P32 or W20 workhorse

The answer turns out to be rather simple. The P30 series chassis can not handle anything longer than 30 feet. If you are less than 30 feet, it is not too bad, but before the W22 chassis came out, the industry had no choice but to way overload the P30 chassis. That is why you see so many complaints about it. In contrast, you see some here that state is wasn't too bad, but I would be willing to bet money, those were shorter chassis. As far as the W22 being stiff, while a good thing, Allegro discovered that unless the coach had slide outs, the W22 road very rough. Not enough weight for the suspension.

You need to be careful in the lengths you are looking at, as you are kind of in the dead zone of pushing the length for the P30, yet to light for the W22.

Dave is correct.

I will state it a little differently:

Overloaded springs result in bottoming out and poor handling.

Too lightly loaded springs can result in harsh ride.

Proper design MATCHES spring/axle capacity with actual coach weights.

Daveinet wrote:
those were shorter chassis. .

Triple E A3201 (33 feet), Fully loaded for a month, 5 passengers, water tanks full, gas tank full. Scaled weight front axle 2450kg (5400lb) back 5001kg (11020LB), total 16419 or 81 lb shy of being overweight :)

The big ticket on my rig was replacing all the front steering parts with supersteer (specially bellcranks). It also has a anti-sway system in the front and air bags in the back. Drives so nice

Agreed with max length and check for slide outs too (they add weight).

But then again if I had a choice I would have gone with a Ford, not because it's better because parts availibility is so much better and a solid front axle is simple.

OK, I understand now. If you completely rebuild a P=30/32 chassis you can make a decent one out of it.
bumpy

Bumpy how bumpy is your bumpy road?

The Chevy P series chassis does not have to be rebuild to be decent anymore that you have to rebuild a rubber roof MH with with fiberglass roofing materials for them to stay dry.

At year 18 our 1992 P30 MH chassis front coil springs sagged so the ride height was too low even with 100 PSI in the leaking air bags. For the same price as new OEM coils and new air bags installed we did loose the air bags for good and upgraded the chassis by going to the Henderson SS coil springs.

Some of us would not have ever had a MH experience had it not been for the P30 454 MH chassis and EPDM rubber roofs. Please do not post your opinion as a fact of life and confuse good people hoping to offer their family a MH experience the best way they can.

A MH with P37 in the VIN is not built on a potato chip truck chassis but one designed by GM for the MH industry. While they share a lot of parts they are not the same as under a potato chip truck of the same era.

If anyone buys a GM, Workhorse or Ford MH chassis and expect the ride of a diesel pusher chassis then that is another store.

Gale Hawkins wrote:
Bumpy how bumpy is your bumpy road?

The Chevy P series chassis does not have to be rebuild to be decent anymore that you have to rebuild a rubber roof MH with with fiberglass roofing materials for them to stay dry.

At year 18 our 1992 P30 MH chassis front coil springs sagged so the ride height was too low even with 100 PSI in the leaking air bags. For the same price as new OEM coils and new air bags installed we did loose the air bags for good and upgraded the chassis by going to the

as I said, you rebuilt your P-30 chassis and made a decent one out of it.
bumpy

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.

Bumpy you know that your last post is false. It was a decent chassis when we bought it in 2007 and drove it home.

We have driven and enjoyed the ride and handling our P30 based MH about 20K miles. We have driven it 1000 miles after removing the worn out air bags and coil springs.

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

Gale Hawkins wrote:
Some of us would not have ever had a MH experience had it not been for the P30 454 MH chassis and EPDM rubber roofs. Please do not post your opinion as a fact of life and confuse good people hoping to offer their family a MH experience the best way they can.

So right :)

That old RV which I bought in April got us on an unbelievable trip accross the US from coast to coast. It met my requirements which was to be not to expensive since I will not keep it. That trip was in my bucket list, but the next trips will not be in an RV (kind of difficult to fly it to Africa or Asia :E)