Spartan Chassis Input Needed

[brobox]

Originally Posted by Douglee25

Everything you just mentioned, Spartan doesn't even manufacture. They purchase it and install it on their chassis.

Spartan is very quick to point out those facts. Then sue the companies collecting million, one was the radiator company, but do not reimburse any of that to the customers that had to pay out of pocket for the defective product.
Since 2014 I have had the faulty AC line crimping blamed on Spartan, Entegra and the latest Pro Air. After 3 Entegras I still don't know who is at fault on all 3 of the Entegras having to have those line fittings replaced.

The next one is the DEF heads that left many stranded. Spartan's stance on that, "not until the NHTSA makes a requirement" we will continue to pass the junk on to the customers and they did for 5 years.

[Cruzer]

As it sits right now I put Spartan and Freightliner both as an acceptable chassis choice. But it wasn't always that way.

When I first started looking at diesel pushers 20 years ago I looked at a pair of bare chassis at the Newmar plant - a Freightliner and Spartan side by side. I could see the difference between them. The Spartan had larger mounting brackets and a better design for the engine cradle and numerous other features. It was over-built whereas the Freightliner was built to just meet the expectations and I determined that I wanted a Spartan chassis.

However, my choice of coaches over-ruled that because I found a 2004 Allegro Bus that really worked for us but was only available with the Freightliner. We had that coach for three years and had a number of issues with it but were all chassis related. In 2007 we found a new tag axle Allegro Bus that was perfect. And it was available with a Spartan chassis so we quickly pulled the trigger. We had that coach 8 years until we upgrade to the Entegra. Chassis repairs were minor and I was happy with the chassis and the company behind it.

Our K3 chassis is a great performer. We did have the bad radiator deal to go through. They had the upgrade kits available because they knew they had a ton of sub-standard radiators. But mine showed up just after the 3 year warranty ran out and Spartan wouldn't do anything about it. I was fortunate in that our Cornerstone is a 2016 so we escaped the defective DEF heads issue, which was legendary in how Spartan handled that for everyone else. With new ownership Spartan/Shyft isn't the same company anymore. They still make a well engineered chassis but they are no longer head and heels better than Freightliner.

I've spent some time looking at the American Coach Eagle, which uses a Freightliner chassis. I've also driven numerous FCCC Class A coaches in my magazine reviews and find that Freightliner has come a long way. FCCC is part of Daimler so they have deep pockets and are investing heavily into improving their product and customer support. Spartan, on the other hand, is always a bit cash poor and struggling to gain market share, which leaves them little cash to be supporting customers when things go wrong. FCCC is benefiting from Daimler's advanced technology and thigs like the V-ride rear suspension are making a big difference in how coaches with the V-ride handle. Reliability seems to be commensurate with Spartan because they are improving their component reliability. Nothing stays the same and changes will affect the King of the Hill in any arena. In the end - if it comes to choosing a new class A coach I would be happy with either chassis.

[dave&ginny]

Originally Posted by Douglee25

Everything you just mentioned, Spartan doesn't even manufacture. They purchase it and install it on their chassis.

Spartan welds up the frame and then builds the chassis. Since they have chosen suppliers, they must take responsibility for their choices. If I build someone a house, when it fails apart due to the cheap supplies I decided to use, wouldn’t I be held accountable?

I think Entegra also takes some of the responsibility for not demanding change in their supplier (Spartan).

[Douglee25]

Originally Posted by brobox

Spartan is very quick to point out those facts. Then sue the companies collecting million, one was the radiator company, but do not reimburse any of that to the customers that had to pay out of pocket for the defective product.
Since 2014 I have had the faulty AC line crimping blamed on Spartan, Entegra and the latest Pro Air. After 3 Entegras I still don't know who is at fault on all 3 of the Entegras having to have those line fittings replaced.

The next one is the DEF heads that left many stranded. Spartan's stance on that, "not until the NHTSA makes a requirement" we will continue to pass the junk on to the customers and they did for 5 years.

Understand that point. Would be nice to be reimbursed.

