Choosing Gasoline or Diesel Powered?
I realize that this is a long thread but if you are pondering the Gasoline versus a Diesel based on power consideration or are wondering about adding an after market performance enhancing kit to a Gas...
Forum Discussion
We travel with two other RVs...
Ours is a 1995 Southwind Storm (Fleetwood) with no slides, 30', powered by a Chevy 454TBI with a 4-speed automatic. There are no performance upgrades and we have over 60,000 miles on her. Fully loaded she loves 70-80 miles an hour (and getting 8mpg) as the torque curve comes alive. Hills are no real problem to date. (Paid $13,900 used)
One friend has a 2002 Winnabago 36', DP, double-slides, with a 330hp Cat and 6-speed Allison. They have about 36,000 miles with no performance upgrades. Nothing is a problem for this torque and horsepowered monster! I love to drive and ride in this one, just couldn't afford the $95,000 used price tag. 10mpg is nice, but with deisel being higher on average by .30 a gallon...with the added higher maintenance expense of a deisel, this was not affordable for us right now.
The other friend has a 2000 Tioga Class C, 27', one slide, and powered by the Ford V-10 Triton, 4-speed trans, also with no performance upgrades. Very cramped feeling, but drives and tows great. This one cannot keep up with the other two on the highway though. ($29,000 used)
So for our money ($13,900) we are more than pleased with our choice. I do plan on some performance upgrades as we will keep this one 3-5 years to depreciate as a band expense. Then...hopefully upgrade to a 32' DP with a slide or two!
Ours is a 1995 Southwind Storm (Fleetwood) with no slides, 30', powered by a Chevy 454TBI with a 4-speed automatic. There are no performance upgrades and we have over 60,000 miles on her. Fully loaded she loves 70-80 miles an hour (and getting 8mpg) as the torque curve comes alive. Hills are no real problem to date. (Paid $13,900 used)
One friend has a 2002 Winnabago 36', DP, double-slides, with a 330hp Cat and 6-speed Allison. They have about 36,000 miles with no performance upgrades. Nothing is a problem for this torque and horsepowered monster! I love to drive and ride in this one, just couldn't afford the $95,000 used price tag. 10mpg is nice, but with deisel being higher on average by .30 a gallon...with the added higher maintenance expense of a deisel, this was not affordable for us right now.
The other friend has a 2000 Tioga Class C, 27', one slide, and powered by the Ford V-10 Triton, 4-speed trans, also with no performance upgrades. Very cramped feeling, but drives and tows great. This one cannot keep up with the other two on the highway though. ($29,000 used)
So for our money ($13,900) we are more than pleased with our choice. I do plan on some performance upgrades as we will keep this one 3-5 years to depreciate as a band expense. Then...hopefully upgrade to a 32' DP with a slide or two!
