Help spend my Money

[Lipets]

Starting to look for a 2001-2005 DP in the $50-75,000 range

Just the two of us, not looking extra sleeping capacity.

Thinking 34-36'

From reading here these brands keep popping up

tiffin
newmar
Monaco
Beaver

What other brands are worth considering?
What brands to avoid?

I'm very mechanically inclined so I can crawl around & under to check stuff.

I'm looking for a rig that has good drive-ability, not be bothered much with semi's passing us at 90.

Things not falling apart driving down the road.

What other items need careful attention on inspection so I don't get hit with a big repair bill for ball joints or brakes.

[smlranger]

Lipets wrote:
well at this point in my research I'm leaning to a foretravel.

After that a Newmar then Tiffin in that order.

All that is based on paper really Google research.

Next is to start looking at them in person.

With the Foretravel in my price range I'll be looking at rigs that are older than the others, but it appears they hold their value and are built like a brick ****house.

Any more thoughts especially from owners of these 3 brands????

Just my opinion but based on owning motorhomes for the past 12 years and recently looking at a bunch before recently trading up to a high-end coach. To faily compare any Foretravel to the other two brands, you would need to compare to Newmar's Mountain Aire, Essex and perhaps King Aire. Tiffin's Zephyr would compare to Foretravel. Some folks might argue otherwise but if you really poke around in the coaches, I think you will agree.

Older Foretravels especially did have some odd interior color choices. Some reminded me of what grandma would like....sort of an old folks only rig. Since Foretravel would custom build a coach, many reflected the first owner's sometimes odd-to-me tastes in decoration. One of Foretravel's strengths is its from the ground up bus-like construction compared to the others who put their box on a factory chassis from Freightliner or Spartan.

Bottom line, any well maintained coach from any of those manufacturers will likely serve you well.

[havasu]

Stay away from Beaver for those years - poorly constructed from cheap materials at the end of the range that you can afford. I know, I owned one.

[Lipets]

well at this point in my research I'm leaning to a foretravel.

After that a Newmar then Tiffin in that order.

All that is based on paper really Google research.

Next is to start looking at them in person.

With the Foretravel in my price range I'll be looking at rigs that are older than the others, but it appears they hold their value and are built like a brick ****house.

Any more thoughts especially from owners of these 3 brands????

[smlranger]

Lipets wrote:
Ran into a RV mechanic in the park I'm, was shooting the brezze about MH.

He said the following

Tiffins sell particularly well do to Bob Tiffin and his unwavering commitment to customer satisfaction. The factory really backs up that premise and does a great job.

Newmar is similar, but they charge a lot for that type of service once out of warranty, where Tiffin will go out of their way to keep the customer satisfied in any way they can.

The level of fit/finish is a bit higher with a Newmar product (so is the price), but both are very nice coaches.

Monaco made some nice units in than time frame, but they have been sold twice now and I wouldn't touch one!

Said to look at Foretravel. Still built in TX from the frame up, they made high quality coaches.


Wow I have a lot of research to do!!!!

One of my neighbors has an older Foretravel (1995?). Still runs great, looks great, built like a tank. Of course, so is my Country Coach, IMO.

Go here to see some nice used Foretravels:

http://motorhomesoftexas.com/

[Lipets]

Ran into a RV mechanic in the park I'm, was shooting the brezze about MH.

He said the following

Tiffins sell particularly well do to Bob Tiffin and his unwavering commitment to customer satisfaction. The factory really backs up that premise and does a great job.

Newmar is similar, but they charge a lot for that type of service once out of warranty, where Tiffin will go out of their way to keep the customer satisfied in any way they can.

The level of fit/finish is a bit higher with a Newmar product (so is the price), but both are very nice coaches.

Monaco made some nice units in than time frame, but they have been sold twice now and I wouldn't touch one!

Said to look at Foretravel. Still built in TX from the frame up, they made high quality coaches.


Wow I have a lot of research to do!!!!

[Lipets]

Thanks I will consider looking at them

[ejc1214]

Lipets,
I'm my own personal opinion, you're making a big mistake not even looking at the gas units, at least that is what I'm gathering from your posts. I had a 2005 Holiday Rambler Endeavor DP with a 400 ISL engine in it and air ride suspension and it did not ride that much better if at all than the F53 based Itasca Sunstar 36D we just got about a month ago. The 22.5 tires and the chassis technology on the gas units have come along way to give them almost the same ride as the bigger DP units. Also, my 22k chassis has 4600 CCC and can tow 5000lbs. That's some crazy numbers! A lot of DP do not even come close to the 4600 CCCs.
Being a diesel man(owned several GM trucks with the Duramax/Allison trannys) I wanted a DP and all the power that I could get. Well, this F53 surprised the heck out of me for its performance coupled with the Ford V10 and the Torq**** tranny. We have gone up the same NC mountains that we did with the truck/5th and the Endeavor and we lost very little as power was concerned and we could actually carry on a conversation with a normal tone with the wife even with the engine working hard at around 4500rpms while towing a Prius on a dolly which would come close to about 3800lbs behind us. Steepest grade so far has been 8 degrees for about 4 miles and we went up at about 50mphs. I think I could have gone faster but did not push the coach. Came down same mountain leaving it in auto and letting the Torq**** tranny do its work and it held my coach at 30mph with very little effort that I did not manually downshift. I just tapped my brakes at top of the grade a couple of times and the tranny took it to the right gear and away we went.
Anyway, my point is that you can get a fairly nice late model unit for the amount of money you're budgeting for and you do not have to worry about things breaking down in the near future. Mine is a 2011 and had 8600 miles on it and barely used and we got same rate as a new coach and got a 5 year bumper to bumper warranty for $2,600.00 because it was only 2-3 model years old. AN older unit would have cost at least double that. You get to the 8-10 years old range, things are bound to go wrong with the unit like fridge, air, ect ect and those are not cheap to fix. It's your money but I think you would do yourself an injustice if you did not at least drive a Winnebago or a Tiffin gas unit which are well made and have a huge amount of storage and CCC. Yes, those are the 2 I would look at as far as gas units. DPs are not what they are cracked up to be, IMHO, unless you get into the 500k plus units. Also, make sure that the state you live in does not require a different class drivers license to operate anything over 26k. NO, I'm not talking about a CDL but you could need a regular class A or B t operate something that heavy. I can run mine on a regular drivers license.

[mena661]

mike brez wrote:

I would want those rigs for long weekend getaways or a week here and there.

Same here!!!

[mike_brez]

mena661 wrote:
Semi-full timing? Yeah, those are the rigs you want to have.

I would want those rigs for long weekend getaways or a week here and there.

[mena661]

Semi-full timing? Yeah, those are the rigs you want to have.

[Lipets]

Ok, revised list

Tiffin - Phaeton
Newmar - Mountain Aire - Kountry Star
Monaco
Beaver
Country Coach
Foretravel
Fleetwood American
Winnebago - Ultimate Freedom, Journey (Itasca Horizon same)
Country Coach
American Coach
Foretravel

As fas as use, we travel from June thru Sept full time and get away here & there thru out the months.

[mena661]

I would also add Winnebago to your list. Quite frankly, NONE of the rigs you listed are a bad choice. I would pick the floorplan and features you want the most.

[Lipets]

Winnebago Journey

Funny there's one parked 100' from me, that certainly isn't your grandmothers Winnibago.

I didn't think it was a winni from the outside, it looks like a real MH:C

[Lipets]

Pepperoni wrote:
Once you buy your DP, you will not need help spending your money.

What's that suppose mean?

I've had diesels before (not in rv's)they were not expensive to maintain?