C's less trouble than A's ?

Here is my take... it depends on what you want to do with it.

A class "A" gives you more room up front and a nice view. When parked, you have the full use of the vehicle, and the cab part is definitely usable. However, repairs and service are more expensive and may not be possible once the RV maker stops making parts. Especially things like headlights and windshields.

A class "C", has more commonly available parts, and has some automotive grade safety put in. Some class "C"s like Lazy Daze models are built as tough as any vehicle out there, with a steel frame. A class "C" is also easier to repair and because it has more parts from the car maker, can be argued to be more reliable. Downside is that the cab can wind up being useless when parked.

To each his own, but I prefer a class "C". When parked, the driver and passenger chars become storage for clothes and such, and with a windshield shade and a heavy curtain between the cab and the rest of the rig, it is decently insulated. The cabover provides decent storage for lighter items as well.

Diesel verses gas:
Both coach's use much the same house components, luck of the draw to repairs and servicing unless we talk aquahot or a few high end amenities.
Now get to the chassis
air cleaner gas $20 diesel $200 every two years
Fuel filter gas every few years $20, diesel $80 every year
air dryer gas non diesel $200 every three years
Oil change with Gen gas $200 diesel $450 once a year
Tires 6 years gas $1400 diesel $3000
These are round #s but you get the idea. If you do it your self
you can save money but the gas will be much cheaper, more frugal to feed.
Based on OP's post gas A and gas C about the same size should be close
to the same.

LEN

All class C's are conventional vans with everything in familiar places for a mechanic to follow "By The Book" with very few exceptions. Class C's also have all the safety standards of a van until the RV company cuts the structural roof for easy entry into the cab area from the house area which compromises roll-over protection for the driver & passenger in the two front seats. The chassis is made per NTSB standards with additional consideration to repairs, corrosion, warranty, and long term reliability.

Class A's are a different story. Though much starts out in the same place, there is much that is custom made, and even some standard things are relocated by the RV manufacture. They are NOT made to the same safety standards for frontal collision or roll-over, and they are often not made with consideration to mechanical repairs.

I volunteer HERE at our church where vehicles are repaired for people who are financially challenged. The charity is funded through the donation of vehicles, much the same as Cars-For-Kids and Cars-For-Vets. We get all kinds of vehicles donated including class C and class A motor homes. Donated vehicles almost always have problems. One of the jobs of the volunteer mechanics is to get such donated vehicles back into road-worthy condition so they can be sold to fund the repairs for people in-need.

The class C's are well understood. The class A's require a lot of time to figure out with odd issues that are most often caused by poor wiring practices by the RV manufacture. Another serious challenge with class A's is that they are assembled with untreated steel. Brackets are often rusted to the point of bending or breaking. Another matter is that many class A's are assembled with minimal consideration to mechanical repair. Some repairs require removing fiberglass body panels held together with severely rusted steel that falls apart when disassembled. The bottom line is that they are dang hard to work on, and dang hard to fix right. You practically need a small metal fabrication shop to work on older class A's.

I completely understand why many auto shops refuse to work on class A motor homes. If I owned an auto repair business, I too would kindly wave them off. It also explains why Camping World charges so much for certain repairs.

In my opinion, the way to own a class A is to buy it new or almost new, and get rid of it before the real problems surface. Buying an old used one runs a high risk of buying a heap of trouble. Of coarse there are exceptions. Admittedly the few class A's we've worked on were not high-end units. Maybe high-end ones are different.

It is interesting that the "Go RV" cable TV series pushes large expensive class A's and large expensive 5'ers, seldom mentioning class B's and C's. Young starry-eyed buyers (actors?) seem to be able to swing financing for new $500,000+ diesel pusher Class A's apparently without knowledge or concern for total cost an complexity of ownership. Smaller, less expensive Class A's are not even shown.It seems to me that long/large Class A's are out of place parked for a days outing at a public park, hobby or kid's sport activities, airshows and theme parks, etc., where modest sized Class C's seem to fit right in. I would not want to "camp" with our 2004 27-foot Class C amongst huge Class A status symbols in an "RV Resort" but that's me. Takes all kinds!

By the way, our Leprechaun has front swivel seats, so we use them almost every day. Many newer Class C are offering them as an option. Worth the investment.

Bordercollie wrote:
It is interesting that the "Go RV" cable TV series pushes large expensive class A's and large expensive 5'ers, seldom mentioning class B's and C's. Young starry-eyed buyers (actors?) seem to be able to swing financing for new $500,000+ diesel pusher Class A's apparently without knowledge or concern for total cost an complexity of ownership.

I think that was the program that I thought was extremely "stupid". a couple stated their budget was xxxx dollars. the salesman showed them units that "listed" MSRP at xxxx dollars. whoa, they are going to pay retail????????
the only part of the program that made sense to me was the couple that saw the J sofa and said they would rip that out, and the other couple that saw a fake fireplace and sort of laughed at that.
bumpy

We had a pusher and hubby was tired of the upkeep. Upkeep on a gasser is a lot less work. As far as expense, smaller tires, get oil changed anywhere, no air dryers, filters don't cost a fortune. There were times we wished we had kept our last gas MH before we got the diesel but all the bells and whistles were nice but lots of upkeep. We even opted for a non slide so we don't have to maintain seals and motors. lol

We've owned 4 A's and 2 C's and find many advantages to a C, including one that nobody's mentioned ...2 more entrance doors! I also like the solidity and quiet of the Chevy chassis and V8 plus its roomier cab.

The A's were always an expensive pain when needing repair. Too many odd parts cobbled together to make a coach. Nothing seemed easy to obtain. And don't get me started on the braking systems!

I am now a true convert to C's. They offer the same space as smaller A's with an overall safer feel on the road. Slides help.

Enjoy your choice. Nobody else can make it for you!

Bea PA wrote:
We even opted for a non slide so we don't have to maintain seals and motors. lol

There are a few of us non-sliders here, and I am with you, for a multitude of reasons.