner material, cutting out for the fluorescent fixture and then holding in place with Velcro. Result was about $200 total including parts and labor and looks perfect!!!  Creative and cost effective.

Now for the pilot's seat.  Whille I was there, Bill McNutt called David and said he had a Knoedler Power Chief to sell (seems Bill has downsized from his FT to a class "B" - he said his family preferred to travel in the "B" and stay in fine hotels - FT was a little "full" for his entire family to sleep in the coach.  So before he sold the coach about 6 months ago he removed the Knoedler Power Chief and put his old Vila back into the coach.  He called David Flanigan looking to sell the seat, and I was standing next to David.  David handed the phone to me, and we struck a deal pretty much on the spot.  Seat is now in NAC waiting to be recovered to match my newly covered seats, and then get installed.

It is a 23" (extra wide) Power Chief with the swivel option, plus heat, cool and massage options.  According to David Flanigan it is the "old style" Power Chief and the control switch for that version is no longer available.  So IF that switch ever fails, I will have to buy a knew base for the seat from Knoedler to the tune of $1,000.  For now, with the re upholstery and the cost of buying the chair, I am ahead of the game, if the switch ever fails, I will be slightly behind where I would have been had I bought new.

WIll FUP with another post on the HWH diagnostic trick, and with pictures of the entry that David's team installed - when I get the seat done, I will post that as well, but will probably be a few months before I can get back to NAC