Forum Discussion

JHSJMS's avatar
JHSJMS
Explorer
Sep 26, 2013

Is Safari Cheetah a good coach

I am now looking at a 2004 Safari Cheetah 40SRT. Any guidance about quality or known issues?
  • We've loved our 07. Never any chassis issues, but a few Monaco "house" issues, which they fixed (mostly) before they went out of business. Have had pretty good follow-up with Navistar on parts even though they've ceased building under the Safari name. (And it's not Navistar anymore, either. Can't speak to the new company.)
  • Thanks, I think this one has a RR4R Roadmaster chassis. I had heard they are not so good compared to rr8r and rr10r
  • Safari when bought by Monaco around 2002 had lots of problems which cost Monaco lots of money to fix the recalls on all those coaches with cracks, I believe it was on the front I-beams of their wheels. I happened to be at the Covenant shop in Wildwood, Florida and they had a Safari coach there and a HR that were on the recall for that issue. I asked the owner what all they had to do. He said they had to replace the whole front beam on the coach. They had many Safari coaches on the new Monaco shop they had just built there just to accommodate them and the over flow was going to the old shop which was owned then by Covenant. But I imagine by now all those problems have been taken care off.

    Also the like the previous post mentioned the RR4 chassis has had problems with the rear sway bar stabilizer breaking off.
  • I have a 2009 Safari Cheetah, so I am not sure if this will help or not.

    The "house" Monaco part of the unit has been problem free except for a bad IOTA transfer switch which I replaced in 30 or so minutes. At least in mine, there is No (Zero Zip Nada, None) Paperboard or particle board in the whole RV. The bottom of the cabinets are made of the same wood as the doors. The bathroom doors are real heavy wood doors, etc.


    The only problems I have had are Roadmaster chassis related. Alternator went out and is a hard to find part (1 week broken down on the side of the road in Canada) , Custom Radiator that is hard to find custom part (2 Weeks Broken Down is Canada for that one), Center wheel cap fell off and again is a hard to find custom part.

    Chassis Coolant Sensor went bad, and again was a hard to find part, etc etc.

    Sure you can get the parts from Monaco in Indiana, but that does not help you much when you are broken down in Alaska. There are Freightliner dealers in Alaska.


    I like my Roadmaster, but I can see some value with having a Freightliner chassis due to standardized parts.