Fleetwood Excursion 33D

[clafro]

The impressive floor plan of Fleetwood's Excursion 33D drew us into a dealer while on vacation in Florida for a test drive. It drove really crappy, terrible road noise and vibration like the tires were never balanced. We tried another dealer in Florida and got the same exact terrible ride quality. We decided we needed to drive another coach on a Freightliner XCS chassis to compare so we test drove a Palazzo 33.2 (same wheel base as the 33D). We couldn't believe how quiet and vibration free it was. We always associate quality with Fleetwood but we might have to rethink that. Anyway next we tried a Winnebago Forza and it's ride quality was worse than the Excursion. We were really kind of depressed because we love most of the Excursion 33D but we are surely not going to shell out 70-80k to upgrade from our 2011 Southwind 32VS when the Southwind's ride is far superior. On the way home from Florida we stopped in Virginia and test drove another 33D and it was just as bad. When we got back to Massachusetts we gave it one more try at a local dealership and their 33D had the same vibration and road noise. After making it clear to them we were not impressed with the ride the salesman agreed that the vibration was excessive. We left them to figure out the problem making it clear we would buy the coach if they could improve the ride quality. They later emailed that they had adjusted the tire pressure from 120 to 90 and it improved the ride. We went back and tried again taking it on a longer test drive and mind you the highway near the dealer was recently resurfaced and is a very smooth road (kind of unusual in the Northeast). The pressure adjustment really made no difference the steering wheel shook badly you could feel the vibration through the whole coach. What we would like to find out is if other RV'ers are have the same experience with the Excursion 33D.
Thanks

[follows]

We are looking at the Winnebago Forza 34T. Have yet to take one out for a test drive, so disappointing to hear that the ride is so poor. I'd also like to hear from anyone who has a Forza.

[clafro]

The Forza had a lot of quality issues as well. Could be just early production problems but the bath room was falling apart. Make sure to check the curved piece of wood in front of the sink and make sure it's secure. Also dragging that table out and setting it up to have lunch while on the road seemed crazy. One other thing I noticed is the passenger seat is kind of like sitting in a bowl. The side wall is not strong enough to support the sliding tray that comes out it's all kind of wobbly.