Class A vs Class C maintenance/repair costs?

Had a class A gasser. Now a class C. The class C costs me less.

Plus it has air bags and three doors to get out of it. Also the sun don’t shine in my face all mid-day going south. The cab over takes care of that for free.

I forgot to mention as you get older two steps to get in and out are better the four or five.

I don't have first hand kinowledge but I would guess that the cost of replacing a windshield for a Class C and an A with a single windshield would be substantial. Of course, this, hopefully, is not a frequent occurrence and good insurance could quite likely mitigate this.

garyemunson wrote:
If the Class C is built on the Ford chassis, the front seat passenger will not have much legroom. Annoying since most RV travel is for long distances.

Not true for ALL Class Cs on Ford chassis. My 2008 Aspect 26A was quite comfortable for me at 6'1". There was even room to recline the seatback with the slide in.

The tire comments are spot on, for the most part. I was able to purchase tires for my Class C (215-85R16 LRE) for about $80/ea this year. When I bought tires for my old Class A DP, the cheapest I could find in an American brand (Firestone; I don't trust Samson Chinese tires on that large of a vehicle) was just over $200/ea, and that as 5 years ago.

That's by far your largest cost differential between the two.

Aden949,

If you told us a bit more about your family dynamics and your intended use for the motorhome, we could give you some more targeted advice.

We were a family of 6 and our Class A gasser was a perfect fit for our needs...still is after almost 14 years of ownership. But we did our research for 2 years before purchasing. We started looking at small hybrids to tow behind our Honda Odyssey and ended up with a 36' Class A towing our Honda Odyssey. But the research paid off. We bought the right rig the first time.

As for costs, the first thing I'll ask is "How handy are you?" Can you do simple maintenance to your vehicles and around the house? Do you call a repairman to hang a picture on the wall? RV repair costs are generally pretty expensive. They see an RV pull in and the $$$ signs light up in their eyes just like in the cartoons. But if you can do basic things yourself, then you're WAY ahead of the game.

Doing a tune-up on our gas Class A is not really anymore difficult than on our cars. Or more expensive, for that matter. But I do almost all of my own work.

I will say that for passengers, our Class A has great views out the front and the sides compared to the Class C's. From a driving perspective, the Class A might seem to be a bit more intimidating, but you get used to that pretty quickly. The view & visibility out that windshield is pretty nice.

A few people made some tire comments earlier. Take those with a grain of salt. You'll find folks saying you have to replace the tires after 5 years regardless of mileage. Well, if you take care of them, you should be able to get 10 years out of a quality tire. Know your weights and proper pressures and don't roll down the road without checking your pressures. I got 12 years out of our first set without an issue and they looked fine when they came off. The 6 new tires (on 22.5" rims) were about $2,400 including taxes and any other fees they tack on. More than an E-450? Sure, but I have over 3,000 lbs. cargo carrying capacity on a 2 slide, 36' motorhome. So, you sometimes have to pay a bit more for the needs of your family.

The traditional wisdom is that Class C's are better for families and Class A's are better for couples. While that might have been true a couple of decades ago, there are many floorplans available on all platforms nowadays which blurs the distinction and advantages/disadvantages are not so clear cut.

Tell us a bit more about your family (number & ages of children, pets) and the type of travel you expect to do (short term (a week or two) trips or long term (2 weeks or more)), do you plan to always have hookups (holding tank size not too important in that case) or occasionally be in campgrounds which don't have water or sewer connections (holding tank size is VERY important).

Lastly, check out various floorplans. When you get right down to it, the floorplan is probably the most important consideration. Make sure it is functional for your needs. Make sure there is plenty of storage. If the unit has slides (which it probably does) make sure that access to key areas such as sink, stove, kitchen drawers, etc. in not hampered by the slide being in. If you stop at a rest stop, you most likely cannot put the slide out to gain access. Just something to think about.

Good Luck in your search. Keep asking questions! :)

~Rick

I don't believe that generally speaking the costs of repair or maintenance of similarly sized class C vs class A are significantly different. As Drew E asked, which class C vs which class A? Size and weight make a huge difference. What types of maintenance and repair? I don't think C vs A is really the determining factor.

Quality of materials and construction along with previous care if its used are going to have the biggest impact on coach maintenance and repair. Size, loading, fuel type, and previous care if its used are probably the biggest factors in chassis maintenance and repair costs. Routine maintenance on diesels is almost always significantly more expensive. There are many advantages to diesel but lower maintenance costs is not one of them.

While there are some costs that MAY be reduced between most class C and many class A, the distinction of class C vs A is not generally what drives the cost reduction. Just for example, a Dynamax DX3 is a class C built on a diesel truck chassis. This class C will likely have comparable repair and maintenance costs to a class A diesel pusher. However, shorter lighter class C units will have some lower maintenance costs especially when it comes to tires. You generally pay for the reduced tire cost in ride quality and lower load capacity.

As most have already suggested, having owned both a short class C and multiple class A units, my experience has been most dealerships and car centric garages will not work on even the shortest of class C RVs if they aren't willing to work on a class A.

Personally, I would focus more on quality of the chassis and coach as well as what layout works for your family. Like most products, generally speaking, really "cheap" RVs will have more issues. I haven't researched motorhome chassis in a long time and I'm not sure if you're talking new or used. For a long time Workhorse built a superior chassis, in my opinion. Pre-Workhorse Chevrolet P series chassis were almost always overloaded and had significant weaknesses, especially their brakes.

Having had both an A then a Class C I have found that the maintenance of the chassis is about the same with the cost being more for the Class A,parts and tires are a lot more expensive,also finding a shop to work on class C is easier than a Class A,at least that is what I have found. I do have a shop here that will handle both.

Aden949 wrote:
The class C we're looking at has Chevy Workhorse. The class A has the Ford chassis.

With the Class C on a Workhorse chassis you will have a much better upgraded chassis than the ones built on a non-workhouse chassis.

This Thread may be of help when looking at the Class C on a Chevy Chassis.

Good luck in your search,my choice that fit my needs was to go for the Class C.

.... just to give you an idea of who works on Class A:

http://rvservicereviews.com/StateList.asp?Submit=SHOW&sortby=location&state=&search=&CategoryID=4&ZipCode=&Miles=&SearchState=&KeywordState=

azdryheat wrote:
Ford dealerships will work on Class A gassers with the Ford chassis and Ford V-10.

I know for a fact that many Ford dealers will tell you they have no interest in working on an E chassis class C, much less a class A.

The class C we're looking at has Chevy Workhorse. The class A has the Ford chassis.