Community Forums

Snomas1 · 02-04-2012, 09:41 AM

A lot of good opinions here. I would definitly look for a rig w/ @ least one slide. The more the better. I have owned a class A w/ no slide and now have 2 slides and wish it had four!!!! Condition and maintenance is always an issue on used units. Diesel engines don't really get broken in until after 30K miles. The house part of the coach condition is very important. Good luck on your choice.

PyrateSilly · 02-04-2012, 12:34 PM

Ours is a 1993 Monaco Signature coach. No slides, which we specifically looked for, and a side aisle instead of straight down the middle. If you looked at the blog in the signature you would see LOTS of room for 2 or more adults to move around in. I have a kitchen bigger than most apartment kitchens.
Floorplan, Floorplan and oh yea the Floorplan. We looked at some that supposedly were bigger but with the layout you could not move without going sideways between things. You want to walk around and pretend you are doing the things that you would normally do like sitting to read, TV if you watch that, sit on the toliet, lay in the bed, see how it is to get out of the bed and oh a whole host of other things. You will be in all the other areas besides the drivers seat most of the time so make sure you are comfortable there. Of course drive it too, if anything jumps out as wrong say something and/or walk away.
Always be ready to walk away, NEVER settle for something you only sorta like.

RUNDLC · 02-05-2012, 09:10 PM

Just over a year ago we bought our first dp, a 93 H.R. navigator. The nav was the top of the line. Our rig had 155k miles and was in decent shape, no slides which I really wanted but only paid 14K from a little old lady from Sacramento, she and her husband traveled a bit and kept it up mechanically. The interior needed some help, nothing drastic. We remodeled the interior, did a full body paint job and now she looks like a late model rig and we are into for just around 23K.

I was able to get most of the records that they had, all in all we are very happy, now I would like the slides and get a newer look but it is just our first DP/

Look for what you want and if you have skills to do things yourself you can save a ton of dough and have some fun in the process.

Good luck on your search

B Bob · 02-05-2012, 09:28 PM

gschwob - Well made coaches last a very long time. Poorly made coaches are not much good from the beginning. Spend a lot of time looking and figure out what is important to you with regard to floorplan and storage space. I absolutely agree with the poster that suggested getting the rvcg (RV consumer group) information. I found their disk on motor homes invaluable when we were looking for ours. In general I found their ratings of handling and quality to agree with my actual experience in driving and looking at the coaches.

If you want slides they became common in the late 1990's. So before that you will not get them. We originally started out looking for a Blue Bird, but we just decided we could not live without a couple of slides. We have two driver side slides. I would not want more. Unless I was going to have 18 people over for dinner every night I would never want a front passenger side slide. It blocks access to the basement and hogs the patio space. But that is our personal choice.

I do think very low mileage coaches are not necessarily desirable. Seals dry out and so on so you get "lot rot". One of my friend ignored this and spent two years getting his coach to run right.

Stick to the better made vehicles. It should be obvious if you look at them closely. Do not be distracted by bling. Look for solid careful design and assembly. Refer to the RVCG stuff.

Have fun. RV shopping can be loads of fun.