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Gjac's avatar
Gjac
Explorer III
Jul 27, 2013

Class A Technology Improvements

What are the best technology improvements in Class A MH's in the last 8 years? What is new and better that would warrant buying a newer MH? Better ride, better performance, better mpg's, better construction, longer life, better components like refer's,AC's etc.

35 Replies

  • Almost nothing...

    However now that Motorhome sales are improving I suspect we might see some improvements and changes in the new 8 years!
  • On diesel coaches not much improvement.

    On gasoline coaches quite a lot of improvement. Examples: Ford F53 V10 evolved from 275 to current 362 HP (same displacement). Transmissions improved quite a lot. Some minor suspension improvements (addition of front track bar on F53). Much wider use of heavier duty gas chassis-- 22k and 24k chassis.
  • I wouldn't classify this as technological but more of a trend, but I am liking the rear bathroom floorplans. It could be that chassis improvements enable this.
  • In the last 8 years not much.
    Last year we bought a new to us 2006 Sea Breeze.
    We had looked at new ones before we went shopping to compare features and decide what was important to us.
    The most important thing for any RV is floor plan.
    The only new change we noticed seems to be less carpet and more vinyl/hard flooring. We wish ours did not have any carpet.
    Other than that our 2006 has everything the new ones have.
    Ford has not made major changes to the chassis or engine since 2005.
    Don't worry about new, just floor plan, features,and condition.
  • We have a 13 yr old DP and I can't identify much about newer Class A's that I would like to have and can't. A lot of the stuff you mention such as appliances, etc, are easily replaceable, for example, we now have a residential fridge and a pure sine wave inverter. Our MH has a pre-EPA diesel without any of the pollution controls imposed over the past ~10 yrs. We get a very real 8-8.5 mpg on average and the chassis handles just fine without any fancy add-ons or Comfort Drive technology.

    The only "thing" I think we lack that would be nice to have is an energy management system that would make it possible to easily run both A/C's on a 30A hookup, but that doesn't happen very often since we try to avoid going places where it is hot and I'm pretty sure I could add an EMS if I really wanted to.

    I think the construction of older "high end" coaches was as good or better than many of the ones being produced today. I helped some friends do some remodeling on a recent Monaco and was somewhat taken aback by interior walls that seemed to have been made out of Styrofoam!