Handling of shorter diesel

Old guy,

Yes according to the people who run (and sell) rv.org, bigger is better

Drive it and see is the best bet.

It is relatively true that the weight hanging off the back of a DP, and the distance it hangs, is kinda fixed.

Still those things sometimes don't always relate to reality, especially when it come to high end coaches such as Foretravel.

milkman41 wrote:
Many on this forum have suggested using rv.org as a guide. They uniformly classify coaches at less than 40 feet as poor to terrible (depending on specific coach). I'm looking at a used 36 ft Phaeton. Those of you that have experience with this, are you having any problems?

I'll take the above with a pound or two of salt. Our 39' DP with air ride, handles just fine.

Bill

so your saying bigger IS better??

Yes, basic physics (impossible to overcome with hope or even good advertising) dictates that the worse the WB/OL (Wheelbase/Overall length) ratio, the more likely that there will be handling issues, particularly under adverse conditions such as cross winds.

BUT, handling, ride, etc are all SUBJECTIVE. So, many with both good WB/OL and those with poor WB/OL can honestly post that their handling is "fine".

So, given that everything else is the same (suspension, weight distribution, etc) WB/OL IS, repeat IS important.

Can a poor WB/OL be overcome with expensive suspensions-- sure. I know Foretravel made a 34' DP that did reasonably well. But 8 outboard air bags, 8 shocks, etc made for a pretty costly upgrade.

Best advice is to drive any on your short list UNDER LESS THAN IDEAL CONDITIONS-- on smooth roads and no cross winds, they all do just fine. Same thing we did in shopping for sailboats-- scheduled sea trials when the weather forecast was poor.