Mercedes based RV owners

[DebbieMH]

Originally Posted by scarletbison

Newbie here been searching and reviewing since about a year ago, I'm interested in something that is easily handled by 1 father and 2 girls ( most of the time) for a summer long trip across the country from NJ and back..

Initially was focusing on class A because of the space afforded similar to itasca 27N. Both my wife and I are over 6 ft tall and our kids while only 10 and 6 are tracking to be over 6 ft as well.

But concerned about "single handing". As my wife would only be able to join us for 2-3 weeks of the 8 week trip.

Also concerned about as mileage which started me looking at the Reyo, Via, Navion , Thor chateaux citation, all on the Mercedes sprinter chassis. I would love to hear from those of you that have been putting lots of miles how the daily or every other day drivability of these rigs as well as livability comments.

My intent would be to campground a lot with occasional boon docking or Walmart docking.

My thought with these smaller rigs is it might be easier to park at various tourist sites along the way such saint Louis arch, Mount Rushmore, Seattle sights, driving the mountain highways etc as well as when we visit friends along the way easier to park in their driveways etc.

Thanks in advance for your replies,
Grant T

We have a Forest river Solera. We have 17000 miles on it already and it is only 11 months old! Love it - add a bigger sway bar, and it drives like a car. Plenty of room for my husband and myself and two dogs.

[88keys]

Parking, reversing, mileage...and just general drive-ability is exceptional in our Mercedes Sprinter based RV. Surprisingly good.

When we first brought it home, my first thought was that it was going to be "real fun" backing it into our suburban driveway. I envisioned backing & forthing for quite some time before shoe-horning the thing into our driveway. Nope....right in, first time, without a hitch. The back up camera and the large mirrors made it a breeze.

We really didn't expect it to be as good as it is after our experience with previous Class C's that were in the family.

[Izzyblueye]

Man you folks are talking me right into a Mercedes chassis small RV. I have had just about every configuration of RV, but one of these. I was happiest with the big "A", but I no longer am plural, just me an a fat cat. I am 80 but feel 50 so I want to stay on the road but not full time.

[van_fl]

We have Been all over the States with our 2011 Coachman Prism ,P220. Have about 26,000 on it now. Out of the Box We headed to Alaska with it from Florida, three months later and 13,000 miles no big problems. We do lots of short trips and weekenders. Have found it easy to get anywhere with it and there is no need for a towed. Wife and daughter have no problems driving/ parking it. We get a constant 13 -14-15 MPG at 60-65 MPH . If you push it to 70 MPH you are looking at 9-11 MPG, after all you are pushing a large barn door through the air.
PS I love the Sprinter.

[taylorgso]

Just finished 800+ mile trip to GoodSam Rally in Georgia, and trip back was a tour through the GA & NC Mountains. I averaged 15.6mpg for the whole trip which included a lot of mountain climbing. At no time did I feel I couldn't maintain speed to keep up with traffic. The trip down to GA was nonstop 350 miles, and driving the Sprinter for long distances does not tire me as much as in our family car. Ours is a Forest River Solera - the model with the Murphy bed. We've been extremely pleased with our unit. We did find a defect on the trip - the oven pilot would not stay lit after oven reached set temperature, so we'll take it in to dealer next week for that. We downsized from a 38' pusher, and will never go back to anything that large. The maneuverability is outstanding - I doubt we'll ever get into a tight spot that's difficult to get out of or turn around... and I've actually parallel parked it between two cars on the curb... would never have attempted anything like that with the Class A.

[IMPULSE DRIVEN]

Originally Posted by taylorgso

Just finished 800+ mile trip to GoodSam Rally in Georgia, and trip back was a tour through the GA & NC Mountains. I averaged 15.6mpg for the whole trip which included a lot of mountain climbing. At no time did I feel I couldn't maintain speed to keep up with traffic. The trip down to GA was nonstop 350 miles, and driving the Sprinter for long distances does not tire me as much as in our family car. Ours is a Forest River Solera - the model with the Murphy bed. We've been extremely pleased with our unit. We did find a defect on the trip - the oven pilot would not stay lit after oven reached set temperature, so we'll take it in to dealer next week for that. We downsized from a 38' pusher, and will never go back to anything that large. The maneuverability is outstanding - I doubt we'll ever get into a tight spot that's difficult to get out of or turn around... and I've actually parallel parked it between two cars on the curb... would never have attempted anything like that with the Class A.

though class A is nice, the cost factor and lack of maneuverability are the downside, the fuel mileage is a huge selling pound on the Mercedes based RV.

[eestork]

What did the sway bar cost to install and buy? Front also?

