Front diesel engine

[ACDNate]

In my hunt for a motorhome I've come across a Tiffin Allegro 38tgb with a front cummins diesel. First front diesel engine I've seen.

Any concerns or issues with a front diesel I should know about?

[tropical36]

chuckftboy wrote:
Owned one of those 210 HP FRED's in a 98' Kountry Star. Foot to the floor 65 mph all day long. Bullitt proof motor with 8.5 mpg and always ran 190 degrees hot or clod weather.
Mine was not noisy but you could hear the turbo wind up. There are a lot of Super C's with a front engine diesel and they don't complain about noise.

Super C's have the engine way out in front and not between the driver and passenger, so a different animal. These C rigs are great for engine access, but the only thing I like about them, actually. Nothing beats the rear engine bus style, IMO and pretty much a proven idea with the amount of them on the road. Yes, there's probably more gas pullers, but only because of the initial cost, I'm most sure.

[chuckftboy]

Owned one of those 210 HP FRED's in a 98' Kountry Star. Foot to the floor 65 mph all day long. Bullitt proof motor with 8.5 mpg and always ran 190 degrees hot or clod weather.
Mine was not noisy but you could hear the turbo wind up. There are a lot of Super C's with a front engine diesel and they don't complain about noise.

[tropical36]

ACDNate wrote:
In my hunt for a motorhome I've come across a Tiffin Allegro 38tgb with a front cummins diesel. First front diesel engine I've seen.

Any concerns or issues with a front diesel I should know about?

Best to just forget it, unless at a price you can't refuse and with knowing that you can easily recapture most of you money, if you decide against it after a while.

[Bruce_Brown]

The original front engine diesels had a 210 Cummins in them. We looked at a few, best part was you'd never get a speeding ticket with one. Im not sure if it would ever hit a 70 MPH speed limit, going down hill, with a tailwind. Add to that the brakes were a little weak and it rode on springs, not air, and it was easy to dismiss. They did get good MPG apparently. Then again anything driven that gently should get good MPG.

[67Cutlass]

ACDNate wrote:
In my hunt for a motorhome I've come across a Tiffin Allegro 38tgb with a front cummins diesel. First front diesel engine I've seen.

Any concerns or issues with a front diesel I should know about?

Don't know what year you looked at. But back somewhere around 2005 Freighliner started producing the FRED (Front Engine Rear Drive). It never really caught on and was only produced for a few years.


I'm not sure about 2005 my memory just isn't what it used to be.

[Two_Jayhawks]

I have considered a front engine diesel in a class 8 conversion. However in a purpose built class A it doesn't appeal to me. I have met a few that have front diesel class A's & they love them. Different strokes.

[Solo]

There is a fair amount of discussion that you can find on various message boards about the somewhat limited GCWR on the 38TGB. I would suggest that you give some thought as to if this could be an issue for you or not.

[ArchHoagland]

Would the front end diesels be cheaper to work on than the rear engine diesels?

[J-Rooster]

Nate, first one I seen was a 1985 Air Stream Diesel Puller! Any type of noise not a problem to me I had my hearing blown out in Vietnam in 1969!

[bobkatmsu]

Having just gone from a gas engine to a DP, I can't imagine spending that kind of money on a motor home only to get two of the biggest complaints I had about the gasser. Noise while driving. "not that bad", how about no engine noise at all. Second, drive shaft and transmission taking up valuable storage space. To each their own but I just would never even considered it, but thats me.

[ACDNate]

Not too concerned about engine noise. Nothing can be louder than a downshiftikh ford v10

[jplante4]

The older Safari Treks were built on the Isuzu truck chassis. Overhead bed in the front allowed them to keep the overall body length under 30'.

[cruz-in]

We have a front engine Monaco Vesta and really like it. Full air bag suspension, air brakes, etc...just like a DP. Only the Diesel is in the front.

Yes it is noisier than a DP but does not bother us.

[Johnny_G1]

Not a noise problem with our's, 12 valve Cummin's is really quiet compared to my pick up with a 24 valve.