A vs C HELP

[fishhogg]

We are retired in good health and ready to make the plunge! Having a hard time deciding on the right Motorhome. We will use the Motorhome in the winter in the (Lower 48") snow birds and bring it home to Alaska in the summer. We have found the floor plan and make in both the A's and the C's. Time frame 2 months in the fall and 3-4 months in the winter before returning north. My question to you is will we be more comfortable in a class A or C? Driving is not a problem as I drove commercial 43 years. Thanks for your thoughts. :h

[DrewE]

Pass42 wrote:
One other thought... a "C" nose is narrower than the body... an issue thru toll booths or tunnels, in that your perspective is not that of the body width, but of the van front... an "A" is full width the entire length, making side clearance perhaps easier or at least more intuitive.....

Between the side mirrors extending out and the cabover "bill" in front of the windshield, I've never had especial difficulty keeping track of the width of a class C. (Granted, some of the cabovers are shaped differently and not so obviously full width.) The height, on the other hand, sometimes seemed a bit deceiving to me with the driver's seat and apparent cab ceiling a few feet lower than the top of the vehicle.

I do suppose a class A is a bit more intuitive as to its overall width; I just haven't found a class C to be particularly deceptive in that regard. Both, of course, feel rather like an aircraft carrier when compared to a standard passenger car.

[Bumpyroad]

Pass42 wrote:
One other thought... a "C" nose is narrower than the body... an issue thru toll booths or tunnels, in that your perspective is not that of the body width, but of the van front... an "A" is full width the entire length, making side clearance perhaps easier or at least more intuitive.....

yep, a lot of this "driving a narrower RV" is psychological. you lose sight that what is behind you is 8-1/2 ft wide.
bumpy

[Pass42]

One other thought... a "C" nose is narrower than the body... an issue thru toll booths or tunnels, in that your perspective is not that of the body width, but of the van front... an "A" is full width the entire length, making side clearance perhaps easier or at least more intuitive.....

[fishhogg]

Thank you all! I have the information I need now.??

[IMAGNLife_com]

I love learning and hearing everyone's perspective. I can't find if the Class C we're building (a "Super C" Showhauler or Renegade Ikon) has airbags but I know they're built on Freightliner's Cascadia heavy duty chassis & have 43,000 GVWR and a massive hood containing a massive engine & frame. We never like to think about having an incident that would make any of this even matter, but it makes me a little happier knowing this - JB

[Desert_Captain]

Rick, for the record i never found your posts to be argumentative, it's a discussion and the one area where we seem to be in agreement is a serious commitment to safety. This is why your many anti air bag sentiments are troubling and frankly inaccurate. The NHTSB is quite forthcoming about air bag related deaths and injuries. Just Google "air bag" and the stats are readily available. Most of the problems have come from children being improperly secured or other operator errors. The myth that air bags are inherently dangerous has been around since their inception. People said the same thing about seat belts when they became mandatory. Both are urban legends that just won't go away. :h

The simple fact is air bags have been saving lives and reducing injuries for more than 20 years.

I also don't share your illusion that the folks driving motorhomes are necessarily better drivers, just seen too many foolish things done by MH's. With their large size and weight which reduces braking and handling you add a lot of potential for accidents. Given how fast some folks like to drive their rigs it is amazing that there aren't more serious accidents involving RV's.

Getting back to the original topic A vs C I am glad you are happy with yours but the one accident scenario you have not even considered is the one most likely, that of a coach striking a non moving object (often a single vehicle event).

When driving off the road and hitting a power/light pole, bridge abutment, large rock, 18 wheeler on the shoulder etc., the only help you will get from momentum is a quicker, (hopefully less painful), death. Imagine a C and an A (both operating within their GVWR's), both traveling the same speed and slamming into an immoveable object such as those listed above. The driver and passenger in the A are probably seriously injured and or killed as there is next to nothing between them and the impact.

The C's frame and chassis take the brunt of the impact and the multiple air bags deploy. Death is less likely and injuries will not be as severe. The success of air bags in this scenario has been documented for decades.

