A vs C HELP

Desert Captain,

Good Luck finding those "honest politicians"...especially during election season. :)

I remember a front end collision involving a Class A (a member of these forums) and an SUV. I believe that the SUV crossed undivided highway lane and hit the RV head on. I believe both occupants in the SUV were killed. The driver of the Class A sustained some damage to his ankles/lower legs(?), but was otherwise uninjured. I believe his passenger was shaken up, but uninjured.

Air bags are only helpful in specific accident scenarios. Most of us drove vehicles for years without them, and most of us survived. The majority of vehicles on the road are much smaller than our motorhomes. I also believe that most motorhome drivers are better drivers than the average population. :) Two huge benefits in our favor.

Since the motorhome is so much more massive than the average passenger car, the momentum is MUCH greater, meaning that it takes a lot more to bring it to a stop. Airbags deploy in thousands of a second, then deflate equally as quickly. Picture a possible alternative scene to the accident above: The class A had air bags and they deployed. Now, the driver, instead of being able to bring the motorhome to a safe controlled stop, gets stunned by the exploding air bags, loses control of the still moving RV and causes further damage, perhaps even further injury or even loss of life to those who weren't involved in the original accident. Airbags work best when the vehicle comes to a sudden stop. If the initial collision does not stop the vehicle, then the airbags provide no occupant protection against any further collisions. Hit a tree and stop. They work. Hit a guard rail and keep traveling, they probably won't be of much help unless you land in a vat of marshmallows. :)

Anyway, momentum DOES matter. You want it in your favor. Not that I gave it a lot of thought, but I feel my family is much safer in our 22,000 lb. motorhome than our 4,500 lb. minivan, or even the 14,000 lb. Class C's we were looking at.

Other aspects of safety include operating the vehicle within the factory specified weight limits. There's an active Topics here in the Class C Forums about his motorhome being overloaded. I knew our weight requirements when we were doing our research and chose a vehicle which can safely carry all of the weight we needed. The available class C's on the E-450 chassis could not offer what we needed. If you're going to talk safety, you have to look at all aspects. I'll gladly forego airbags (which I will probably never need) in favor of adequate carrying capacity which I need everytime the rig rolls down the highway.

We can debate our positions for ever. Personally, I'm not sold on any safety benefits of air bags for large vehicles. But as far as I know, we can both be right because I've never seen any statistics to show otherwise. :) If we ever meet around a campfire, we can keep each other engaged in conversation! LOL

Safe travels to all! :)

~Rick

I would like to point out to Rick Jay that since the advent of mandatory front airbags thousands of lives have been saved. I own a Class A and would love to have better protection. One reason we bought a Winnebago Class A is the fact the front cap is steel covered by fiberglass facia.

The only way to know is test drive both and see what you enjoy driving the best. After that then you find the floor plan of the A or C that fits your needs the best. Great Question!

afrescop,

Agreed, in small vehicles. But lives have also been lost due to air bags. NHTSA isn't so forthcoming with those stats. Admittedly, those were mostly the first generation airbags, but there was still loss of life and/or more serious injury than if they had not been on the vehicle. That's why now some vehicles allow you to disable them for certain passengers.

~Rick

Rick, for the record i never found your posts to be argumentative, it's a discussion and the one area where we seem to be in agreement is a serious commitment to safety. This is why your many anti air bag sentiments are troubling and frankly inaccurate. The NHTSB is quite forthcoming about air bag related deaths and injuries. Just Google "air bag" and the stats are readily available. Most of the problems have come from children being improperly secured or other operator errors. The myth that air bags are inherently dangerous has been around since their inception. People said the same thing about seat belts when they became mandatory. Both are urban legends that just won't go away. :h

The simple fact is air bags have been saving lives and reducing injuries for more than 20 years.

I also don't share your illusion that the folks driving motorhomes are necessarily better drivers, just seen too many foolish things done by MH's. With their large size and weight which reduces braking and handling you add a lot of potential for accidents. Given how fast some folks like to drive their rigs it is amazing that there aren't more serious accidents involving RV's.

Getting back to the original topic A vs C I am glad you are happy with yours but the one accident scenario you have not even considered is the one most likely, that of a coach striking a non moving object (often a single vehicle event).

When driving off the road and hitting a power/light pole, bridge abutment, large rock, 18 wheeler on the shoulder etc., the only help you will get from momentum is a quicker, (hopefully less painful), death. Imagine a C and an A (both operating within their GVWR's), both traveling the same speed and slamming into an immoveable object such as those listed above. The driver and passenger in the A are probably seriously injured and or killed as there is next to nothing between them and the impact.

The C's frame and chassis take the brunt of the impact and the multiple air bags deploy. Death is less likely and injuries will not be as severe. The success of air bags in this scenario has been documented for decades.

As I said I think there's a lot to like about Class A's but vs a Class C safety is just not one of them.

:C

I love learning and hearing everyone's perspective. I can't find if the Class C we're building (a "Super C" Showhauler or Renegade Ikon) has airbags but I know they're built on Freightliner's Cascadia heavy duty chassis & have 43,000 GVWR and a massive hood containing a massive engine & frame. We never like to think about having an incident that would make any of this even matter, but it makes me a little happier knowing this - JB

Thank you all! I have the information I need now.??

One other thought... a "C" nose is narrower than the body... an issue thru toll booths or tunnels, in that your perspective is not that of the body width, but of the van front... an "A" is full width the entire length, making side clearance perhaps easier or at least more intuitive.....

Pass42 wrote:
One other thought... a "C" nose is narrower than the body... an issue thru toll booths or tunnels, in that your perspective is not that of the body width, but of the van front... an "A" is full width the entire length, making side clearance perhaps easier or at least more intuitive.....

yep, a lot of this "driving a narrower RV" is psychological. you lose sight that what is behind you is 8-1/2 ft wide.
bumpy

Pass42 wrote:
One other thought... a "C" nose is narrower than the body... an issue thru toll booths or tunnels, in that your perspective is not that of the body width, but of the van front... an "A" is full width the entire length, making side clearance perhaps easier or at least more intuitive.....

Between the side mirrors extending out and the cabover "bill" in front of the windshield, I've never had especial difficulty keeping track of the width of a class C. (Granted, some of the cabovers are shaped differently and not so obviously full width.) The height, on the other hand, sometimes seemed a bit deceiving to me with the driver's seat and apparent cab ceiling a few feet lower than the top of the vehicle.

I do suppose a class A is a bit more intuitive as to its overall width; I just haven't found a class C to be particularly deceptive in that regard. Both, of course, feel rather like an aircraft carrier when compared to a standard passenger car.