Size of Engine

[MRBB]

When you hit that mountain with a steep grade that goes for miles and you are doing 20 mph, watching the temps go up with everyone going by blowing their horn and giving you the finger you will wish you had a big motor.

[Hootie-Owl]

I have a 40 foot Fleetwood Revolution with a 350 Cummins. I have not towed anything yet but I can say it is all the power I ever thought I would need to move out at steady highway speeds. The engine is not working hard at all.
While I think the coach itself and the comforts within are key, I like having the power of the 350 Cummins.

[bucks2]

Originally Posted by bachler

We done a lot of shopping.. Which is best ??? Well we/I found the best place for engine information (diesel) was at a truck stop. I talked to 1000s of them. Here's what I came up with. Would you buy a Big mack truck If you only needed a VW.. The Cat 300/330 (has the same torque) Is what the truckers call the Baby cat. Good for about 500000 Thousand miles. A lot of them like that engine. Cat/comm. Equal, And they (truckers) say that the Fuel mileage is better; We have a 330 DP tow a full size car No problem.. When I here someone say they need 400/500 HP in a motorhome. They need to readjust there driving habits and there schedules;; My neighbur Has a big thuck , Uses it to go to work , JUst him. Now I see that as a true waste. He could be driving a little compact Saving our resorces;; However it is a free country;; So you buy what you want, Some think they need 165 hp some think they need 500 hp. That is just fine. Which ever you get you will be happy. At times you will want more power and or fuel mileage; Life is good

Well maybe. Volkswagen did sell the crap out of the market with 36 hp. But I think there were a lot of muscle car enthusiasts that were buying way more hp. I don't like crawling up hills, and there are not enough passing lanes to let the cars by in a timely manner on every road. (this from a West Coast perspective) I have no time schedule that pushes me to be there at any given time, I have an internal device that says the impatient driver may pass at a bad time that puts me in danger. I don't like danger, call me chicken if you like.

I really started this reply to talk about your thought that "Which ever you get you will be happy." I think that has been proved wrong on thousands of occasions. How many people do we see on this site alone that are on their 3rd, 4th or more motorhome or trailer? They aren't happy with what they originally bought and want something bigger, faster, prettier, or whatever. I don't think I've ever read about someone looking for suggestions about what to buy because the "old" rig has 500,000 miles and everything is worn out.

I agree wholeheartedly with having a small car for local trips for groceries and even to work for those that still work. I have a 12 hp BMW Isetta I use for local travel whenever possible. 65 mpg. A single cylinder air cooled engine. It's not safe on the freeway, top speed 44 mph, but it works great around town. If I only had one vehicle it wouldn't work out, but with more vehicles I can choose the appropriate one.

Ken

[bachler]

Well We have pulled the Vantage pass With the tow car The tach. sets at 2100 rpms the speedo sets at 55Mph. and that pull is 11 miles long some 3500 feet. It is a puller Our coach with the tow comes in at near 32000,lbs 330 cat; It has out pulled a 400 cummings equaly loaded on the scales He thought it was running good ;;; I thought it was running good too;;If you all remember back the reason they did not put the diesel in the motorhome was ???? they were being shaken apart From the torque viberation..;; all is good;

[Mr_D]

Originally Posted by GaryKD

As to torque, forget it. For motor coach applications, there is an almost automatic relationship between HP and torque. When you get more HP you get more torque.

In ALL applications there is a direct correlation of HP/Torque since the HP is only a calculated figure derived from torque and rpm.
You can easily convert torque to horsepower by multiplying torque by rpm/5,252.
The calculation favors high rpm engines though. But it's still the way it's done.

[Jack1234]

In my opinion this is a no brainer! There have to be close to a zillion RV's currently for sale, so you need some criterion in order to narrow the choice...easy.....reject (1) floor plans you don't like & (2) inferior chassis & engine combos. Why bother with anything less than 300hp & 800-1000 ft/lbs of torque? There is a good reason newer Coaches are all sporting ISL's...people like to be able to climb hills & keep-up with traffic.

Just my 2cents.

[Mr_D]

Originally Posted by docj

I'm not going to try to tell you what is in your MH, but 1200 ft-lbs of torque from an ISC is way beyond any specs I have ever seen for this engine. Here's a link to a table which provides common performance configurations for the series of Cummins on-highway engines. http://www.dwclutch.com/D&W/D&W%20Cl...S%20TORQUE.pdf

The ISC is an engine designed for the ~1000 ft lbs market, the ISL is ~1200 ft lbs, the ISM ~1500 ft lbs, the ISM ~1700 ft lbs.

