5th Wheel Guy going to Class C General Questions

rkassl wrote:
I never thought I would be doing this but because of some health issues we may need to down size and make RV'ing a little easier for the wife and I.

I love my diesel tow vehicle for the 5th wheel, any suggestions on a diesel or gas chassis to start with. We may tow a toad.

I am familiar with sliders on the 5th wheel, are they a must for the Class C, and are they reliable, hydraulic or electric?

What size to consider, and I don't want to start a posting fight, what are some good names to begin to look at for the Class C.

Thanks

For my money, Winnebago is hands down the leader in almost every single facet in the Class C RVs.. Whether you go with the E450 based Ford, or the Mercedes-Benz Sprinter based diesel Cs, you cannot go wrong with the Winnebago brand.

I would avoid the 'boutique-brands' with low production numbers and high pricing, with far, far less than the Winnebago brands !

Eyegor wrote:

the bear II wrote:
There are a whole new bunch of smaller Class A models being produced by the manufacturers. I feel you lose some liveable space due to the driving area in a Class C. The driving area in a Class A becomes part of the living room when parked.

I would choose one of these smaller Class A models over a Class C.

While I too am intrigued by the newer small Class As, not all the Class C designs waste the cab space. For example my old rig has swivel seats in the cab which we use to extend the seating when parked. Likewise, the new Promaster cabs come with swivel seats as well. These examples are not the norm though, most units do not use these seats effectively when parked. You have to look for them.

And that empty space of a C isn't always "wasted" when parked. We have a windshield cover and a behind the cab privacy curtain, so that blocked off space is welcome out-of-sight storage when we are parked somewhere.

If we were buying brand new we'd be looking hard at Nexus and we'd also look at Winnebago again since we are happy with the quality of our used one. The only drawback in the Nexus floorplans for us is the amount of kitchen counter space. We're spoiled with some decent counter space in our Winnie (more than my parents have in their 36' class A!) and cooking and food prep is important to us.

Consider the Winnebago Via Sprinter based Class A also.

Yep, I agree.

Our E350 chassis interior shown here has a swivel front passenger seat but it is naturally confining compared to a big class A. Our driver seat is not setup to swivel. If it was, with our particular floor plan it would be useless because the dinette is directly behind the driver seat. For other floor plans where both seats swivel in an E series, the driver gives up the 6 way power seat feature. It is a trade-off. Some people value "driving comfort" more than an extra living room recliner.

Every wide body class A will be more spacious up front. For Cs the Sprinter seems to be the only doing it friendly enough. The Chrysler Promaster and Ford Transit chassis might also, but they just came out with so few RV choices.

I just had to do the same thing you are looking at doing. Never thought I would step away from my 5th wheel and truck. Looked at class A models but decided we wanted to just be mobile and stay smaller. Looked at class C and drove both the ford and chevy chassis and just found them both tough for me to get from drivers seat to the living area. We then test drove the Mercedes Sprinter and found it met all our requirements. Was more costly but was worth the expense for us. Love the power and fuel economy I have with this small diesel. Both front seats swivel around and become part of the living area and are very comfortable. Our Solera 24R is great but do at times miss all the room the 5th wheel allowed.
Good Luck
BadBob

the bear II wrote:
There are a whole new bunch of smaller Class A models being produced by the manufacturers. I feel you lose some liveable space due to the driving area in a Class C. The driving area in a Class A becomes part of the living room when parked.

I would choose one of these smaller Class A models over a Class C.

While I too am intrigued by the newer small Class As, not all the Class C designs waste the cab space. For example my old rig has swivel seats in the cab which we use to extend the seating when parked. Likewise, the new Promaster cabs come with swivel seats as well. These examples are not the norm though, most units do not use these seats effectively when parked. You have to look for them.

There are a whole new bunch of smaller Class A models being produced by the manufacturers. I feel you lose some liveable space due to the driving area in a Class C. The driving area in a Class A becomes part of the living room when parked.

I would choose one of these smaller Class A models over a Class C.

rkassl,

If you want the room of a 5th wheel packed into a class C, some Cs are offered with as many as 3 "reliable" slide outs. I endorse the Phoenix Cruiser. It's 3-slide out model is the 2910T. But with 9 models to choose from, you might want to check out the other lengths & floor plans. All are offered on the Ford chassis with V10 gasoline engine. Only model 2350 and 2400 are "optioned" on the Mercedes Sprinter diesel.

We've owned our PC-2350 HERE since new in 2007 of which we elected not to get the optional slide out.

The majority of modern class C's are on a Ford chassis (E350 or E450) with the V10 gas engine. There's nothing wrong with this chassis; it's pretty durable, reliable, and readily serviced. The legroom and general ergonomics in the front cab are adequate for most people, but not by any means exceptional. The V10 engine itself and the 5 speed Ford transmission are well-proven and well-regarded, albeit rather noisy and high revving under load which some people find unnerving and annoying. (This isn't helped by a relatively large jump between 4th and 5th gear, which means very obvious downshifts on the highway when they occur.)

Other chassis that are seen sometimes are the equivalent Chevy chassis (reportedly nicer ergonomically, particularly for tall persons), the Sprinter and new Ram Promaster for small units, and a few larger chassis models for some huge super-C units (Freightliner, etc.). The Sprinter and Promaster are available with diesel engines, though particularly on the Sprinter it's a comparatively small and low-powered engine.

Realistically, for the broad middle range of class C sizes, you'll probably have a Ford chassis, so there's not all that much to consider there beyond whether it's the 350 or the 450.

I'm not a huge fan of slideouts personally, though I may be in the minority with that opinion. Newer ones seem to generally be reliable, from what I can make out, and differences in specific designs are more important than what sort of technology is used to actuate it. (That is, hydraulic and electric ones can both be reliable or less so, depending on the actual design.) Most but not all new models have one or more slides, from what I can tell.

Depending on what sort of health issues you're facing, you might want to consider some class A's as well. The cab area of most class A's is easier to get around in; certainly that's true for pushers since they don't have a big engine hump to deal with. Many class C's also have a step up from the cab to the house, and perhaps another in the middle of the house area, while class A's have a flat floor from front to back.

Well this is a fairly basic non slide 24 foot made by a very good company just south of Winnipeg.

Triple E Regency