Marathon Coach

Marathon Coach, Inc. began operations in September 1983, converting new commercial bus shells into motorhomes and corporate coaches. The sources read for this entry do not name its founders or say where it started. Wikipedia's article on Junction City, Oregon, says Marathon was based there before moving to nearby Coburg. The regional tourism page it cites says only that Marathon was one of the RV makers that opened divisions in Junction City.

A company article says Marathon has built its conversions on Prevost bus shells since 1989. In 1990 Bob Schoellhorn, who had retired as chief executive and chairman of Abbott Laboratories, bought his first Marathon coach and invested in the company. The same article says he became sole owner in 1994, the year Marathon moved into its custom-built plant in Coburg and opened Marathon Coach Florida in San Antonio, near Tampa. A 2023 profile says the Schoellhorn family has owned Marathon since 1992.

Marathon Coach Texas opened in Grand Prairie, near Dallas and Fort Worth, in November 2006. An undated MotorHome magazine item said Marathon planned to open another sales and service dealership, in Beaumont, California, in late 2007. No later report on that site was found, and a 2021 trade report names facilities in Oregon, Texas and Florida.

Marathon gives each coach a number. An undated MotorHome magazine item reports its 1,200th conversion, which Marathon called a record for the bus conversion industry. Show Coach #1317 appeared in February 2020 and coach #1375 in February 2023, and a 2025 model was listed as #1397. Prevost's converter page and a 2021 trade report both credit Marathon with more than 1,300 coaches since 1983.

Marathon was reported as the first converter to show coaches on two updated Prevost shells. In February 2020 RVBusiness wrote that Marathon was the first builder to feature Prevost's new X3 chassis, on Show Coach #1317. In 2023 Marathon said its double-slide coach #1375 was the first luxury RV finished on the redesigned H3-45, and it showed the coach at the Prevost Motorhome Expo in West Palm Beach, Florida, on February 8 and 9.

Trade reports from 2020 and 2021 name Steve Schoellhorn as president and owner. A 2023 profile describes the Coburg headquarters as a 160,000-square-foot facility on 17.5 acres and says each coach takes about six to nine months to build. Documented new prices include $2,433,569 as tested for a quad-slide H3-45 reviewed by RV.com in December 2020 and an MSRP of $2,989,929 for coach #1375 in 2023.