You missed the fact that we have the Banks PowerPack on a 350 ISC

Here's the stock ISC with the Banks kits and the ISL 400 charts.

[Mr_D]

Originally Posted by bucks2

Thanks to the separate hub/rotor design the rotors are pretty inexpensive compared to other cars.

Our Honda's are the same.

[JimM68]

One thing I don't see in all this....

For the most part, the engine will relate to the size and weight of the motorhome. These manufacturers are not building race cars after all.

36' and smaller will be a well under 30, 000 lb gvwr, and will mostly have an ISB engine.
38 to 40 footers will be 33000 lb, and will have an ISC.
42 and up will be 42000 lb ish and have an ISL.

A 40 ft coach with an isl will flat rock out.

Some lower line manufacturers will scimp to keep the price down, as an exqample, sportscoach sells a 40 footer with an isb, seriously underpowered.

My buddy has a 40 ft Endeavor with an isl, his gets down the road pretty good.

My 40 ft Knight has an isc, and works just fine. it's no racecar, but it gets the job done.

Bottom line is the floorplan is everything.

[bucks2]

Jim says: "Some lower line manufacturers will scimp to keep the price down, as an exqample, sportscoach sells a 40 footer with an isb, seriously underpowered."

So what happens Jim, when somebody buys one of these because they love the floorplan, but get agitated every time the come to a hill? They either hate driving the motorhome and it sits until they eventually sell it at a loss and they never buy another, or they look for another one, lose money on trading and wish they'd never bought that underpowered pile of junk.

I would maintain that the advice to look at hp/torque/# of mice IS a consideration that should be taken into account, floorplan isn't everything. Driving an MH is a stressful event with everything working well and with a good rig for some people. We want new RV'ers to enjoy the their time in it as much as we do. It they buy an underpowered rig, they may never get to the point where they enjoy taking it out camping because the drive to the destination is so stressful.

I think about how often I ride in someone else's MH since I don't work on them anymore. Hardly ever. Someone new may never know the joy of HP and stress free driving unless we tell them or show them.

[JimM68]

Originally Posted by bucks2

Jim says: "Some lower line manufacturers will scimp to keep the price down, as an exqample, sportscoach sells a 40 footer with an isb, seriously underpowered."

So what happens Jim, when somebody buys one of these because they love the floorplan, but get agitated every time the come to a hill?

My wife loved the floorplan.
I didn't like the entry level frieghtliner chassis, the isb engine, or the generally lower line appoinments. A pretty face, but not much substance underneath.

I found a Monaco, 3 years old, similar front kitchen floorplan, and only a few thousand more than the new sportscoach. Wife liked it, we bought it, everyone's happy.

You still get what you pay for. A more expensive coach from a better manufacturer will be better all around. Thier is still room in the market for an affordable coach, just as thier is for an Essex or Foretravel...

[Jack1234]

Originally Posted by JimM68

My wife loved the floorplan.
I didn't like the entry level frieghtliner chassis, the isb engine, or the generally lower line appoinments. A pretty face, but not much substance underneath.

I found a Monaco, 3 years old, similar front kitchen floorplan, and only a few thousand more than the new sportscoach. Wife liked it, we bought it, everyone's happy.

You still get what you pay for. A more expensive coach from a better manufacturer will be better all around. Thier is still room in the market for an affordable coach, just as thier is for an Essex or Foretravel...

While I agree with your post relating engine to length & weights, I still can't agree that floorplan is "everything". Now it appears that you are contradicting yourself! When push came to shove even you took chassis & drivetrain into consideration. As you say... Even if the floorplan is great, if the chassis & drivetrain suck... the same floorplan with the "right" stuff is for sale just down the street. Why compromise?

[AloraDanin]

OK...I get that the floorplan is important...don't want to be miserable in your home on wheels...but I'm nervous when I see some of you writing about white-knuckling down the highway...is driving a motor home that bad?

Is it just the longer ones that are difficult to drive? And what is ISL...and should I be worried about it if I'm buying an older (possibly 2000) motor home?

Thanks
Barbara

[Chuck 1935]

For me it's simple. My wife picks the floor plan and I pick the Chassis and Engine. This way we are both happy and it's a pleasure to drive and to live in. Before we bought our Motorhome we were fortunate to take a trip with our neighbors in their Motorhome. After driving it through Utah I soon learned what I wanted in a Motorhome. Climbing hills in second gear got old in a hurry.