Community Forums

LonnieMarcia · 07-19-2018, 03:15 PM

We are first time rv’ers 3 yrs in so we can’t compare units but we love our 2006 National Tropical with a cummins diesel engine. If you’re new to owning a motorhome just be prepared for those little $$$$ annoyances. We travel CA freeway 99 often and it can practically vibrate or bounce your RV to pieces! Luckily the hubs is mechanical and has done most of our repairs which have been minor. We did have one repair we didn’t expect. We bought this unit from a dealer in WA & when it seems to good to be true...it is. The closet pop out floor was completely rotted out but the only way we found this out was as we used the unit the rollers it rests on as it pops out began cutting through the exterior sheet metal on the floor. We could see it from looking under the pop out after it was out. The weight of the clothes along with the rotted wood under the sheet metal had to be replaced. The pop out required removal so we had a repair shop do the deed. We had been told by the dealer this unit was always housed. I’m understanding now most dealers say that I guess. Obviously it had been leaking. We had Cummins run a diagnostic on the engine and all was good there. We replaced ALL of the fluids & tires & most of anything made of rubber for peace of mind that all was fresh and new. Good luck, just be diligent as you look your unit over. You can’t go wrong with a well taken care of Cummins diesel engine.

gfarmcafe · 07-19-2018, 03:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CJBROWN

How do you spell CAN. OF. WORMS?

A simple breakdown can cost tens of thousands. I wouldn't touch them with YOUR ten foot pole.

Good luck! You're gonna need it.

I agree with this opinion in that we had a Beaver, which was built on Gilig bus chassis with a Caterpillar diesel motor. We loved the quality of the build, but it had to be inspected and maintained much like an airplane. There are so many items that have to be routinely checked, either annually or before each trip. Every trip to the dealer for these annual inspections cost over a thousand dollars.

The one item that you should check is the heating system. If it has an Aqua Hot system run on diesel, but sure it works properly and has a maintenance history. Plus, you may not be too poplar in the campground when it's running and spewing diesel smoke. We purchased a tailpipe extension routing it up over the roof. Good luck.

proehm · 07-19-2018, 03:33 PM

I bought a '99 Coachmen Catalina 34' DP in late 2003.

Be aware that with something of this vintage, you will probably end up spending $3k per year on upkeep and maintenance.

I have had some problems with getting service on Cummins and Spartan Chassis, and Forest River barely acknowledges the existence of the older Coachmen stuff.

You can get some chassis specific parts from Spartan for their chassis.

And I haven't had the best of luck in finding mechanics for the Cummins in Indianapolis (which is in a certain way, ironic.) The place that used to be my "go to" has gone Freightliner only now.

There is a factory service center, but the company I work for hasn't had the best of luck with them.

CruzyCat · 07-19-2018, 03:37 PM

We love our 40' 1998 Gulfstream Tourmaster. Cummins diesel pusher. Top of the line in its day.
We have totally renovated it to include a home office.
As someone else mentioned though, parts are getting hard to find.
Good luck with your search!

Any ole Joe · 07-19-2018, 03:40 PM

This is a couple of years newer, but worth a look under the classifieds. We love it!
2007 Newmar Essex 4508 - RV & Motorhome Classifieds

cewarre · 07-19-2018, 03:40 PM

Don't buy a Cummins older than 2004 because of the improvements (mainly common rail injection) that could save you lots of money in the long run. I wish I had known this before I bought a 2002 and spent hundreds on lift pump and injection problems that don't exist on the newer engines.

Kbullwinkle · 07-19-2018, 03:59 PM

Hello...i have a 89 Gillig chassis with a 3208turbo c atapilar mated with a 4sp Allison auto tranny...40ft executive coach...and I pull a full size s aburban flat on the ground...i get 7 mile to the gallon of Deisel....when I was looking I looked at everything I could find...with this coach I have everything on my pro list...and none of the cons list....cooling this beast and keeping the power plant up is a little bit of work..but ive had gas coaches and id never own another one...make a list of what you want....what you dont...and go for it...good luck...and remember higher priced rigs dosnt mean a better rig...

