Class A vs Class C maintenance/repair costs?
My wife and I are in the market for our first RV. We're torn between the two styles. I feel as though the class A is a better fit for our family but my concern is the increased costs to maintain and r...
Forum Discussion
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.
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.
