Looking at 05 Tropical

[Don and Kim]

Hello,
Looking to upgrade to a diesel and found a 05 396 for sale. Soliciting opinions on the model and things to look for when inspecting it.
Thx, Don

[BillP.]

Don and Kim, I bought my 05 Tropical lX a little over a year ago. We are completly satisfied with our purchase. We have about 13000 miles on it, so it`s not even broken in yet. It gets 7 1/2 miles to a gallon towing or not. When i`m towing i drive about 60 miles per hour, and not towing I drive 65 to 70 miles per hour and it`s about the same. There are alot of them out there for sale so watch your price!! There are two for sale at Dimartini RV in Calif. One in Apaka Fla. Check on RVT .Com and look for National RVs for sale. Hope this helps. BillP.

[bdpreece]

We had on 04 396 with the Cat 350 and really liked it. My biggest problems were two of the slides. The large kitchen slide started dragging on the floor on the end towards the rear of the motorhome. The bedroom slide would break the shear pin on the drive gear about every third time I opened it. I finally found that the gear box for it had a broken brass collar that was allowing the gear to move around and bind. Other than that you need to make sure the slobber tube has been rerouted so as to not allow blow-by to collect on the radiator/CAC and that the radiator/CAC have been cleaned regularly. That was about the only issues we had in the 6 years we owned ours.