Grumpy13 · 07-19-2018, 04:05 PM

Hi. I have a 38 Ft 2005 ALFA seeya with a Freightliner Xc chassis and CAT C7 with an Allison trans. This has been the best rv that I have had yet. The key on older DM is keep it well maintained. I have Caterpillar service the engine, trans and chassis. Freightliner has also serviced the chassis. The coach is maintained by Alfateers aka Leisure coachworks in Fontana, CA. Most of the people who work there used to build these coaches when the company was in business.
I tow a Jeep Liberty 4x4 and I don't know its there. Have talked to a lot of people who after buying lemon WB Tours, or FR fivers have said that they had considered buying an older ALFA, but thought a new RV would be better. A decision they regretted.
What ever you buy make sure that there qualified people that can maintain it. Good luck.

Mike
2005 ALFA SeeYa 38 ft
2004 Jeep Liberty 4x4 towed

PS: Note this is not a sales pitch. My coach is up for sale and is on the Leisure coachworks site. Take a look at the pics.

Piros1 · 07-19-2018, 04:10 PM

My 2 cents worth. I would recommend that what ever brand coach you purchase make sure it is a company that is still in business. I know I will catch some flak saying that because there are a lot of companies that are out of business that built some darn nice coaches, Beaver, Country Coach, are two. I own the latter a CC Affinity. My point is that even though there are still good support for these coaches some of their vendors no longer are around and some parts are no longer made. In my case door hinge bushings for one. Some things are small but they can be very time consuming and very aggravating to locate a replacement or have the replacement part made. Be sure that you are buying a coach that fits your needs and has the options you want. Most options are very hard to adapt to an older coach. It is very time consuming modify your coach to make some of the newer components fit the space you have. Furnishings and bedding changes are very hard to fit in a coach that they were not made for. The other thing you want to watch out for is the coach finish some of the older coaches when I was looking had a lot of checking in the finish. From what I have been told by others that this cannot be repaired even with a full body repaint. I looked at a lot of pre-emission coaches and every Monaco and American Eagle product I looked at had this issue. From what I was told this was a problem in the Owens Corning fiberglass. In most cases all coaches with a Cummins engine 2007 and older ae pre-emission, CAT is 2006 and older, not sure on Detroit. I purchased my coach from a dealer in AZ that only sold older coaches. I would recommend purchasing your coach from an individual owner, I think you will get a real picture of what you have and how it was maintained. A dealer buys the used coach takes it back to their lot, cleans it up and does minimal to it and he has no idea what has been done to it. Regardless buyer beware and check everything out as much as you possibly can. I recommend going in knowing you will have problems and try to find them before you purchase. If your gut tells you there may be a problem with a coach don't buy it just move on. Don't let the shine persuade you into a purchase. Ask me how I know. Good Luck and I hope you find your dream coach. PS, myself I am looking to get something newer in the 2011 up from a coach company that made it through the last major dip in the economy without changing hands.

etcjwf · 07-19-2018, 04:11 PM

We started off with a 31 foot class A gas RV about 3 years not knowing anything about RV life. We soon learned the things that were important to us in long term living in a RV and searched until a little over a year ago to find the right RV for us. We bought a 2005 Fleetwood Discovery with a 330HP Cat C7. The RV was on a dealer lot (Camping World) and had been traded in with damage to the basement compartments above the passenger side dually wheels. The damage was from a blowout. The coach had everything we were looking for and the dealership was going to do the repairs. We bought it and found out early on during our first trip that the coach had apparently sat idle for a long period of time before being traded and had algae in the fuel tank. It ended up costing me over $5000 to get that problem resolved and delayed my trip 10 days. A $10 fuel test kit at the dealership would have solved a lot of problems for me. It wouldn't hurt to ask the dealership wherever you purchase your diesel pusher to do a test before you buy.
Good luck to you and hope you find a machine you love...