[RVSolomons]

Been taking trips in our 2005 Leisure Travel FreeSpirit since we picked it up at the factory almost to the day 9 years ago. I think longest in it was about 5 weeks. Have to plan carefully as to clothes and food but we found it good. We have the electric lay flat sofa you add table top and cushions to make a king bed but finally decided to leave the table top and cushions out and make bed that way. Upper two thirds of our bodies rest on sofa and our legs are on the narrower side benches. It works for us. We tried carrying a memory foam pad but it got in the way during day so we switched to two twin air beds and it is as comfy as our sleep number at home. If going boondocking such as with our club we will carry a big ice chest with extra stuff so we don't have to pull up camp to go to store but that only works if weather is cool as we sit it outside on our mat next to chairs. Best mileage so far is on a trip from Sacramento over 50/88/89 to Carson valley, on our way south to see friends in AZ. Filled in Sac and then refilled over the other side of the Sierras. I calculated mpg 3 times because I could not believe it. Got 28 mpg on that leg of the trip. Mostly around town I get 16 to 18 which is better than our PT Cruiser does in town! On freeway longer drives I get around 20 to 22 here in Ca, but the engine is barely broken in at just over 26,000 miles. All components except the stupid Onan generator have held up well. Generator was repaired under warranty and has failed again. Need to take it in but husbands cancer treatment over the past year has had me with little time to spend a day over the other side of town. Hoping by fall we can take a couple of short trips if life quits kicking us. All in all the Sprinter LT is everything I hoped for. Would I buy another, absolutely if we were not wanting to travel with disabled son and two cats on longer trips now and then. For that reason we are,putting our GMC bus up for sale as it is too much for hubby anymore and will add a in between size to our family fleet of vehicles and do short two person trips in van and longer trips in a longer rig. Engine wise we finally replaced the original battery just yesterday. We added a solar panel up top at AM Solar in Oregon about 5 years ago which keeps batteries topped off and we can do anything except of course AC and microwave with the panel plus two house batteries. We changed out the underseat battery and added the second with AGM's when we had solar installed and the system works great for us.

[elektron]

Originally Posted by IMPULSE DRIVEN

How is the performance on hills? That is one factor I'm getting a diesel I'd the power and performance.

My last trip was in the "mountains" of Western Maryland. At times the grades were alarming, and so were the sheer drop offs from the road. But the Sprinter will climb even extremely steep grades. Lost a bit of fuel economy on this trip compared to the previous two, but still over 17 mpg. I expect more mpg as the Diesels generally get better once they have some significant miles on them.

I passed a larger Class C with a Ford chassis who was towing a car before getting to a long grade. He was right behind me as we reached one of those grades that slow trucks down which must have been two to three miles long. By the time I was at the top, I couldn't see the other RV.

Horsepower ratings do not actually measure the true power of an engine. They measure the peak power. Diesel engines produce more power over their RPM ranges than gasoline engines do. So in my cars, a 140hp Diesel easily meets the performance of the 170 hp rated gasoline engine.

Even though 188hp in the Sprinter doesn't sound like much, it performs very well. There is a lag before the power comes on strong when the turbo has to spin up when accelerating from a stop. I try to stay off the turbo for better fuel economy.

There were some hills that slowed me down to about 35 mph near New Germany. The Interstates are no problem although some grades on I-68 going over the "mountains" slowed me from 65 down to about 58 mph.

Some of the roads in WV are quite steep also. So far any road that the Rand McNally RVGPS will route me over has been successfully navigated.

[Old Dude 66]

We are seriously thinking about going to a Winnebago Via. We pull a Jeep Wrangler four down that weighs 4120 pounds and travel in the Colorado mountains.

Would anyone have a guess as to whether the MB engine can handle mountain passes?

Doesn't bother me that we would have to take it slow since our 35 foot Class A V10 pulls down to as slow as 28 mph on the steep grades.

[neschultz]

I can't say enough good things about our Via. It drives and handles like a large van. We've been thru the mountains in VA, ND and PA with no problems. I usually set the cruise 5 mph below the speed limit just to be cautious and it has no problems. I was also surprised to see how well it maintains speed going down the mountains. I often did not touch the brakes on a 6% grade and never increased more than 5 mph (with cruise on). The Class A Via and Reyo have a lot more outside storage than a C. Look at the specs though... a 4100 pound Jeep might be pushing the weight limit.

And my wife is very comfortable driving it!

[Steve Ownby]

Originally Posted by Old Dude 66

We are seriously thinking about going to a Winnebago Via. We pull a Jeep Wrangler four down that weighs 4120 pounds and travel in the Colorado mountains.

Would anyone have a guess as to whether the MB engine can handle mountain passes?

Doesn't bother me that we would have to take it slow since our 35 foot Class A V10 pulls down to as slow as 28 mph on the steep grades.

In '10 we took a cross country trip with our best friends. They were in a brand new Via. We crossed the Big Horn Mountains on US 16 from Buffalo to Cody. Then from Cody into Yellowstone through the east entrance. We came back on I70 and made the long pull up to the Eisenhower tunnel west of Denver. They were pulling a Saturn Vue.

The little MB engine did ok. The lack of an engine brake was noticeable but acceptable. The small size of the fuel and holding tanks were the biggest shortcomings. Milage was 12-15.


Steve Ownby
Full time since '07

[PAB4]

We love our View. We r first time rv'ers. Our only concern has been the movement in the coach even when we r level. Any experience or recommendations will be appreciated.
Thanks

[Steve Ownby]

Originally Posted by PAB4

We love our View. We r first time rv'ers. Our only concern has been the movement in the coach even when we r level. Any experience or recommendations will be appreciated.

Thanks

Our best friends bought a '10 Via, which is the same chassis as your View. We went with them to Moscow, IA where HWH is located and had jacks installed. They make a system specifically for that MB chassis. They were very happy with it.



Steve Ownby
Full time since '07