Community Forums

Teamfoxy · 02-19-2021, 04:48 PM

We bought our 34 foot 2011 gas coach 2 years ago and have over a year in it full time. Still very happy with our choice. While we have a 20,500# chassis, we have over 4000# of OCCC which is more than some brands we looked at with comparable floorplans built on a 22,000# chassis.
Our choice of gas over diesel war based on being able to do most of my own work on it and being familiar with the V10 engine from our previous class C's.
Not in any hurry to trade for something else, but we do keep our eyes open in case opportunity knocks. But we have decided that anything older than our current coach would likely be a Country Coach, a Beaver, or a Monaco. If we buy newer, it will probably be a gas coach on the new Ford chassis once the bugs get worked out.

Roadmiester · 02-19-2021, 07:46 PM

We were prepared to buy new and were looking at the top end models. 2019 or 2020. The quality was not there in anything we looked at. Half of the top end models we saw were sitting in the repair shop at the dealer. Most of it was stuff that fell off during the trip from Indiana. So we went used. Country Coach, Beaver, Holiday Rambler and Monaco. Ended up with a 2009 Monaco Dynasty, 45 ft, tag axle, bath and a half, ISM500 no def or dpf. We updated the appliances, the old ones still worked, just wanted to start off with new. Our budget allowed this since we were way below what a new rig was costing. So new washer and dryer, dishwasher and new smart flat screen TV's. The floor plan was perfect and the colors were perfect according to co-pilot/DW. I got what I was looking for, she got what she wanted and we were still about $200 grand under new. Just rolled 100,000 miles on it, 40,000 miles in three years. We like to travel and I hope to never be in another plane or hotel room again. My advice to anyone, take you time, it's a lot of money. But I would never buy new unless I had several million to spend, then a Prevost, Newell or Foretravel might be in the cards. There are a lot of great older motorhomes out there. Parts, yeah it's a problem, takes some searching. So far we have been able to locate everything we have needed. And, there are many on this site who have been through the same thing and have come up with all kinds of fixes if you can't find the original part. Good luck.

Roadmiester
09 Dynasty Regal IV

Ivylog · 02-20-2021, 08:19 AM

OP, sorry for your lose but welcome back to the dark side. Since you had a Monaco before I’ll add this.

X2 on the ^^^^. Hadn’t planned on upgrading... sold our 04 Dynasty to our son 3 years ago. Looked at new and was not impressed with the quality and the bloated weight of new rigs which had a ISL...good engine but not for a rig that would weigh close to 50,000 when loaded for our half time use.
Love how the big Monaco’s handle and the 9,000 lbs of CCC so after 3 years and 20K miles the 08 Navigator was a good choice. Like Roadmiester, everything worked but I wanted smart LED TVs and DW wanted an induction instead of oven-cooktop. $5K later I had those plus 1000K solar, Silverleaf monitoring, 2nd basement slide tray, and AGM batteries.

It is definitely a sellers market with some absurd prices... many way more than what I paid 3 years ago for the same rig including Monaco Sigs and Exes.

hohenwald48 · 02-20-2021, 05:33 PM

I've had both DP's and gas units. I would never consider going into another DP. Maintenance and repair costs are way out of control. I blew a radiator on a Monaco DP and the nearly $6,000 repair bill to install a new one was enough to convince me. Not to mention oil change, transmission fluid and filter maintenance costs compared to gas.

My Newmar Canyon Star has 3500 pounds of carrying capacity which is plenty for our junk, it pulls my Wrangler just fine and rides acceptably. With a few hundred dollars worth of mods it handles just fine. I'm not a marathon driver anyway. 3 hours a day is about my limit. I've never found a hill I can't get up or a hill I can't get down. I easily go the speed limit and my CS has plenty of interior space. Additionally, I have an extra $150,000 still in my bank account.

I guess if I wanted to tow a 20K pound enclosed triple axle trailer I'd have to reconsider but I don't see me ever doing that.

I know everybody claims you need a DP for traveling but I just don't see it. I think it might have a little to do with the "status" of owning a DP but I'll never have another DP.