No More Spartan Chassis for Fleetwood or American DP's

[Shardan1]

Heard today that Fleetwood will soon be using ONLY Freightliner Chassis' for there DP's. Wonderering how many Spartan fans will purchase a new American on a Freightliner Chassis. They didn't call them freightshakers for nothing.

[powerboatr]

freight-shakers is harsh, its a way over-aged by 50 years at least


fleetwood like all the others, go with who will build a chassis to meet the desired specifications and at a price point within their desired range or what they expect consumers to pay
spartan is not going away
they build like many others a good product
f/l builds a good product as well
bottom line is fleetwood is in business to make $$$ and be competitive
if they can buy x amount of chassis for a model line at x price that meets their needs then they buy that chassis

I am sure they bid out for the chassis to perform within the specs.

spartan, f/l , international, volvo etc, and whomever probably submit bids...and then they pick
its been a rough past four years...they are only trying to survive

i would expect the service will remain the same.....
after all its just steel and drive train parts assembled from a big spread of suppliers

but again it could

[DriVer]

Originally Posted by Shardan1

Heard today that Fleetwood will soon be using ONLY Freightliner Chassis' for there DP's. Wondering how many Spartan fans will purchase a new American on a Freightliner Chassis. They didn't call them freightshakers for nothing.

I hope to see that in print from RV Business or other RV media sources like RV Daily Report. Maybe I missed that story ???

The American line of coaches was always predicated on Spartan Chassis. I'm wondering how this will affect both companies and the customers as well.

[Gary RVRoamer]

This isn't an earthshaking event - American Coach offered a Freightliner chassis in 2004 and 2005 - I have one. AC specs the chassis to meet their requirements and other than the brand names of the axles and other components used, there is hardly a lick of difference between the Freightliner and Spartan versions.

And they've been using predominantly Freightliners in the Fleetwood Coach lines for many years - relatively few were Spartans. Even though they announced they would be "all Spartan" 4-5 years back.

That said, there are surely people who will feel let down if they can't get a Spartan chassis. They been pretty well brainwashed over the years that Spartan is better.

[Mr_D]

When we ordered our 2002 Dutch Star there was a 700# difference between the FL and Spartan chassis with the Spartan weighing more although the FL had a CAT 3126 and the Spartan had an ISC Cummins which could account for some of the difference.

[VietVet]

Frightliner does no build a side radiatorAnd it is the disposalable truck in the industry.

[VietVet]

Originally Posted by Mr_D

When we ordered our 2002 Dutch Star there was a 700# difference between the FL and Spartan chassis with the Spartan weighing more although the FL had a CAT 3126 and the Spartan had an ISC Cummins which could account for some of the difference.

Aren't no more Cats now,I will keep mine.

[Green D]

Originally Posted by VietVet

Frightliner does no build a side radiatorAnd it is the disposalable truck in the industry.

Surely the all new Chassis will have a side radiator?

[henderson]

A few years ago Fleetwood rolled out their new Spartan chassis whoopee! Now they are going back to Freightliner, and question why? PRICE PRICE PRICE. Same as the switch to Spartan, by the wat they do offer side radiator chassis

[dfunde01]

I am not brainwashed. I selected a Spartan Chassis as the foundation that I wanted based on historical data of reliability and recommendations of service centers that are authorized to work on Spartan, Freightliner, and Powerglide and then selected the coach builder in the sub $1,000,000 high end non custom conversion segment. I considered American Coach, Newmar, and Entegra. I selected the Spartan Liberty chassis Tradition 42P. Newmar and Fleetwood announced at the Louisville show in November that they would both be exclusively on Freightliner chassis's in the future. If Newmar and American Coach follow through I guess my next coach will be an Entegra Anthem or Cornerstone. I am not trashing Freightliner. My research simply indicated that Spartan built a more reliable better riding chassis. It makes no sense to me to spend this kind of money and settle for second best.


Dave

[dfunde01]

Originally Posted by henderson

A few years ago Fleetwood rolled out their new Spartan chassis whoopee! Now they are going back to Freightliner, and question why? PRICE PRICE PRICE. Same as the switch to Spartan, by the wat they do offer side radiator chassis

Is there a coach in production with a Freighliner chassis with a side radiator? The 40' Thor's are rear radiator. I read that they planned to produce side radiators but have not yet seen one in production.

[Mr_D]

Originally Posted by dfunde01

Is there a coach in production with a Freighliner chassis with a side radiator? The 40' Thor's are rear radiator. I read that they planned to produce side radiators but have not yet seen one in production.

I though some of the Newmar's I looked at in March were FL chassis and side radiator.

[dfunde01]

Originally Posted by Mr_D

I though some of the Newmar's I looked at in March were FL chassis and side radiator.

I haven't seen any of the new Newmar's. Did you notice if any of the King Air coaches were on Freightliner?

[Shardan1]

Originally Posted by dfunde01

I haven't seen any of the new Newmar's. Did you notice if any of the King Air coaches were on Freightliner?

Only the Dutchstar and Ventana are on FL, all others are on Spartan