As I said I think there's a lot to like about Class A's but vs a Class C safety is just not one of them.

:C

[Rick_Jay]

afrescop,

Agreed, in small vehicles. But lives have also been lost due to air bags. NHTSA isn't so forthcoming with those stats. Admittedly, those were mostly the first generation airbags, but there was still loss of life and/or more serious injury than if they had not been on the vehicle. That's why now some vehicles allow you to disable them for certain passengers.

~Rick

[J-Rooster]

The only way to know is test drive both and see what you enjoy driving the best. After that then you find the floor plan of the A or C that fits your needs the best. Great Question!

[afrescopXx]

I would like to point out to Rick Jay that since the advent of mandatory front airbags thousands of lives have been saved. I own a Class A and would love to have better protection. One reason we bought a Winnebago Class A is the fact the front cap is steel covered by fiberglass facia.

[Rick_Jay]

Desert Captain,

Good Luck finding those "honest politicians"...especially during election season. 🙂

I remember a front end collision involving a Class A (a member of these forums) and an SUV. I believe that the SUV crossed undivided highway lane and hit the RV head on. I believe both occupants in the SUV were killed. The driver of the Class A sustained some damage to his ankles/lower legs(?), but was otherwise uninjured. I believe his passenger was shaken up, but uninjured.

Air bags are only helpful in specific accident scenarios. Most of us drove vehicles for years without them, and most of us survived. The majority of vehicles on the road are much smaller than our motorhomes. I also believe that most motorhome drivers are better drivers than the average population. 🙂 Two huge benefits in our favor.

Since the motorhome is so much more massive than the average passenger car, the momentum is MUCH greater, meaning that it takes a lot more to bring it to a stop. Airbags deploy in thousands of a second, then deflate equally as quickly. Picture a possible alternative scene to the accident above: The class A had air bags and they deployed. Now, the driver, instead of being able to bring the motorhome to a safe controlled stop, gets stunned by the exploding air bags, loses control of the still moving RV and causes further damage, perhaps even further injury or even loss of life to those who weren't involved in the original accident. Airbags work best when the vehicle comes to a sudden stop. If the initial collision does not stop the vehicle, then the airbags provide no occupant protection against any further collisions. Hit a tree and stop. They work. Hit a guard rail and keep traveling, they probably won't be of much help unless you land in a vat of marshmallows. 🙂

Anyway, momentum DOES matter. You want it in your favor. Not that I gave it a lot of thought, but I feel my family is much safer in our 22,000 lb. motorhome than our 4,500 lb. minivan, or even the 14,000 lb. Class C's we were looking at.

Other aspects of safety include operating the vehicle within the factory specified weight limits. There's an active Topics here in the Class C Forums about his motorhome being overloaded. I knew our weight requirements when we were doing our research and chose a vehicle which can safely carry all of the weight we needed. The available class C's on the E-450 chassis could not offer what we needed. If you're going to talk safety, you have to look at all aspects. I'll gladly forego airbags (which I will probably never need) in favor of adequate carrying capacity which I need everytime the rig rolls down the highway.

We can debate our positions for ever. Personally, I'm not sold on any safety benefits of air bags for large vehicles. But as far as I know, we can both be right because I've never seen any statistics to show otherwise. 🙂 If we ever meet around a campfire, we can keep each other engaged in conversation! LOL

Safe travels to all! 🙂

~Rick

[Desert_Captain]

Rick Jay wrote:

Desert Captain wrote:

The one issue the A folks simply do not talk about is safety as the C's win that one hands down.

Do you have a link to any sort of statistics that support this claim? I'm not trying to be argumentative, I just read this statement quite a bit on these forums, but have yet to see anyone offer any proof.

In fact, from the few members here who have been unfortunate enough to be involved in a front end collision, the driver and passengers in the (Class A) motorhome have faired quite well.

Airbags have little benefit on a vehicle which weighs, on average, 5-10 times more than the vehicle they are most likely to hit (family car). In a collision with another vehicle, momentum is your friend, and the bigger vehicle has the most momentum.

