Tiger Owners

Since the majority of the posters to this topic are Provan Tiger owners, you might enjoy reading about this manufacturer - Xplorer Motorhome. They were in business (prossibly still could be) maybe 15 years ago. I am amazed that this website is still searchable. Sometime back, someone had stated they were still building units, but were not updating the website. Makes me curious - does anyone know??

DiploStrat wrote:
pnichols - I was referring to threads like this one: Tiger vs. Earthroamer in which various members here dismissed Tigers as they did not have pivot subframes. My Malayan does, but I am not sure that that is really necessary for bad road use. My Tiger has a raised suspension, uprated shocks and Tires, etc., but its off road abilities are still limited by weight and weight distribution. And I would certainly agree about center of gravity. My goal was not to go rock crawling, but rather to survive miles and miles of bad, but passable roads. My background is Africa and South America.

That old Tiger vs. Earthroamer discussion link you provided went into great detail covering the dangers of an RV's coach area walls being rigidly attached to it's truck cab structure. Thanks.

Interestingly, earlier in this thread I published a photo of a 1969 all fiberglass bodied coach Chinook Class C we once owned that was built onto a GMC 3500 pickup truck chassis with it's bed of course removed but the cab left almost entirely intact. We could crawl from the cab back into the coach through the spot where the cab's rear window used to be. Chinook designed in a heavy waterproof flexible boot that was permanently attached to the rear cab's wall where it's window used to be and then permanently attached at the boot's other end onto an exact same size opening in the forward coach wall.

The above Chinook design physically isolated the coach structure from the cab structure under longitudinal frame twist situations, so it was superior to a couple of the Tiger models in this respect. However the coach was still exposed to any frame twisting right under where it was attached to the frame. This last concern is where the living area 3-point-triangle mounting system comes into play that expedition vehicles use.

I don't know why Tiger doesn't at least isolate the coach area from the cab area on it's standard CX and TX models to offer some degree of frame-twist protection to them. With only a soft connection between the the coach and cab, the CX and TX models could be then built onto radical Ford/Dodge/Chevy 4X4 one-ton pickups with oversize tires and be pretty close to a medium-poor-man's Earthroamer or real-poor-man's expedition vehicle - not counting system reliability issues out in the middle of nowhere in another part of the world, of course.

Thanks,
I did a little more research.
Looks like the Dealer Site/ and Mr Weiss is actually in Fremont, CA, which is in the East Bay area.
I have also been looking at a used one.

stevekk wrote:
Where is the one in CA? Thanks..

Here is the Tiger website entry for that vehicle: link It says "Vehicle located with Northern California Sales Agent"

When I put California into the Dealer Locator function on the Tiger website, I got
Bert Weiss - Sales Agent
Hidden Valley Lake, CA, 95467
Phone: 707.481.4579

And yes, I did prepare a mo' latte.

Jim,

Don't think many folk will show up today; the Tiger is encased ice. Beautiful icicles!

Warm, toasty & tasty inside! Hot shower and pancakes.

stevekk wrote:
Where is the one in CA? Thanks..

It just says 'Northern California'... click on 'Read More' under each picture and scroll down thru the listing to find the location. I notice that there are also 2 more west coast Bengals listed in Oregon, and one in Pennsylvania. Also a Malayan at the factory in SC.

'Strat, say 'Hi' to Mark for me. I decided (for now anyway) to skip the Propex. I just made a rigid insulation 'hood' to set up at night over the heater outlet to absorb & redirect the noise. I'm also going to relocate the thermostat so that I can reach it from the bunk. For the few nights that I need it each year, the $800 & day's finicky work just didn't make sense. I take it that all is going well with your Tiger; that's good to hear.

Jim, "Mo' coffee!"

I saw Tigers up close in person at the recent Pleasanton, CA RV show.

What would appeal to me would be to have them build a Bengal coach on a truck chassis setup like what was under the Malayan on display. That kind of a combination looked like it might perform as a mini-expedition vehicle that could go anywhere in the U.S. and Canada and with a lot of comfort when you get there. The business owner was at the show but I didn't get a chance to talk to him.

Our rockhounding in Arizona last month illustrated to us just how useful a fairly aggressive Class C type RV like that above might be. We are probably going to have to eventually tow along a side-by-side UTV in order to get to many places where just the right Tiger setup might also go and allow you to stay once you get there!

Just finished dinner in my Tiger in Columbia where I am tending to some small upgrades. (Additional lights, relocated speakers, slightly different wiring for the refridgerator, etc.) Most of these will be standard on new Malayans.

I am ever more inpressed with how warm and well insulated the Malayan is. Understand that it has barely gotten above freezing all week. The diesel furnace/water heater keeps ot toasty inside and makes for great showers and is quiet enough to let you listen to music. Similarly, I ran the engine for 30 minutes to top up the batteries and you could barely hear it.

As Handbasket noted, there are some NICE deals at the moment.

And much as I love the Malayan, the Bengals they are building now are much, much, improved over the older generation. This is a great time to be looking for a Tiger, new or used.

Where is the one in CA? Thanks..