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GlenB · 08-19-2011, 09:28 AM

I am in the process of looking at a 2005 Expedition 38N it has the Cat 300 I think C7 maybe with rear facing radiator. Does anyone have one out there and how is the RV and engine. NOt sure I understand this radiator thing sounds like it could be harder to service for someone?? How is the ride on this unit?? I will pull 4 down 2006 CRV. Tks to any that can shed light on need. I am trading a Bounder and will be said of that but looking forward to move up to the diesel and more room....like fleetwoods whatever model,,,,,,

Muddypaws · 08-19-2011, 06:42 PM

We've had out 34H for a couple of months and have taken several trips in it already. The C7 with the Allison transmission is an awesome platform. I am most impressed by the transmission so far. If you let it think for itself it will keep your RPMs way down there but that's offset by the massive torque the C7 puts out. We've gone up some very steep hills and for that I just manually shift it into 2'nd. Haven't had to use 1'st yet. We top the steepest hill around here at 26MPH without pushing it. Our previous motorhome was a Ford 460 that barely made it at 12MPH. In first gear totally floored. It was a much smaller motorhome too.

Servicing it shouldn't be a big problem. I've crawled around under the engine & transmission and there doesn't appear to be anything hard to reach. The rear radiator is easy to get to if you open the access grill. To get to the top of the engine I have to go in through the floor of the bedroom. Haven't had to yet but it looks easy.

The not so grand thing is the fuel consumption. According to the 'mileage guesser' in the Freightliner Information Display we're averaging only 6.9MPG. I'm hoping it's higher than that when calculated by hand. My diesel truck towing a 12000# fifth wheel got closer to 15 most of the time. It was chipped for mileage.

gwarshawsky · 08-19-2011, 08:05 PM

I just recently purchesed

gwarshawsky · 08-19-2011, 08:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GlenB

I am in the process of looking at a 2005 Expedition 38N it has the Cat 300 I think C7 maybe with rear facing radiator. Does anyone have one out there and how is the RV and engine. NOt sure I understand this radiator thing sounds like it could be harder to service for someone?? How is the ride on this unit?? I will pull 4 down 2006 CRV. Tks to any that can shed light on need. I am trading a Bounder and will be said of that but looking forward to move up to the diesel and more room....like fleetwoods whatever model,,,,,,

I just recently purchased a fleetwood 2005 Revolution and found out the hard way that on the older Cat 350 C7 they were recommending 22 quarts of oil as well as the blowzy tube strategically located right in front of radiator. To make matters worse the turbo radiator is sandwiched together with the radiator. With 22 quarts I was shooting oil into the fan which was sending oil all over the place. I overheated very quickly.

I found out that the amount of oil was changed to 19 quarts and Cat installed a blow by tube which comes past the radiator. I had quite a time degreasing
The radiators as Cat wanted to pull them out for 2200. All is good now but bottom line the earlier engines had a slight design floor. I think this was corrected in 2007.

Hope this helps

GearGirl · 10-12-2015, 01:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GlenB

I am in the process of looking at a 2005 Expedition 38N it has the Cat 300 I think C7 maybe with rear facing radiator. Does anyone have one out there and how is the RV and engine. NOt sure I understand this radiator thing sounds like it could be harder to service for someone?? How is the ride on this unit?? I will pull 4 down 2006 CRV. Tks to any that can shed light on need. I am trading a Bounder and will be said of that but looking forward to move up to the diesel and more room....like fleetwoods whatever model,,,,,,

I just bought this exact year and model! Did you buy one? I have radiator fan issues, had to leave the coach in Deming, NM until we get it sorted out.