Most vehicles on the road, should they hit the front of the class A, will have their heads right in line with the frame rails of the class A, and be underneath the Class A driver/passenger. The van chassis of the Class C's put their driver about the same height as the other cars on the road, so in that case airbags may help you.

Now, if you're going to play "chicken" with a concrete delivery truck or loaded 18 wheeler, all bets are off. But, of course, in that situation, airbags won't help you either.

~Rick

Rick, I'm sorry you do not believe in air bags... for me it is "honest politicians. :B

The fact remains that air bags save lives and reduce injuries dramatically and the fact that A's do not come with them seriously diminishes the safety of the occupants in a crash. Your momentum theory does not hold water, or in this case air. Would stepping on the gas to increase momentum improve the survivability in a crash? Yes I'm kidding, but the fact remains that more momentum at impact just exacerbates the damage to all of those involved.

In a one on one head on between an A and a passenger car I agree the lighter car may get the worst of it but the front end of that A is no place I want to be. In a C you have the reinforced steel cage/chassis surrounding the engine, with the impact from any direction, cushioned by air bags.

Sitting up front in an A there is precious little between you and the impact except that huge windshield. Yes, you are a little higher but that doesn't necessarily make you any safer and if you hit anything bigger than a Camry you are in serious trouble. There are lots of considerations when choosing between A and C but as I pointed out and this thread confirms, most folks with A's do not talk about safety much. Floor plans and storage seem to take precedence.

I think A's are amazing and most are well built. If my needs were best met by an A I would not hesitate to buy one but IMHO they cannot match a C for safety. When it comes to A vs C there are many other factors to consider and safety is just one of the many, hence this thread. As noted.... Opinions and YMMV.

:C

[Rick_Jay]

fishhogg,

Keep doing your research and ask questions on this forum. 🙂 The floorplan is most important. I think for extended trips, the Class A has a more livable interior space, much better view when driving and parked, and generally speaking, better outside storage and larger holding tanks.

Even as a family of 6, we chose our first (and only) RV to be the Class A in our signature (36' gas, dual slide, dual sofa). After researching for a couple of years and numerous solicitations for input on this forum, we realized that the Class A was best for us. That's counter to the traditional "Class A's are for couples, Class C's are for families." adage. Yet, we thought it would work best for us, and here we are 10 years later and are still happy with our decision. (Even more so now that it's paid off! 🙂 )

Knowing what I know now, the only recommendation I might make is to buy a slightly used newer model to save some $$$. In our case, the dual sofa layouts in a gas Class A are extremely rare, so we bought our rig new. If we were looking for a diesel pusher, we would've had more options for that floorplan, but wifey doesn't like diesel, and they were more than we wanted to spend.

Good Luck in your search.

~Rick

[msmith1199]

You're talking about living in something for months at a time. I don't recall anybody ever saying "I just have too much space in this motorhome" when they were living in it for months at a time. I have a 35 foot class A. The longest I've been out in it is two weeks. It is a perfect size for taking the one and two week trip. If I was going to full time, or be on the road 3 or 4 months out of the year, I'd want at least a 40 footer.

[Rick_Jay]

Desert Captain wrote:

The one issue the A folks simply do not talk about is safety as the C's win that one hands down.

Do you have a link to any sort of statistics that support this claim? I'm not trying to be argumentative, I just read this statement quite a bit on these forums, but have yet to see anyone offer any proof.

In fact, from the few members here who have been unfortunate enough to be involved in a front end collision, the driver and passengers in the (Class A) motorhome have faired quite well.

Airbags have little benefit on a vehicle which weighs, on average, 5-10 times more than the vehicle they are most likely to hit (family car). In a collision with another vehicle, momentum is your friend, and the bigger vehicle has the most momentum.

Most vehicles on the road, should they hit the front of the class A, will have their heads right in line with the frame rails of the class A, and be underneath the Class A driver/passenger. The van chassis of the Class C's put their driver about the same height as the other cars on the road, so in that case airbags may help you.

Now, if you're going to play "chicken" with a concrete delivery truck or loaded 18 wheeler, all bets are off. But, of course, in that situation, airbags won't help you either.

~Rick