Community Forums

triplewide · 12-19-2020, 04:13 AM

I'll give an answer to a question you did not ask, (which is my specialty)

Every situation is different and you may need to trade up quickly, if you could wait, next year would probably be better. It is currently a sellers market for RV's, the first in my lifetime I think. There will likely be a shift to buyer's market when the vaccines take effect and RVing gets competition from other "normal" activities. Pricing and selection of used coaches should improve with time.

In some cases the potential $10-20K savings may not be worth waiting for.

txcpl · 12-19-2020, 05:00 AM

You have lots of questions about DP's, and I understand.
My experience has been to look for and purchase quality equipment, whether it be new or used. There are a number of quality RV's on the used market. Having said that, floorpan is key to your life style. So you will need to do your homework on which floor plan will fit your needs. My buddy just purchased a used Holiday Rambler for a great price and brought it home yesterday. Of course, used will have some kinks, and remember that DP's will cost way more than gasoline RV's for repairs.
good luck on your quest.

tpisi · 12-19-2020, 09:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Crasher

How are you going to use a class A? Long extended trips? How many miles per year? Mostly short extended weekend camping? All of these and more questions come into play. Keep in mind that for the same money a DP will be much older than a Gas coach. The gas would have newer appliances etc. Any DP will also be more expensive to maintain than a Gasser. That said, most DP's are designed with adequate power for their size and weight. The 3000 Allison is ok up to 1250# torque. (I prefer the 3000 six speed to the 2500 five speed) Floor plan should be your top priority, as you will be parked and living in it far more than you will be driving up mountains. Most DPs have a Freightliner chassis which is fine. The older Monaco has the Roadmaster which is fine too. Don't be concerned with the chassis, as they all perform well. For $100,000 or less, most if not all will be pre def. I've owned both and neither one is a problem.

We have a DP because I sometimes tow a 10,000# trailer and we run 10,000 miles per year. If we were only driving 5-6,000 miles and just towing a car, we would have stayed with a 36' gas coach. They both have there place and both provide the same experience.

Thanks for all the responses!

How we use our motor home?

This past year we've used our current C for many week or 2 trips. The farthest away from home we've been is 400 miles. This winter we plan to go to Texas for 3 months just checking out the state from end to end. We would normally go to Canada, 600 miles one way for 2-3 trips but obviously this was not possible. We tow a Mini Cooper behind which only weighs in around 2,500 lbs. We want to get more CCC thus the research for class A's. In the coming year we will probably put on around 10,000 miles. I want whatever we decide on to keep for at least a few years so we're not looking to step up in a year or two, thus my research into DPs.

tpisi · 12-19-2020, 10:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by triplewide

I'll give an answer to a question you did not ask, (which is my specialty)

Every situation is different and you may need to trade up quickly, if you could wait, next year would probably be better. It is currently a sellers market for RV's, the first in my lifetime I think. There will likely be a shift to buyer's market when the vaccines take effect and RVing gets competition from other "normal" activities. Pricing and selection of used coaches should improve with time.

In some cases the potential $10-20K savings may not be worth waiting for.

We're not in a hurry. Our current class C has been equipped with all the suspension upgrades and has served us well. We can get by with what we have but we know there is a class A in our future whether that be this year or next!

tpisi · 12-19-2020, 10:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by txcpl

You have lots of questions about DP's, and I understand.
My experience has been to look for and purchase quality equipment, whether it be new or used. There are a number of quality RV's on the used market. Having said that, floorpan is key to your life style. So you will need to do your homework on which floor plan will fit your needs. My buddy just purchased a used Holiday Rambler for a great price and brought it home yesterday. Of course, used will have some kinks, and remember that DP's will cost way more than gasoline RV's for repairs.
good luck on your quest.

Thanks for the response.
I have a list started as to what we want in the floor plan, outside storage/entertainment, suspension should we go with a gas coach, number of slides etc. I'm sure the list of wants & needs will grow as our search continues. I've always looked for gas coaches so the DP market is pretty foreign to me in terms of engine/drive line components.

chefred112 · 12-19-2020, 11:15 AM

All good info here...I was in your shoes maybe a few months ago. Never owned any type of RV before and was just a weekend tent camper...many weekends. During this year though tent camping is severely limited and not at all at my favorite getaway campground. But DW and I had a discussion about visiting family in the Midwest and east coast in 2021 and I threw the RV idea out in the open and to my surprise, she bit and was all in! Got that out of the way and we sat down to figure out wants an needs...as we did more and more research we realized the coach was getting longer and longer.... at the time we preferred a diesel but I was keeping my options open to gassers depending on the amenities we wanted to have. But as more research was done we realized that we wanted to do a lot of driving an exploring so driving/riding comfort as well as motor longevity became a prime factor. We started looking for something with a raised rail chassis and air bags...then storage became a must have and we looked for something with basement storage. After that the things DW wanted was a washer an dryer and a decent size toilet room that didn’t feel claustrophobic. Ruled out the open area toilet for one with its own door. Scoured Craigslist, RVTrader, and Popsrv for any potentials. We had just seen and nice 2000 American Dream but had a rusted frame and was on our way to see an older Ambassador when we saw a dealer off the interstate with about 6 class A’s , 3 gassers and 3 diesels. One that stuck out was a 40’ 2002 Newmar Mountain Aire DP...with only 15k miles on her. It was in excellent condition and barely used as the owner used it as a taxi primarily for his large family as opposed to camping. We liked it so much we drove there the next day to close on it. We realized that coaches like this to find is few and far between and we’ve been in that shoulda, coulda, woulda situation before and vowed that this would not be another... hence, we got our class A a week ago with a 400 Cummins..look forward to excitingly new memories!

chefred112 · 12-19-2020, 11:33 AM

Here she is...

chefred112 · 12-19-2020, 11:35 AM

Another pic...

Winemaker2 · 12-19-2020, 11:48 AM

We moved up from 2 gasser CL As to a DP. We wanted to stay small and ended up w a Newmar Ventana 3433. Many complain that short DPs drive poorly but I can say the VTDP 3433 with Comfort Drive is a real dream. I feel much more relaxed at the end of a days drive vs our old gasser. I feel we were lucky to end up with the comfort drive as I knew nothing about it when looking but recommend anyone moving up to a DP consider it as a very desirable feature... maybe especially in the shorter ones because it makes it EZ and relaxing.
We have a Cummins ISB 360 HP , 800+ files and the Alli 3000 trans. Many feel 450-500 HP is a min but look at HP / wt vs just HP. Many of the tag units are much heavier and need the HP because of the extra wt.