Considering purchase of 05 Knight

[Don and Kim]

Hello,
Looking to move up to a diesel from our current gas class A. Going to look at a 38PDQ. Soliciting any feedback from forum members on what to look for. Last week we drove a Kountry Star and really liked the Spartan chassis. I understand that the 05 rides on the RR8 chassis and has a 330 Cummins. Any comments on the aluminum roof? Any trouble-prone areas to concentrate on while inspecting the coach ? Thx, Kim & Don

[srydve]

Some Knights had problems with trailing arms that cracked, 05 may be new enough to avoid the problem, but you should be be aware of what years were affected. I'm sure a search here will give you lots of info. about the problem and potential solutions. Good luck.

[RVNeophytes2]

We are in our first MH, an '05 Spartan chassis with Cat 350 and like it much; 'cept that it drags on hills. Very quiet, barely hear the engine. Friends also new to this have an '05 Overland with the 330 Cummins, they report 10 mpg enroute from AZ to TX (flat, with tailwind).

The reports I'm hearing are pretty much universally favoring Spartan over Freightliner.

Good luck!

[Logthumper]

Problem was-is with the RR4R chassis not with RR8R chassis. The RR8R chasis is a great chassis.

[Rex]

There is a lot to read, but this like will give you what you need to know about the trailing arm issue.

Trailing Arms Cracked on Roadmaster

[JDT]

We have basically the same coach you are looking at. You will see references to the trailing arms issue for the both the Knight and its twin, the Ambassador. BUT, this is for model years 04 and back. In 05, Monaco changed both models to be on the RR8R 8 air bag chassis, which is basically the same chassis used on up the line. The RR4R is a 4 bag chassis.

As far as I know the only issues you will ever see about the RR8R is the ride. Our tracks and handles well but it can be a little harsh on really rough roads. We changed the shocks to Koni FSD's which helped a lot and added a Safe-T-Plus. Also, we were given an accident avoidance demo when we bought ours which was quite impressive.

The aluminum roof has not been an issue for us. It is quite solid for walking on while cleaning and requires little to no maintenance other than checking the seams once a year.

Be sure the Norcold recall has been done and check the date code on the tires. The tires on ours was September 04 and we have already changed them.

We have found our coach to well put together with very few issues in the 5 1/2 years we have owned it. The 330 is more than adequate to take us over the mountains and we pull a relatively heavy Acadia. We average about 9 mpg.