Anyone go from a Motorhome back to a TT?
We are considering selling our TT and truck and buying a Motorhome. I am trying to count all the variables before we change from a TT to a Motorhome. Have any of you switched from a TT to a Motorh...
Forum Discussion
We've had them all, everything from tent-trailer to 33' Class A. We're glad to be back to a travel trailer.
Like has been said before, it's just a matter of personal style. However we did find that motorhomes tend to be badly maintained (especially brakes!) and when you have a problem with it, there are no books you can just pull to check the troubleshooting tree like you have with a tow vehicle.
Case in point:
We were nearly stranded in our MH, middle of the night, stopped for gas, switched off. Finish up, restart. Pull on the headlights and the engine quits, just like you'd turned the key off. No-start, no crank, no NOTHING, for about ten minutes. Then restart, pull on the headlights, and the engine quit again. Three go-rounds of this, I finally figured out that if I could get away with having just the parking lights on, I could move it to somewhere safer to fix it. If it'd been a pickup truck and trailer, I could have had a wiring diagram to trace. Turned out to be a thermal circuit breaker mounted on the plywood "firewall" which was in the main positive cable. Replaced it with a fusible link (like what SHOULD have been there) and all was OK again.
The above was the final straw. Previous trips with it, I'd discovered that because there were no fender liners, any time there was fairly deep water, the wheels splashed it up on the engine. The water would go around the spark plugs, flash to steam, and blow the wire clean off the spark plug.
The problem with motorhomes is that they are not built to any kind of standard; they're just a rolling chassis with whatever kind of coach frame that the manufacturer chooses to use. The quality is totally in the hands of the manufacturer, and there are no safety ratings at all. These kind of things would never have been tolerated on a production tow vehicle.
If I was going to ever own another motorhome, I'd start with a bus chassis; at least I'd know that the chassis and body were regulated and rated to be together.
Like has been said before, it's just a matter of personal style. However we did find that motorhomes tend to be badly maintained (especially brakes!) and when you have a problem with it, there are no books you can just pull to check the troubleshooting tree like you have with a tow vehicle.
Case in point:
We were nearly stranded in our MH, middle of the night, stopped for gas, switched off. Finish up, restart. Pull on the headlights and the engine quits, just like you'd turned the key off. No-start, no crank, no NOTHING, for about ten minutes. Then restart, pull on the headlights, and the engine quit again. Three go-rounds of this, I finally figured out that if I could get away with having just the parking lights on, I could move it to somewhere safer to fix it. If it'd been a pickup truck and trailer, I could have had a wiring diagram to trace. Turned out to be a thermal circuit breaker mounted on the plywood "firewall" which was in the main positive cable. Replaced it with a fusible link (like what SHOULD have been there) and all was OK again.
The above was the final straw. Previous trips with it, I'd discovered that because there were no fender liners, any time there was fairly deep water, the wheels splashed it up on the engine. The water would go around the spark plugs, flash to steam, and blow the wire clean off the spark plug.
The problem with motorhomes is that they are not built to any kind of standard; they're just a rolling chassis with whatever kind of coach frame that the manufacturer chooses to use. The quality is totally in the hands of the manufacturer, and there are no safety ratings at all. These kind of things would never have been tolerated on a production tow vehicle.
If I was going to ever own another motorhome, I'd start with a bus chassis; at least I'd know that the chassis and body were regulated and rated to be together.