FrankHaas · 07-19-2018, 04:40 PM

I bought a 2006 Coachman Cross Country model 351DS it’s 36.5 feet long gross weight 26,000 with a 300 hp 600 lbs of torque with 35,000 miles plenty of power and I get 10 mpg pulling a care 8.5 mpg pulls hills very well I had a 33 ft gas with a workhorse cassis 496 cu in and the coachman runs circles around it paid $48,800 with 2015 tires and new batteries and a 5.5 diesel gen that had 249 hours on it. Extremely happy with it after 10,000 miles and a year I put on it

craigbenoit · 07-19-2018, 04:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by herbc

I am looking for a 1999 to 2005 Diesel Class A motorhome up to 40 feet. I am not sure which model would be better and not sure where would be the best place to look. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Any ideas on what not to buy or what to look for would be great. If there is another forum covering this topic please let me know. Thanks. Herb

Herbc,
We searched for two years and finally made the jump in Feb 2017. We used RVTRADER.com to do research and joined FMCA as associate members, this was when they limited membership to Class A Owners only.

From these two resources we received great information and followed the following advice:

Pick several manufactures that are still in business. From this we narrowed our search to Tiffin, Newmar and Foretravel. We visited their websites, took the online factory tours that were available and checked out their online customer support.

Their chassis and bones are some of the best and they offer great support to older coach owners and provide factory supported maintenance to even older units. This indicated that they have confidence in the units they have built. I bet it is not cheep but if we need this level of help I would feel good about using them.

Decide on what you can afford.

Narrow you RVTRADER search to units within your price range, I suggest using a pretty high top end to be able to track asking price on units as they go from asked to sold.

One of the key elements that I wanted in any coach was pre emissions diesel. They still haven't got these systems worked out.

Once we sold our current 5th Wheel Dec. 2016, we really got serious about replacing our RV. By then we had a real good feel for what we could expect to find in our price range. I had been watching a 2004 Newmar that was listed at $58,000 and a few others above that price. In January 2017 we went to see two units within 100 miles of our home and this helped get a feel for what we could expect. We then flew to Florida to see that 2004 Newmar. After looking it over and talking about how to protect us from potential disaster we made an offer and it was accepted.

We did not purchase the dealers offered maintenance plan put picked up Good Sam's extended maintenance plan and their roadside assistance program and updated our FMCA membership that gave us several other benefits including emergency medical assistance that includes coach relocation. We have used the roadside assistance towing and repair once and replaced both AC units. The roadside issue we did not see coming but the major portion of the cost was covered. Fortunately we were able to limp the last 2 miles to home before calling for the tow. We had been on the road from the end of February to the end of May. The AC units were the original units and I was expecting problems with them. We replaced both for a $600.00 copay before we left home in the fall of 2017.

Their are a few other issues that I know we will need to address going forward but they are minor and pretty much what I have experienced owning RV's over the years. We look at the Good Sam Roadside Assist and the Extended Maintenance plan as disaster protection. We can budget the cost of the plans and handle the copays when they happen. Even the little surprise costs that are not covered are irritating but not killers.

This summer I will replace the flush valve on the toilet (have the part just got to get to it). And both dump valves, one is seeping, not a big deal just better to do it before we hit the road in October.

This past season October 1 2017 to May 29 2018 we drifted down to Florida over 6 weeks. Then left the rig in storage while we drove the jeep back home for the holidays. Then rejoined our rig the Friday before New Years and stayed in the Ft Meyers - Labelle area until April 1st. Then drifted up the Gulf coast out to Texas and finally headed home for Wife's Birthday at the end of May. OH and daughters wedding coming up August 18th.

Take your time in the research process and you will be ready to jump on that great deal when it jumps up at you.