Freightliner vs Spartan Chassis

[mojoracing]

Mountain air would be more comparable to the cornerstone in the entegra line.

[az99]

Do you really think an Entegra anything is equal to a Newmar of similar price? Why are there so many used Entegras for sale?

[HarleyOutlaw]

Originally Posted by mojoracing

Mountain air would be more comparable to the cornerstone in the entegra line.

Thank you

[loisjop]

Originally Posted by az99

Do you really think an Entegra anything is equal to a Newmar of similar price? Why are there so many used Entegras for sale?

No I don't, I think the Entegra is far ahead. I doubt there are an inordinate number of used Entegras for sale and a lot that are for sale is from people moving up to the next model of ENTEGRA.
The person that said you have to turn your head to watch tv in the Entegras obviously hasn't looked at their floor plans lately.
You guys that have never owned an ENTEGRA and want to run them down anyway must be trying to justify your reasons for buying a different brand, because you have no basis in fact.

[Gordon Dewald]

Statically speaking there cannot be that many used Entegras for sale compared to Newmars simply because Entegra is a new company and has not produced in total that great a number of coaches.

I estimate the total production of Entegras to date is about double the number of coaches Newmar produces a year.

Last I heard (a while ago) Entegra had produced a total of 2500 coaches. Newmar production was 40 per week and they were going to increase that (information from about a year ago).

Purchasers of both brands are very loyal to their manufacturer of choice.

[Gary RVRoamer]

To me, the difference is that when you buy a Spartan chassis, you know you are getting at least a mid-grade chassis and that the coach builder isn't skimping on the chassis (at least not much) simply to get a low price. With a Freightliner chassis, you need to know a bit about chassis capability and features so you can determine whether the coach builder did a good job of chassis selection or low-balled it so he could provide other more visible features without increasing the selling price. Therefore, for the uneducated buyer, a Spartan is a safer choice as long as the price is acceptable.

But when it's apple-to-apples, the differences are in small details and not overall capability, ride, etc. Strictly a Ford vs Chevy kind of thing.

[freen03]

I just ordered a new 2017 London Aire and I chose a Freightliner because when I picked up my new 2014 Mountain Aire 3 tires on it had manufacture dates 2 years old. Freightliner came to me and took the tires off had new ones mounted and balanced and I did not have to move my coach. That great service plus after reading Red Barons remarks about Freightliners Valid Air compared to Spartans Hadley Air made me choose Freightliner.

[DD788Snipe]

Originally Posted by Gordon Dewald

Statically speaking there cannot be that many used Entegras for sale compared to Newmars simply because Entegra is a new company and has not produced in total that great a number of coaches.

I estimate the total production of Entegras to date is about double the number of coaches Newmar produces a year.

Last I heard (a while ago) Entegra had produced a total of 2500 coaches. Newmar production was 40 per week and they were going to increase that (information from about a year ago).

Purchasers of both brands are very loyal to their manufacturer of choice.

Entegra was Travel Supreme before Thor bought the line. They've been around for a while.

[edgray]

Originally Posted by DD788Snipe

Entegra was Travel Supreme before Thor bought the line. They've been around for a while.

Not correct. Travel Supreme went Bankrupt. The brothers who own Jayco Trailers bought the assets of TS and started a new motorized coach building operation named Entegra Coach, now a part of Jayco. It was never owned by Thor. I believe the first model year for EC was 2010, and they've come a long way up the quality scale since then, IMO.

[Victory Blue]

Originally Posted by mojoracing

Mountain air would be more comparable to the cornerstone in the entegra line.

Mountain Aire might be comparable price-wise, but feature-wise it comes up short of an Anthem, especially if a lot of options aren't added.

[HarleyOutlaw]

Originally Posted by edgray

Not correct. Travel Supreme went Bankrupt. The brothers who own Jayco Trailers bought the assets of TS and started a new motorized coach building operation named Entegra Coach, now a part of Jayco. It was never owned by Thor. I believe the first model year for EC was 2010, and they've come a long way up the quality scale since then, IMO.

Quite honestly, if Thor owned Entegra I would be looking for another brand. Not pleased with Thors dealer network for service work and won't buy another Thor product.

[JFXG]

Originally Posted by edgray

Not correct. Travel Supreme went Bankrupt. The brothers who own Jayco Trailers bought the assets of TS and started a new motorized coach building operation named Entegra Coach, now a part of Jayco.

They are the Bontrager brothers, whose father founded and named Jayco (his middle name was Jay) in 1968. Jayco for nearly 50 years has built good, reasonable, reliable towables squarely aimed at the mid-price range of the market. They bought the remnants of TS out of bankruptcy in 2008, so Entegra has been Jayco from the start. Most importantly, they bought the TS name, thus establishing a lineage.

Entegra is, I believe, Jayco's first venture into the luxury coach world. The name selection itself is a smart piece of branding. Sounds vaguely like the word "Integrity", leaving buyers with a warm, trusting feeling. As a first effort it represents quite a change for the well established corporate culture of the company, but they seem to have some happy campers so far, in their eighth model year.


John & Diane, fulltiming since '12
'02 DS, FL, Cat, '04 Element
NHSO RVM103

[Brian W]

Originally Posted by mojoracing

Mountain air would be more comparable to the cornerstone in the entegra line.

Usually we agree, but not here. Cornerstone and London Aire would be more comparable.

MADP has 500hp, LADP has 600hp, Cornerstone has 600hp. MADP is roughly 100K less than Cornerstone and LADP. Cornerstone has Spartan K3 chassis, same as LADP with Spartan option. MADP with the Spartan option has a K2 chassis.

[RSteele]

The Spartan chassis (Dutch star) on my fathers coach the same model year as my winne has a metal coolant tank and metal hydraulic reservoir not plastic like my freightliner. I had to pay for and replace my plastic tank with a metal one when it failed. The Spartan chassis has a spin on coolant system filter, freitliner does not. Spartan has a spin on hydraulic system filter, freightliner does not. My freighliner overheats on long grades and it's a well known problem. Yes I know how to downshift it. Freighliner tried to fix the problem by changing the hydraulic oil from atf to motor oil. The extra pressure caused the oil cooler to fail so that was replaced. Then they added some rubber sheets to seal the cooling stack better etc. the root of the problem is stacking a 1050 square inch radiator with the CAC, ac condenser and hydraulic cooler. Spartan did not stack their cooling system and used a 1325 sq in radiator. Now this is an older chassis example I'm giving but I travel quite often with my father and his coach does not have the issues mine does. I hope they have not changed the new ones. Spartan seems to over engineer in my opinion while freighliner engineers to be just adequate. I am in the process of trying to find a replacement radiator. The factory unit is not recoreable and has plastic end tanks like newer automobiles. The Spartan chassis I'm talking about has a recoreable radiator. Military vehicles are usually over engineered and Spartan builds a lot of them, I think some of it carries over to their RV chassis from what I've seen. I'm hoping my next coach has a Spartan chassis this freightliner cooling system has frustrated the heck out of me and it's not over yet.