Originally Posted by Cruzer

As it sits right now I put Spartan and Freightliner both as an acceptable chassis choice. But it wasn't always that way.

When I first started looking at diesel pushers 20 years ago I looked at a pair of bare chassis at the Newmar plant - a Freightliner and Spartan side by side. I could see the difference between them. The Spartan had larger mounting brackets and a better design for the engine cradle and numerous other features. It was over-built whereas the Freightliner was built to just meet the expectations and I determined that I wanted a Spartan chassis.

However, my choice of coaches over-ruled that because I found a 2004 Allegro Bus that really worked for us but was only available with the Freightliner. We had that coach for three years and had a number of issues with it but were all chassis related. In 2007 we found a new tag axle Allegro Bus that was perfect. And it was available with a Spartan chassis so we quickly pulled the trigger. We had that coach 8 years until we upgrade to the Entegra. Chassis repairs were minor and I was happy with the chassis and the company behind it.

Our K3 chassis is a great performer. We did have the bad radiator deal to go through. They had the upgrade kits available because they knew they had a ton of sub-standard radiators. But mine showed up just after the 3 year warranty ran out and Spartan wouldn't do anything about it. I was fortunate in that our Cornerstone is a 2016 so we escaped the defective DEF heads issue, which was legendary in how Spartan handled that for everyone else. With new ownership Spartan/Shyft isn't the same company anymore. They still make a well engineered chassis but they are no longer head and heels better than Freightliner.

I've spent some time looking at the American Coach Eagle, which uses a Freightliner chassis. I've also driven numerous FCCC Class A coaches in my magazine reviews and find that Freightliner has come a long way. FCCC is part of Daimler so they have deep pockets and are investing heavily into improving their product and customer support. Spartan, on the other hand, is always a bit cash poor and struggling to gain market share, which leaves them little cash to be supporting customers when things go wrong. FCCC is benefiting from Daimler's advanced technology and thigs like the V-ride rear suspension are making a big difference in how coaches with the V-ride handle. Reliability seems to be commensurate with Spartan because they are improving their component reliability. Nothing stays the same and changes will affect the King of the Hill in any arena. In the end - if it comes to choosing a new class A coach I would be happy with either chassis.

Agreed. I've had both. Both chassis work well. You can get parts everywhere for Freightliner. Huge database to lookup parts online. Their systems work well.

Originally Posted by dave&ginny

Spartan welds up the frame and then builds the chassis. Since they have chosen suppliers, they must take responsibility for their choices. If I build someone a house, when it fails apart due to the cheap supplies I decided to use, wouldn’t I be held accountable?

I think Entegra also takes some of the responsibility for not demanding change in their supplier (Spartan).

I understand your position. I don't disagree at all. Just stating that nothing 'per say' that you specified was actually manufactured by Spartan. Spartan is more of a niche company with smaller pockets. They are less adept and willing to bend over backwards for their customers unfortunately.

[brobox]

Originally Posted by Douglee25

They are less adept and willing to bend over backwards for their customers unfortunately.

And that is the entire problem with Spartan. The steel welded together is great, but the road worthy items go to the lowest bidder and Spartan does not stand behind them. Just My Experience.

[oneknight]

We have only had the radiator problem with ours. They replaced it with minimal strain in me.

My other class a dp was a Monaco on roadmaster. That's a whole nother discussion, can only say I miss it.

Sent from my moto z3 using iRV2 - RV Forum mobile app

[DeWat]

We loved our Anthem when we had it, but we will never have anything else that sits on a Spartan. We a had couple of problems, all denied or "first we've heard about it" from Spartan. The most serious being the bolts holding the driver's side of our drive axle. One of the two bolts fell out who knows where and the other snapped in two while backing out of our driveway (https://www.irv2.com/forums/f278/bol...ml#post5145641). This was one of those "first we've heard of it", but Spartan made sure their lawyers were on the phone when we discussed the problem. When they had it fixed under warranty by one of the authorized centers near us, we NEVER did get any paperwork on the repair despite our asking multiple times!