My research is running me in circles!
Hi all, I'm new to the RV life. My husband and I are looking to buy our first RV and we basically have 3 options. We can buy a newish (~10 years) class C, an older class A to renovated, or convert a s...
Forum Discussion
Most class A's, at least those that are less than (say) a quarter million or so new, are no safer in a rollover situation than a typical class C. For the passengers in the front cab area, they may well provide less security. The houses on both are built rather similarly from a structural point of view.
With any motorhome, or indeed most any vehicle, the driver is by far the most important safety consideration. While you cannot absolutely prevent all accidents, you can prevent or avoid the majority of them by driving defensively and leaving plenty of room to maneuver and slow down. School busses are not rollover-proof by any stretch; that's a question of physics. School busses do not roll over often because school bus drivers are trained and skilled to avoid situations where they would roll them over. It also helps that often they're operated at comparatively low speeds.
I think most parks that don't accept nicely done school bus conversions are high-end parks, and not coincidentally mostly expensive. School busses do have their drawbacks: they do not have particularly soft or comfortable suspensions, they often have quite limited headroom, they're often not geared for highway driving (though some are), and sometimes they have a little limited weight capacity. Converting one well is an involved and not necessarily inexpensive project.
Regarding towing in the mountains: you need a sufficient tow vehicle for any trailer, but you certainly can tow in the mountains with a gas truck. A non-trubo engine (gas or diesel) will lose more power at altitude, which means you might have to go more slowly. Also, very generally speaking, gas engines commonly develop their power at higher RPMs, so it can be noisier; but they absolutely can and will get the job done. Nearly all class C motorhomes, and many class A's, have the same or nearly the same powertrain of a gas truck.
With any motorhome, or indeed most any vehicle, the driver is by far the most important safety consideration. While you cannot absolutely prevent all accidents, you can prevent or avoid the majority of them by driving defensively and leaving plenty of room to maneuver and slow down. School busses are not rollover-proof by any stretch; that's a question of physics. School busses do not roll over often because school bus drivers are trained and skilled to avoid situations where they would roll them over. It also helps that often they're operated at comparatively low speeds.
I think most parks that don't accept nicely done school bus conversions are high-end parks, and not coincidentally mostly expensive. School busses do have their drawbacks: they do not have particularly soft or comfortable suspensions, they often have quite limited headroom, they're often not geared for highway driving (though some are), and sometimes they have a little limited weight capacity. Converting one well is an involved and not necessarily inexpensive project.
Regarding towing in the mountains: you need a sufficient tow vehicle for any trailer, but you certainly can tow in the mountains with a gas truck. A non-trubo engine (gas or diesel) will lose more power at altitude, which means you might have to go more slowly. Also, very generally speaking, gas engines commonly develop their power at higher RPMs, so it can be noisier; but they absolutely can and will get the job done. Nearly all class C motorhomes, and many class A's, have the same or nearly the same powertrain of a gas truck.
