P32 or W20 workhorse
We are ready to buy a class A gas motor home. Looking at years 2003 - 2005, 30' - 33' in length. I see that we could end up with an independent suspension P32 or a straight axel W20 chassis. I recentl...
Forum Discussion
tropical36 wrote:keyman44 wrote:
We are ready to buy a class A gas motor home. Looking at years 2003 - 2005, 30' - 33' in length. I see that we could end up with an independent suspension P32 or a straight axel W20 chassis. I recently drove my buddy's 30' 2003 P32 and it drove pretty good. I drove it on a 4 lane highway with one hand. It didn't seem to be affected much by the wind or big trucks. I didn't have to make a lot of steering corrections to keep it in the lane. I can't find any W20 RV's around here to test drive. How will the W20 drive in comparison? I'm wondering if I will need to add on a bunch of aftermarket stuff to the W20 just to get it to drive decent. I know that the W20 will have a higher GVWR. I would like to hear from people who have experience driving both.
My P32 is an excellent driver and much improved with the addition of after market coils and the elimination of the air bags and helwig cross leaf spring as well. Still, I would prefer the W chassis for all the reasons already listed and especially the W24. Any Allison transmission over the GM is a big plus in itself.
You might want to add some sway bars and a steering damper and you'll know more after driving the W for awhile.
While we do not have a Workhorse chassis I agree that should be a preferred chassis because it is newer and designed by a maker of buses.
When an RV builder went over 30-32' on the P30 chassis they had pushed to the max design size planned by GM and had to add tag axles. I expect the folks with 22-28' MH's build to the P30 had a difference experience. Our 1992 chassis came with the 19.5 wheels which was an improvement over MH chassis built for 16" wheels.
Newer than 10 years old is a plus when buying. In our case we had a budget of $8000 to buy a MH. The rubber roofed 32' 1993 GBM Pursuit fit the bill and has handled well from day of purchase. To be fair to Bumpy I started driving worn out farm trucks in the 60's so the 1992 P30 truck under our first and only MH was the best quality/handling truck I had ever driven. :B
