Considering a new class C
We currently have a 1990 Mallard class A. It's in decent shape, everything works. But, due to its age I just don't trust it for a long road trip. If it were just me out there I wouldn't worry but i...
Forum Discussion
I really appreciate these thoughtful replies. Last Christmas we pulled into the Wilmington NC KOA and I discovered a radiator leak. Lucky for me it was a very small leak on the joint where the top connector feeds into the radiator. It was that day when everything is closed tomorrow so, I didn't have many good options, or so I thought. I drove the toad down to the Auto Zone and explained my predicament to the young man behind the counter. He was a Marine just home from Afghanistan and his job in the USMC was a tank mechanic. He handed me a tube of JB Weld putty and explained exactly how to apply it. He told me that in the Marines they fixed all kinds of things with JB Weld, including cracked engine blocks because the Marines can't wait around for replacement parts. Anyway, I did what he said and it works perfectly.
My wife has some health issues and we carry our dogs, that are family, with us. If we break down out on the highway on a really hot day things could get bad for them. Of course that's always a risk with anything I do try to minimize risk as much as I can by making common sense decisions. Plus, we have aging parents that live several hours away in opposite directions. We have to have a reliable RV of some description. Then there's the issue of my wife rarely needing to stay several nights in a hospital two hours away. We feel like we cannot be without the RV, or an RV. It's a luxury and a necessity for us.
Also, I would really like to have the extra bed that a class C offers. In the class A what usually happens is my wife and three dogs take the bedroom and I sleep on the fold out sofa (and I sleep the best sleep I get all year on that thing). I'd love to have that cabover bed and stop unfolding and folding that sofa. I also like the idea of the accessibility of the engine compartment on the class C. In my class A everything in the front of the engine is really hard to get too.
I like the 454 in my RV. Despite some of the negative press I have read that thing runs great (so far) and has plenty of horsepower. No problems with pulling mountains even with the toad attached. I know that some of the early years of the Ford V10 there were some common fairly serious issues. I'd like to avoid that altogether. I spoke with a bus mechanic that said that every V10 Ford in the city fleet had some type of a coolant leak that affected the EGR valve and they all went at the same mileage, 100% of them. It was a big repair. But, I don't remember the specific year models. I know that the late model Ford 460s are awesome engines. Very few complaints.
I figure that a new(ish) unit would keep me from worry over major breakdowns for a while. I want to drive the lower 48 states and Alaska sooner rather than later. I wouldn't try that in my old rig with my wife and dogs along for the ride.
My wife has some health issues and we carry our dogs, that are family, with us. If we break down out on the highway on a really hot day things could get bad for them. Of course that's always a risk with anything I do try to minimize risk as much as I can by making common sense decisions. Plus, we have aging parents that live several hours away in opposite directions. We have to have a reliable RV of some description. Then there's the issue of my wife rarely needing to stay several nights in a hospital two hours away. We feel like we cannot be without the RV, or an RV. It's a luxury and a necessity for us.
Also, I would really like to have the extra bed that a class C offers. In the class A what usually happens is my wife and three dogs take the bedroom and I sleep on the fold out sofa (and I sleep the best sleep I get all year on that thing). I'd love to have that cabover bed and stop unfolding and folding that sofa. I also like the idea of the accessibility of the engine compartment on the class C. In my class A everything in the front of the engine is really hard to get too.
I like the 454 in my RV. Despite some of the negative press I have read that thing runs great (so far) and has plenty of horsepower. No problems with pulling mountains even with the toad attached. I know that some of the early years of the Ford V10 there were some common fairly serious issues. I'd like to avoid that altogether. I spoke with a bus mechanic that said that every V10 Ford in the city fleet had some type of a coolant leak that affected the EGR valve and they all went at the same mileage, 100% of them. It was a big repair. But, I don't remember the specific year models. I know that the late model Ford 460s are awesome engines. Very few complaints.
I figure that a new(ish) unit would keep me from worry over major breakdowns for a while. I want to drive the lower 48 states and Alaska sooner rather than later. I wouldn't try that in my old rig with my wife and dogs along for the ride.
