B Bob
Jamul, CA, USA
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Joined: 05/07/2003
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Prices right now are at a record low for used diesels. My suggestion would be to consider a used diesel over a newer gas class A. But there are good reasons to buy gas coaches too that may apply to you.
Some really good friends of ours just bought last month in Portland Or a 99 Winne 35' DP with one slide. A pretty nice coach with about 90,000 miles. They paid $32,000. They picked it up and drove immediately to San Diego. Ran fine. Of course you can spend more money than that, but you don't have to.
IMHO - diesel motors work better than gas in motor homes. Max torque is the key when you want to power a motor home and get the best miles to the gallon. Not that there aren't plenty of great gas coaches, I owned one until two months ago. But diesel usually moves you effortlessly up hills better than a gas motor. You can get gas motors to power you up a hill, but you might have to really push the peddle all the way to the floor and spin up a bunch of noise.
Thats my two cents anyway. BTW - the coach we just signed papers on has a diesel motor. We think it is an upgrade from our great older gas coach.
Bob & Barbara Nuttmann
2002 Country Coach Affinity 42'
Jamul, CA
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Wade LeClair
Ontario
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Joined: 06/13/2009
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We own a 96 Newmar Mountain Aire and are very happy with the coach quality! It has help up very well over the years although we have owned it only 6 months. There have not been any coach issues, a few with the F-53 chassis but after 160,000 kms you can expect a few.
Regards, Wade
1996 Newmar Mountain Aire
Ford 460
Banks System
Roadmaster Tow Bar
Saturn SL2 Toad
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stevelv
Living on the island
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Joined: 05/24/2006
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All I know is that the older you go the better the house was built and the more inferior the chassis was.
RV Park Finder
Ex Fulltimers
Repairing/Restoring 1984 Monaco Regent 36' Gas to restart RVing
DH,DW,Jake and Indie
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randco
Sarasota, Florida
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Joined: 06/03/2007
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Ro646a wrote:I enjoyed reading the comments in another thread regarding the realtive quality of Class A diesel coaches. Now I wonder if anyone would care to comment on the rankings of Class A gas units, for those of us who can't afford diesels.
In an un-scientific poll conducted on this forum 276 individuals participated in the poll that owned Class A gas motorhomes.
The Fleetwood Southwind was the most popular with 19 folks owning them. Next was a tie for second place with Fleetwood Bounder with 17, Fleetwood Pace Arrow with 17, Winnebago Adventurer with 17. The Fourwinds Hurricane had 11, the Itasca Suncruiser had 10 , Forest River Georgetown and the Tiffin Allegro both had 9, the Tiffin Allegro Bay had 7 followed by Damon Daybreak, Georgie Boy Pursuit, Holiday Rambler Vacationer, National Dolphin, National Seabreeze and the Damon Challenger all having 6 participating members owning them.
Fleetwood was was the most popular manufacturer of Class A gas motorhomes with a total of 62 owners. Winnebago/Itasca was second with 53 owners, Thor (Damon and Fourwinds) was third with 30 owners, Monaco (Monaco, Holiday Rambler, Beaver, Safari) was fourth with 25 owners and Tiffin and National tied for fifth with 18 owners.
One other note: the poll had a total of 668 participants. As I mentioned above, 276 or 41.3% owned Class A gassers and 392 or 58.7%owned Diesels.
I hope this helps to answer your question.
* This post was
edited 11/07/09 04:34am by randco *
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mike brez
milford ct
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Joined: 09/27/2002
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stevelv wrote:All I know is that the older you go the better the house was built and the more inferior the chassis was.
X2
1994 Pace Arrow 33L Class A 454 P30 2002 F250 lariet crewcab 4x4 7.3 PSD srw short bed auto 3.73 gears,reese 16k slide hitch,reese brake controller ford factory aic,autometer three guage pod trany temp,pyrometer,turbo boost,banks 4inch monster exhaust,aFe air box,sonnax valve and tri springs,magnafine trans filter,Wicked Wheel,TS flip chip 75/100/125/OMG,03 tt heated/signal mirrors,runningboard leds.Other than that its all stock
2oo4 ground up ridgid chopper 120rwhp
http://community.webshots.com/user/oneHD
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Ro646a
New Boston, MI
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Joined: 03/03/2007
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randco
That is the type of answer I was looking for, thank you. 
I never indicated that I was in the market to buy anything. We just bought our class A in June and are very happy with it. I'm not sure how some of the others got the impression that I was looking for advice on buying.
One guy even said something about not falling into this trap again????
Thank you all for your input.
2000 Newmar Dutch Star, Ford F53 Chassis
Roadmaster Sterling All terrain tow bar
Brakemaster
2002 Chevy Tracker V6 4x4
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rvtommy
blooming prairie minnesota
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Joined: 07/15/2004
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We have 3550 Rexhall !!! Wife loves it, 96 gals. fresh water tank, Wife loves it, 65 gals of black, Wife loves it, 65 gals. of grey, Wife loves it!!! Need I say more!! rvtommy
this is rvtommy
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randco
Sarasota, Florida
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Ro646a wrote:randco
That is the type of answer I was looking for, thank you.
I never indicated that I was in the market to buy anything. We just bought our class A in June and are very happy with it. I'm not sure how some of the others got the impression that I was looking for advice on buying.
One guy even said something about not falling into this trap again????
Thank you all for your input.
I'm glad that I was able to help you.
Have a great day and weekend.
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the trippers
Sandy, Utah
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Joined: 02/12/2005
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Fleetwood 33vs Southwind, 2006, 8.1 liter, Allison, great floor plan, no big fix-it issues, runs great every time, perfect size & floor plan for us and the places we go. Best deal on the size we wanted. We don't travel enough, or want the extra space, to warrant a diesel, although we could've bought one at the time.
2006 Fleetwood Southwind 32v, Workhorse-Allison, 2006 Jeep Grand Cherokee LTD
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driveby
Vancouver BC Canada
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Joined: 01/07/2005
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it also depends on how you view quality - to me that means under the walls and in the corners - IE no shortcuts in wiring and finish. Others may say that extra features are more important.
Best Bang for the Buck is a better term IMHO. In that case Winnie, Newmar and Tiffin would fall into that for me with Damon (being less $$ and less quality in the units I looked at) also being in the running. At least that was in the case in 2007 when I was shopping.
2008 Itasca Sunova 35J Class A
1997 TJ Sahara, hard and soft tops and AC
Held together via Roadmaster Falcon 2 tow bar and stopped by US Gear Unified Brake system.
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