WorkHorse RVs

I am not looking to buy a Workhorse I am just looking to learn about them. While searching for my newest MH I came across a few WH coaches. I did not but one but that did not stop me from wanting to learn about them.

They say knowledge is power so i am a weak man.

sorry, had it wrong, our workhorse was the one with the navistar puller by international.

I guess this makes it the w24?

regardless, true, you cannot (or should not) judge an entire product line by a single truck, or a single experience with a single truck, or even a single experience by a single person even if a whole fleet of trucks.

Mine, is just one opinion in this great big sea of a forum :)

Please treat my opinion as a single experience with a single truck. Perhaps it was a bad driver, or perhaps we just had a lemon.

.. perhaps workhorse is crap.

thats the point of this thread lol, we read, debate, and conclude :)

MagillaGorilla wrote:

tropical36 wrote:

rgatijnet1 wrote:

jplante4 wrote:
Magilla - the years you're looking at (<10 years old), you'll be looking at Ford chassis. In the gas motorhome world, that's pretty much all that's left.

Monaco still used the Workhorse W series chassis in their 2011 coaches and there were some 2012 titled coaches with the WH chassis sold. I am sure that there were other manufacturers doing the same thing. Here are some examples: 2011 Monaco, 2011 Monaco

Hard to believe the OP never heard of WH after being a full member since 07, but it can happen, I guess.
Watch out for the last one's built, as they were equipped with their own little Navistar front mounted diesel.
Finding a good WH with the 8.1 shouldn't be too difficult and my preference would be the W24 chassis.

You would be surprised by how much I don't know ;)

Also for what tis worth, I joined in 2007 because I was buying my first MH. The forum was very helpful and made the buying experience excellent. Since then my focus was only on my 1996 MH. Other than that I would check out capers at campgrounds or shows but I had not paid any attention to the drivetrains. I was just looking at/dreaming about all the nice new options that were available.


Hey guess what, MH now have rooms that slide out of the sides. Who knew? ;)

You a funny Gorilla, Magilla, but in all seriousness, diesel pullers aren't the most popular. Usually underpowered and noisy. With the WH W series chassis, the W24 is the heaviest and didn't have the brake recall issue. If looking, go for a 2008 with the GM 8.1, that comes with an Allison Tranny and if you can find a nice house sitting on one, you'll pretty much have it all in a gas puller. They also made some gas pushers, called UFO's, but after some problems that they might have worked out, they either didn't have the popularity first thought or the great recession ceased their production. I actually thought for awhile that this would be the up and coming thing, with gas pullers becoming a thing of the past.

tropical36 wrote:

rgatijnet1 wrote:

jplante4 wrote:
Magilla - the years you're looking at (<10 years old), you'll be looking at Ford chassis. In the gas motorhome world, that's pretty much all that's left.

Monaco still used the Workhorse W series chassis in their 2011 coaches and there were some 2012 titled coaches with the WH chassis sold. I am sure that there were other manufacturers doing the same thing. Here are some examples: 2011 Monaco, 2011 Monaco

Hard to believe the OP never heard of WH after being a full member since 07, but it can happen, I guess.
Watch out for the last one's built, as they were equipped with their own little Navistar front mounted diesel.
Finding a good WH with the 8.1 shouldn't be too difficult and my preference would be the W24 chassis.

You would be surprised by how much I don't know ;)

Also for what tis worth, I joined in 2007 because I was buying my first MH. The forum was very helpful and made the buying experience excellent. Since then my focus was only on my 1996 MH. Other than that I would check out capers at campgrounds or shows but I had not paid any attention to the drivetrains. I was just looking at/dreaming about all the nice new options that were available.


Hey guess what, MH now have rooms that slide out of the sides. Who knew? ;)

The only problem with finding a W24 chassis is that they weren't made until close to the last of Workhorse RV chassis. They are rare.

rgatijnet1 wrote:

jplante4 wrote:
Magilla - the years you're looking at (<10 years old), you'll be looking at Ford chassis. In the gas motorhome world, that's pretty much all that's left.

Monaco still used the Workhorse W series chassis in their 2011 coaches and there were some 2012 titled coaches with the WH chassis sold. I am sure that there were other manufacturers doing the same thing. Here are some examples: 2011 Monaco, 2011 Monaco

Hard to believe the OP never heard of WH after being a full member since 07, but it can happen, I guess.
Watch out for the last one's built, as they were equipped with their own little Navistar front mounted diesel.
Finding a good WH with the 8.1 shouldn't be too difficult and my preference would be the W24 chassis.

Bigdog wrote:
It turned out that a lot of the problems were caused by the driver and the way he treated the truck.

It's amazing how many people fail to give this the weight that it deserves. I have a buddy who does a lot of fleet service work for contractors and service providers. He was approached by the owner of a large exterminating company who was troubled by issues with his trucks, and hoping to get an answer as to which brand would give him better reliability? The owner got an answer he would of never thought of. MY buddy told him to start matching the drivers to the repair history of the fleet, and warned him that he might end up firing one or two once he saw the data.

I once bought a used van for my company, since it was in extremely nice condition and too cheap to pass up. It came from a dealer who only sold light commercial trucks. He told me that, within reason, mileage isn't something to focus on. His point was that he has seen operators who could nearly destroy a van in 30K miles, and others who could turn a van in with 180K that ran and drove nearly new.

MagillaGorilla wrote:
Ive never seen a Diesel up front. Cool.

Both Freightliner and Navistar offered front engine diesels. Freightliner offered 5.9 to 6.7 L Cummins B. The Workhorse branded Navistar might have had a Navistar engine, most likely one of the V-8s. It is not a major change from their van and bus chassis, to make a motorhome model to sell as Workhorse.

I just don't know who used them. Tiffin used Freightliners for front diesel until developing their own chassis.

I'm sorry, but how can you base a whole chasis on the experience with one vehicle. There must be thousands of rigs out there with no problems. The brake recall problem was caused by the brake manufacturer and not the chasis manufacturer.
The company that I retired from had 6 identical step vans all delivered at the same time and one was a POS and there was nothing wrong with the other five. I could say they were all a POS because of that, but it was not true. It turned out that a lot of the problems were caused by the driver and the way he treated the truck.

At work, one of our fleet trucks is based on the w22 frame. Its a cargo conversion essentially, but its terrible. The electrical issues alone have made this truck no longer viable. It is grounded for local use only. We have had it have it towed 3 times already for various issues. The engine has been rebuilt once already, I believe due to piston rings causing lost compression. The allison transmission is great, amazing even from what im told, however, when its onboard computer decides its not receiving enough output from the engine, it de-rates and then you lose both overdrive gears. 50mph max, to the floor, at 2500rpm. Forget fuel economy then.


When I got the bill for the electrical repair. I just about hit the roof. $6000 of labour to track down the electrical issues causing the transmission to stay in park despite being shifted into gear.

Turns out that the main pigtail harness ended up flexing and breaking a number of the interior wires.

Its crap. Workhorse is/was crap. Of course, a motor home is not a cargo truck. Its a more complex, delicate, and expensive piece of equipment.

Sorry. Just my 2cents.