Gasser guys and gals ...why not a diesel ?

I had two reasons for going with Gas as opposed to a Big D
$$$$$$$$$$$$ D's cost more
Experience On Gas engines I've done everything from a minor adjustment to a full overhaul. I am not experienced on D's.

And though I did not actually work on the RV's engine.. When others did ..> Well I checked their work. I'd not have known if they fixed a 'd' correctly till later.

Sorry people didn't mean to be so hard on you gas people. I only owned 1 gas and since then 3 DPs mainly because I couldn't stand the engine noise under my feet. All my DPs have been high end starting with a Winnebago Luxor and 2 Monacos since. Never had to replace a side radiator but had to replace the rear one in the Winnebago. Wasn't expensive and done in a day. Mr Tech, where is your "DATA"? 3/4 of the time I now tow a 32ft enclosed trailer with a car in there and I like POWER. If I want to ride I have to buy fuel as we all do and a 450hp Cummins loves fuel at 70mph. Late model gassers are much improved from years ago and I think the el cheapo DPs with the 5.9 cummins and cheap interiors are a thing of the past. I didn't mean to get some of you alls shorts in a knot so take a deep breath and realize we are not all the same nor do we think the same.

LandYacht35diesel wrote:
....I’ve seen some people state that they have avoided a diesel .... why so ?

Hi LandYacht35diesel,

I've had both. The diesel got slightly better mileage--but the cost was higher because additives needed to be used in every tank of fuel. (Diesel is cheaper than gas in Canada).

The diesel was old from 1987. I once had it freeze to the ground in the storage yard--and it would not "break free". I had many mechanical issues with the diesel.

I've had one issue in 150,000 miles on my current gas V-10.

The 1987 cost about $0.25 per mile for maintenance. Parts were becoming hard to find.

The V-10 has had one mass flow air sensor. I've owned it since 2009. It is a 2004.

I'd never consider diesel again.

As long as yo don’t go over 38’ in length you do not need a diesel.

Cost - Roughly $100k more. Fuel more expensive. Maintenance more expensive. My gasser with liquid springs rides quite nicely.

Never had a diesel Moho, but have had many diesel trucks and drove them all my life for work. I'm on my 3rd gasser, the V10 has proven itself to be fairly bulletproof. It's hard to find a 30' diesel Moho with 2 slides, and the V10 tows just fine for what I need. 300 miles a day is the "all in" drive, and Tiffin makes a decent coach.

Oh yeah, we "stole" this coach, this will be our last RV unless it gets totaled somehow.

dodge guy wrote:

ferndaleflyer wrote:
Maintenance? My DP has about 91,00mi on it. Change oil & filters including Gen once a year, about $200. Had to replace the heater core and some refrigerator issues (gassers have those also). So what is the maintenance issue? Just wait till that V-10 blows out a spark plug. My F-350 diesel has 165,000mi on it and nothing has went wrong that has anything to do with it being a diesel. Not many gassers go over 200k without serious problems. But the gas ones are a little cheaper and a lot of that is reflected in the quality of the "house" part as well as the drive train.

The V-10 plug blowing issue went away in 03 with a cylinder head redesign.
The V-10 will go well over 200k even 400k without issues. They have been proven to be reliable.

We have had numerous F series (350 to 550) trucks, all with V10’s, in our fleet and rarely were they replaced (accidents, job change, etc) before they had well over 200k on them. Other than a couple of flukes (rad hose blew, oil cooler line blew, engine did too) none of them ever had any engine issues.

None of them lead an easy life, ever.

ferndaleflyer wrote:
Maintenance? My DP has about 91,00mi on it. Change oil & filters including Gen once a year, about $200. Had to replace the heater core and some refrigerator issues (gassers have those also). So what is the maintenance issue? Just wait till that V-10 blows out a spark plug. My F-350 diesel has 165,000mi on it and nothing has went wrong that has anything to do with it being a diesel. Not many gassers go over 200k without serious problems. But the gas ones are a little cheaper and a lot of that is reflected in the quality of the "house" part as well as the drive train.

The V-10 plug blowing issue went away in 03 with a cylinder head redesign.
The V-10 will go well over 200k even 400k without issues. They have been proven to be reliable.

Well, back in 2002 when we started our research, we were shopping for our first RV of any kind. We started looking for a small hybrid to tow behind our Honda Odyssey. After more than 2 years of research, we decided on a gas Class A which we use to tow our Odyssey.

OBVIOUSLY, we went WAY OVER our original budget. But desire for adequate space for a growing family of 6 and my requirement that we have a rig which operated within it's chassis limits, ultimately put us in the gas Class A market. We ended up with the rig in my signature and 17 years later we STILL love the dual sofa/dual slide layout and it's worked well for our family for all of these years. It pays to do your homework, and we owe many folks on these forums a debt of gratitude for their advice during those years.

Initially, when I mentioned "Class A" to my wife and told her it was the style that "looked like a bus", she immediately was turned off by the idea. Why? She thought all Class A's were diesel, and she didn't want a diesel (mostly the odor). When I explained that there are gas Class A models too, all was well. (I was fortunate in that she DID let me buy my diesel Kubota tractor 4 years earlier! :B )

But back then, family & friends thought we were crazy for spending that much money with a growing family (7, 3, 2 & 10 months) period. Let alone spending more.

A decent quality diesel motorhome back then would've added well over $40k to our already over-extended budget. It just wasn't going to happen. I also noticed at that time that there WERE some diesel Class A's available which were only about $20k more. BUT...they were "cheapened" to attract those who only shop on price. I did look at a few of these. The cabinetry looked really cheap...much more so than our (upgraded) hardwood cabinets in our gas Class A, and they typically had a propane generator instead of diesel unit (a definite "NO" in my book), and they were on a "less than optimal" chassis. In general, the entire interior looked inferior to what we'd be getting with the gasser we selected. In other words, not really an "attractive" diesel option, in my book.

We hope to keep our Class A gasser for quite some time, BUT, I am keeping an open mind and occasionally search the internet for a nicely kept 20-25 year old Prevost motorhome within our price range. I could be persuaded, at that point, to purchase a diesel. If the wife lets me. ;)

But until that day, our gas Class A has been pretty much the ideal motorhome for our family and budget and I expect it to be able to continue in that role for quite some time.

~Rick

ferndaleflyer wrote:
Not many gassers go over 200k without serious problems.

Not many motorhomes of any kind go over 200k miles at all. I think the average motorhome goes like 4K mile a year. A few exceptions of course but very few motorhomes die because of mileage.