Last year we decided to cut our losses and sell an eleven year old DP that not only was terribly outdated, on the inside and out, but needed about $10K in work on many systems. (brakes, basement air, dash air, etc.....) All this work was required, but did absolutely nothing to the value of the coach. We replaced it with a seven year old 33' Gas Winny Vista, that not only was affordable, but in pristine condition. That said, having owned both, I find a lot of these comments questionable.
glamisorbust wrote:
I am not basing my comparison from a P30 to a DP just on the one 1994 I had. We also had a 1982 34' P30 southwind that handled equally bad. All the suspension parts underneath are not made to handle the weight of anything besides an empty motorhome. Add water and all your stuff, guess what, you're overloaded. We broke a leaf spring and could never get the alignment right on the '82 due to inferior parts that were not heavy duty enough.
Now, the DP has several things that are different from the gas counterpart. Here are some of them.
1. The gas engine is screaming between the driver and passenger, the diesel is out back and you cannot hear it.
Sorry, but "screaming" is for drama queens. The motor will bump to about 4K on occasion, but even them, the dog house is well insulated, and normal conversation and radio listening are still happening without issues.
2. The diesel pusher almost always has an exhaust brake which aids in slowing the rig down considerably. And the DP will have air brakes.
The five speed Ford trans. has grade braking that is, for all intent, a "Jake brake" and controls the speed impressively. My 2014 Chevy truck does the same thing.
3. The maintenance costs will be more on a diesel. More oil capacity, more expensive filters that have to be changed more often. It is easy to do all these things yourself if you're even remotely mechanically inclined.
4. Tires on a DP cost about twice what they do on a gas RV. I bought tires for my '94 P30 before I sold it. They were the cheapest new thing I could find, and they were $1600 for all six mounted out the door. Definitely more costly on the DP.
5. The handling on a DP versus a gas is a complete 180. Death grip on the gas, one or two fingers on the wheel with the DP.
More drama. My current gasser handles perfectly adequately, and is as relaxing as the DP was. It's a trade off, the ride is not as smooth without the airbags, the handling is better, but the DP was extremely short and had a bad rep. for being twitchy.
6. Carrying capacity on the DP is a lot more. Pretty much load up whatever you want to bring, you'll be able to handle it without going overweight.
I have two tons of carrying capacity on the gasser, I'm pretty sure that's enough.
7. The storage bays on the DP are huge, some have pass-through storage on a few bays. This makes it really nice for putting in things that are long, like tables, flag poles, skiis, etc.
I have a pass through and a rear compartment that's bigger than anything I have seen on most DPs, like 5'x8'x4'
8. The diesel generator has enough power to run everything on board at one time if it's the 7500 onan quiet diesel. I can run both ac unit's, the microwave and all the lights. On a gasser, be prepared to shut down an a/c unit to run the microwave, depending on the size of the microwave and a/c.
I run both A/Cs without incident, lights, TV etc.....at once, if I need to run the micro, it takes a moment to drop the rear A/C, hardly a deal breaker.
9. A DP is not outside your price range. Go drive both and then report back to us. You won't believe the difference.
Stop by a big rig shop and price out a few maintenance tasks and repairs for a DP, and like the man says, "you won't believe the difference". Pretty typical to pay 2-5X as much to do the same work on a DP.
10. I'm not saying that the gasser is a bad choice. But I am saying that the resale value will be higher on a DP. Not to mention the ear to ear grin you'll wear as you're driving it down the road.
Resale is a tricky issue. You might do better with a DP, or you might get stuck with a tough to sell rig. You pay less for a gasser, and have a wider audience when it's time to sell. The other big issue is what happens with a major failure on an older DP. A 20 year old gasser might need a new trans, or a junkyard motor for $3-5K. On a DP this could be a $15-20K problem.
