Golden age of (class A) RVs

This thread would be better with pictures of the model years.
Jesseannie

Just my 2 cents. How about mid to late 90's thru about 2006 or 07. Overall for general quality and reliability. But who really knows.

When fuel was a dollar or less a gallon and there was not so much technology for distractions. That was the golden age.

Regardless what type of RV you had you jumped in it and took off. Kids couldn't wait to get to the campgrounds to play and fish and parents could kick back.

Been thinking about this topic and I really can't come up with a time period. To me Golden Age implies a peak but every couple of years the chassis and house builders come up with something new and innovative the improves the overall experience. Heavier chassis, slides, all electric rigs, front overhead beds, lower cost diesel power trains. The RV industry took a pretty hard hit 10 years ago and those builders who weather the drop in sales more or less froze their designs. But with the recent improvement in sales I think we'll start to see builders producing new features with every model year. Maybe Newmar will dust off the mid engine diesel and roll out a 40' toy hauler again or the Country Coach design with the fold out deck.

We all look back with nostalgia concerning past designs but beyond the quality control issues a new coach can have are the older rigs better when going down the road or once you arrive at a destination concerning comfort or conveniences? The GMC class A from the mid 1970's was pretty cool for it's time but I wouldn't trade what I have now.

Lots of interesting opinions on this topic. I would argue that the golden age would be from about 2002 to 2005. During that period, RV sales were beginning to boom, many new competitors arrived, and all the manufacturers had money and motivation to build better coaches. Huge basement storage, massive front windows, and multiple slides became standard.

From 2005 to 2007, they were all just pushing them out as fast as they could for the endless money that people accessing from the housing boom.

From 2008 to 2010, free money ran out and environmental regulations made things more difficult for chassis manufacturers. Not a happy time for anyone in the industry.

So, for my vote (if there was a vote), I would pick 2002 to 2005.

As to gas motorhomes with the Ford chassis I would say it started in 2006 and newer.

The only thing that would make us up grade to a newer coach would be a major damage accident, or fire. Major mechanical breakdowns are repairable at a lessor cost than moving up.

I would say 2003-6 as all of the items above without the need of comfort drive and regenerate exhaust systems.

We used to trade fairly often, as newer features we wanted kept showing up in the market.

In 2007 we ordered our current MH and we've stopped shopping.

For us, all of the features finally came together in a MH that fit our budget;

4 slides
Full body paint
Big, high torque diesel
Full pass-thru basement
Comfort Drive

Looking at today's MHs I see some really nice new "stuff" but nothing real revolutionary that makes us want to buy another.

So for us, the 2008 model year is when it all finally came together, and our current MH will probably take us into our Golden Years. :B

beauty is in the eye of the beholder.