Liberty Coach 2022 (by Larry Plachno

Liberty Coach 2022

Miles Ahead for 50 Years and Counting

The year 2022 marks the 50th anniversary of the incorporation of Liberty Coach. Conversions date back to 1968 when Frank and Jeanne Konigseder purchased a used Greyhound PD4104 and spent the summer converting it in their Libertyville, Illinois backyard. Shown here is one of the modern conversions the company continues to turn out today.

In the last week of this past January, a contingent of 50 or more late model Prevost motorcoaches converged on the Liberty Coach of Florida dealership in Stuart for the company ' s annual rally and open house celebration. Nothing unusual about that, outside of the size of the crowd – about 20 percent greater than usual – and the somewhat greater occasion they gathered to celebrate.

That, of course, was the 50th anniversary of Liberty ' s incorporation in 1972, an event many regard as the birth of the modern motorcoach conversion industry.

It was a humble beginning to say the least. Bus conversions at the time were limited to hobbyists and RV enthusiasts frustrated by the poor quality of Class A motor homes of the era. Such was the case of Frank and Jeanne Konigseder in 1968, when they bought a 1958 Greyhound passenger bus with more than two million miles and spent the summer converting it in their Libertyville (Illinois) backyard. When they sold it the following summer, Liberty Coach was born.

It was slow going at first. Through most of the 1970s, Frank and Jeanne continued building coaches one at a time, buying and converting a succession of used Greyhound buses and reselling them as fast as they could finish. That all changed in the summer of 1978, when their trip to the FMCA convention in Sioux Falls, South Dakota led to a chance meeting with Andre Normand, president of Canadian coach manufacturer Prevost Car. Frank and Andre inked a handwritten contract on the spot, and the first Liberty Coach built on a Prevost La Mirage chassis debuted the following year.

Almost overnight, Liberty Coach was transformed from a sideline business to a major player in the luxury RV space. Production soared from one or two per year to 12 in 1980 and as many as 24 in subsequent years. Staff size grew proportionally, from a handful of part-time laborers to more than 50 skilled craftsmen and service professionals. The company quickly outgrew the original North Chicago shop space they shared with the Konigseders ' other family business, F.K. Pattern and Foundry, and in 1984 opened a new 15,700square-foot production and office facility across the street.

Meanwhile, the industry itself was also growing. Liberty ' s success spawned a wave of new bus convertors, and Prevost was their chassis of choice. Competitors have come and gone over the years; some succeeded, many faded away, but none has ever been able to match Liberty ' s sustained success in the category. The reasons?

One lies in Liberty

' s commitment to engineering and technological leadership. The company ' s claim that it is responsible for " virtually every important breakthrough" in coach engineering and technology since 1979 is no exaggeration. From automatic coach leveling and CAD design in the 1980s, to programmable logic and integrated touchscreens in the 90s, to Crestron control systems and the first lithium