Top Three Class B's, one (1) thru. three (3)!

[bagman]

I've been doing a lot of research on this category of motor homes and I have come up with a conclusion that the top three (3) quality Class B's are as follows: #1. Advanced RV in Willoughby, Ohio, #2. Pleasure Way RV in Canada, & #3. Roadtrek RV also in Canada. All Advanced RV's are custom made and can cost over $300K and from watching videos of how they are made and reports from Pleasure Way RV customers, I'm convinced that they are #2. I would have placed Leisure Travel Vans in 3rd. place, but their motor homes are actually a B+. Finally I place Roadtrek in 3rd. place. The saying that you get what you pay for definitely applies here. I am not disparaging any class B motor homes built by Winnebago, Fleetwood, Thor, Forest River, or any other manufacturer. I also strongly believe that Coach House builds a quality motor home, but they also build a B+. Agree, disagree? Bags.

[GailS]

I agree with bagman that ARV, Coach House, LTV and PW are all quality units, but that being said, if you don't like their chassis or floors plan that crosses them off our list. Our last B was a 2005 LTV. Following that we purchased a small C and decided after a year and a half we really are B folks. For our latest purchase we did not want a diesel or Ford this time and wanted to keep it under 22'. The Winnebago Travato K model was our choice. It is by far our favorite RV. We have had no failures of any kind and the floor plan suits us perfectly. It is not the quality of some higher priced units but we feel we got more than we expected for the $$$$.

[bagman]

Glad to have at least one forum member agree with me! ARV, Coach House, LTV, Pleasure Way are ALL quality units and in the long run, that makes a huge difference! Chuck/Bagman.

[AAFD]

Chuck I agree with you. I have been doing the same research and If we were going to down size now ARV would be the way to go. If a new one was to much $$$ I would get a used one. I have talked and email them on a lot of questions, they get back quickly.

KC

[buta4]

Sportsmobile is geared more to function rather than fluff. Less complicated construction also with less undercarriage glycol hoses, etc.

[mumkin]

I've always liked Sportsmobile, but their rigs hardly compare to the luxury of the ARV. They are appealing to two totally different markets. Many don't like the industrial look of the Sportsmobile, and I would probably put their build quality above Roadtrek too... but I think I would still put Pleasureway over them.

In a ranking of Class B units, perhaps both ARV and Sportsmobile should be excluded since special order rigs always involve a long wait that most people don't want.

That leaves us with not many options that we can find on a dealer lot.

[jrobe]

Without a doubt you have to include Sportsmobile especially if you are including custom companies like ARV. At least from SMB North, their build quality is far better than Roadtreks and Winnies and at least as good as Pleasureway. The price is very similiar depending on your selections (and 1/3rd the price of an ARV). Plus you get to custom design the van. You can choose to have a spare tire, a 2nd alternator, a diesel furnace, no loud LP generator or old fashioned LP refrigerator, etc.. The only downside is that you have to wait for your order. Mine took 10 months last year.

[buta4]

Sportsmobile..design your own. 🙂

[Pawz4me]

Shrug.

It's all in the eye (and wallet, I guess) of the beholder.

We looked at quite a few Roadtreks and Pleasure Ways before making our decision.

We didn't find the Roadtreks impressive at all. In fact we'd read so many good to great things about them that we were really surprised and disappointed. I'm not disparaging them, they just didn't appeal to us.

The Pleasure Ways certainly seemed to be well made, but we didn't like any of the layouts. There seemed to be so many places where they could have used space better. But again--that's a personal thing.

For us the Winnebago layout won. The best quality doesn't matter if you don't feel comfy in it. They got our business on the combo of layout+quality+price.

[magicbus]

My last RV before downsizing was a Country Coach. Did I appreciate the solid wood cabinets and drawers? Yes. Do I miss them on my Winnebago Era? Not really. Have I noticed the difference? Yes I have because I am chasing my only issue, which is a water pump pressure problem encountered because it was in the 20 degree range when we took delivery so it couldn't be exercised and I had to pull a panel that access the pump.

These are van based RVs. They drive better, get hugely better mileage, and go places my CC and toad could not. We really don't need granite countertops and too many other bells and whistles beyond what buying a newer coach provides. I'm already impressed with the Truma Combi and the distributed control lighting system.

Dave

[AsheGuy]

mumkin wrote:
But sadly, Leisure no longer makes a Class B. If you are looking at used, I would definitely put them at number 2 on your list. Having compared LTV and PW many times in the past, LTV has always been a bit better.

We did a detailed look at Pleasure-Way vs LTV when we bought our Class B in 2005 and quality wise both were at the top of the quality list of Class Bs at that time. We preferred the Pleasure-Way because of the dealer but went with the LTV because they had three features that we preferred over the Pleasure-Way (3rd seat in front, always attached black tank hose, and "basement" storage).

Now after 140K miles we can vouch for LTV's conversion quality. No problems whatsoever with the LTV built conversion.

Too bad LTV no longer manufactures Class B's, they claimed it was due to limited skilled labor and manufacturing space and the bigger market for the B+ segment of class C's was a better application of their resources.

[toedtoes]

I think the point about "must haves" is important.

If you take the higher point materials (granite, corinthian leather, etc.) and additional extras (air ride suspension, lithium battery, smartphone apps, etc.), out of the equation, then how does the quality differ for the price?

If there is no difference to the chassis, then the build quality must be significantly better to justify a major price hike.

My dad had a van conversion business for years. He customized for camping vans, commuter vans, etc. So I saw the build work done first hand. Outside of the shoddy manufacturers (the ones who can't consistently screw in a screw properly), class Bs are pretty much all of a quality above other types of RVs. Simply because the biggest quality issue with RVs is the exterior build - and Bs take advantage of the chassis exterior build by definition. It's much easier to properly attach a cabinet when the wall it will be attached to was properly built.

[magicbus]

Isaac-1 wrote:
I am surprised Airstream did not make the list

I am too. I took along look at Airstream but their layouts just didn't work for us - even though we did a bit of reconfiguring for the pets once we got it.

Dave

[Isaac-1]

I am surprised Airstream did not make the list

[bagman]

Artum, ditto to what mumkin said, because their motor homes are B+, not B's. However, I really like Leisure Travel Van's products, especially the new Wonder built on the Ford Transit cut-away chassis! Bags.