100,000 miles on a Diesel Pusher

[Go Dawgs]

Longtime Rver, but looking to move to a class a diesel. Should I be worried about an rv that has 100,000 miles on it vs one that is say around 40K to 50K? What should I look for, besides the normal RV issues?

[wolfe10]

If properly maintained, no worries.


We sold our 1993 Foretravel with 170,000 miles on it and it is still going strong for the new owner.

[lllkrob]

Look for maintenance records, if none are available walk away. A poorly maintained diesel will cost BIG DOLLARS to repair.

[jacwjames]

Depending on what engine but most will go 500K if properly maintained.

I have 117K miles on mine and it still has many miles left on it. I have been doing oil and coolant analysis on mine just to confirm.



So if you find a rig you like and it ticks all the boxes I'd suggest fluid analysis on it before you buy. Engine, transmission, and generator oil. Do a coolant analysis also.

[Iceclimber]

The enemy of diesel engines is not using them. No, I would not be worried about 100k, just as mentioned above understanding the maintenance records is advisable. Not everyone keeps perfect documentation, so agreed the testing shows the truth. Some advise "walk away" and you might be walking away from a good buy. I can tell you decent used DP's are in short supply around here.

[Sinyyl]

Depend on what type of RV you are looking at. If it is a Newell, Prevost, Foretravel, 100k is just the beginning of it's life.

If you are looking at Monaco, Country Coach, American Coach etc., I think it may be in mid life. I will expect 200k miles from those. Why? I tried seach these types of coaches with over 200k miles on RVTraders, there aren't much (if at all). But plenty of ones around 100k.

If any lower rank coaches, I am really not so confident about them over 100k.

Of course, it all depends on the maintance like others said. You can't see the inside of the engine for sure, but if it looks relatively rust free, engine sounds ok, not too much soot, exhausts normally, mostly clean it probably is fine.

Lastly, be ready to be dirty. If you are handy, they may still be affordable. Otherwise, expect to spend major money on them. Even my relatively good shape 100k Monaco Windsor have problems all the time, small or big. It would cost me more than the worth of the coach had I hired people to work on it.

[dadej]

You need to be more specific:


What do you want to spend
What year are you looking at
You will find that almost no one has detailed records as dealers throw away most records.


I bought my Beaver one year ago for 20%of new now in the economic environment it is about 16% of new. If you buy newer the % goes up.

[RVFunlovers]

On the surface I would not worry about the 100K.
If properly maintained.

For most motorhomes the house will wear out before the chassis and engine.

Some people do 3K a year and others do 15K a year. Both are fine if they take care of everything.

[Barneyb]

Ours has over 90,000 miles and no issues above normal ware, Cummins 350 should go 200,000 easy.

[Crasher]

The 450 ISL in the coach we sold last Sept had 83,000 miles on it. It still did not use any oil in 10,000 mile annual change intervals. I would expect it to run 300,000 miles or more without a problem if the new owner maintains it like I did. Both the 450 ISL and the ISX 600 hp Cummins that is in my sons Newell will last longer than most people will keep a coach if serviced regularly.

FWIW 199,000 miles is only 2200 hours at 45 mph which is close to the overall average of the time the engine is running. I overhauled tractor engines at 6,000 hours and they worked close to 90% power vs the 40-50% power pushing a motorhome down the road. 6,000 hours on a motorhome is 270,000 easy miles by comparison.

[Gary RVRoamer]

A big diesel in a motorhome will go 500k miles between engine rebuilds (pistons & such), but other components (starters, water pumps, alternators, etc) last about the same as in a gas engine, so yeah you will start to see component failures around 100k miles. Air brakes in typical diesel motorhome use are probably good for 200k miles before new brake pads are needed. Air suspension (air bags) mostly die of old age rather than mileage - figure 15-20 years.

[Iceclimber]

Originally Posted by Sinyyl

Depend on what type of RV you are looking at. If it is a Newell, Prevost, Foretravel, 100k is just the beginning of it's life.

If you are looking at Monaco, Country Coach, American Coach etc., I think it may be in mid life. I will expect 200k miles from those. Why? I tried seach these types of coaches with over 200k miles on RVTraders, there aren't much (if at all). But plenty of ones around 100k.

If any lower rank coaches, I am really not so confident about them over 100k.

Of course, it all depends on the maintance like others said. You can't see the inside of the engine for sure, but if it looks relatively rust free, engine sounds ok, not too much soot, exhausts normally, mostly clean it probably is fine.

Lastly, be ready to be dirty. If you are handy, they may still be affordable. Otherwise, expect to spend major money on them. Even my relatively good shape 100k Monaco Windsor have problems all the time, small or big. It would cost me more than the worth of the coach had I hired people to work on it.

I'd be curious about any facts to back this up. These coaches are motors, transmissions and chassis. If you are aware of a make of motor or transmission that is somehow less dependable based on stats, by all means share.

[jacwjames]

I managed mines (and complexes). We tracked maintenance very closely and engine hours were the metric we used.

The main pieces of equipment was run hard. trucks and loaders were the work horses. And the environment was pretty harsh.

I've seen engine run +10,000 hours. We did oil changes every 150 hours which was ~7-8 days (6 hours per shift X 3 shifts per day). Oil analysis was done every oil change.

We would also track costs and if an engine started to show higher costs we'd pull it and have it rebuilt. We compared engines on a $/hour basis and knew what engines were performing and which ones weren't. We could get several rebuilds out of an engine.

I had one engine that just kept running, no signs of problems, good performance, good oil samples with no signs of metal wear. It was a freak. So I decided to just let it run, we got 14,000 hours on it. I figured this would be equivalent to 750K miles.

[Ray,IN]

I agree about the motor and transmission, but all the suspension, drivetrain and steering parts have that mileage too; plus the appliances are old well used and may fail at any point.
The high-end MH's are on a commercial chassis built to last a million miles, but not without schedulet maintenance.