offthewall
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Re: Seat Belts
DKM_Fam wrote: Please don’t beat me up to bad for asking this, I am just curious. We have a new to us 35’ Georgie Boy. The sofa and chair have seat belts. Do people use these while driving? We are a family of 5 (3 kiddos), none young enough to require safety seats. It seems to me, part of the joy of having a big motor home is to allow the family some comfort while traveling. I would love to allow my kids to be able to sit at the dinette or on the floor and play a game while traveling. Kids usually don’t ride as well or as long if “tied down”. I do realize the safety factor, and would insist they were their belts when in congested driving areas, or other dangerous conditions. However, is we are on long flat, low traffic highways and traveling at a leisurely slow pace, would you let them be unbuckled? Just curious and thanks in advance for your honest opinion. Dennis All occupants in our MH are seat belted in at all times. I would NEVER let children "roam about" the MH while underway.432Views0likes0CommentsRe: Overwhelmed with choices of motorhomes
cducote wrote: This is our first purchase of a motorhome. We have narrowed it down to these 3: Fleetwood, Thor, or Georgetown. Can anyone give me pros or cons of each? Our budget is <$100,000 and we like the bunk bed floor plans. We haven't found any used ones in our area so it looks like we'll have to buy new. Any help is appreciated! Thanks in advance! I'd drop Thor and Georgetown from your list and add Winnebago (Itasca), Tiffin and Newmar.375Views0likes0CommentsRe: Diesel vs gas for Class A....also length of RV....
JnJnKatiebug wrote: ... My bad, I don't know where I got the 60mph. I don't know anyone who drives 50mph, at least not on the interstate. I have the Cummins 330hp and tow a Jeep Wrangler 2 door everywhere we go. At 62mph it get 9mpg, at 75mph it gets 7.5mpg so I normally drive 62-65mph. On a recent trip to Florida (800 miles) I drove 62-65 all the way, which took about 2 hours longer but saved about 18 gallons of fuel or $72. We had 10 days so 2 hours made no difference to me. Our current 34' 340HP DP seems to get better milage than the slightly larger/heavier models. I think we are soon to loose that MPG advantage with our newly ordered 2015 Newmar Ventana 40' Tag Axle 400HP DP. BUT it should be a dream to drive with the TAG + Comfort Steer - Can't wait to burn that fuel - Whoo Hoo!!!!!!625Views0likes0CommentsRe: Diesel vs gas for Class A....also length of RV....
JnJnKatiebug wrote: offthewall wrote: Gjac wrote: RayChez wrote: Gjac wrote: offthewall wrote: RayChez wrote: LOL! Some of these RVer's that are saying a gasoline coach is just as good as a diesel pusher do not know what they are talking about. They should take a drive on a diesel pusher and they would never go back to a gasoline coach. Now if they do not want to spend that kind of money, that is a different story. But to say that a gasoline motorhome rides just as good is insane. Gasoline motorhomes are OK, but not comparison to a diesel pusher. SORRY! A gasoline engine once it starts hitting 100K it is already in the twilight of being a good engine, while a diesel is just barely getting broke in. ^^^^^ THAT I'm with you. We've owned a 2008 gasser and now a 2010 DP. No comparison in ride or pulling power. We now have our second DP on order (2015 Newmar Ventana 4037). We are getting almost twice the fuel mileage with the DP. The CC of our DP on order is 11,300 lbs!!! The slide out, fully pass through storage bays will be a delight on my old back and I won't miss whacking my head on the bottom of an open slide loading or unloading. The ride is heavenly due to the air suspension, engine heat and noise in the back and huge increase in torque. We could tow anything, rather than being limited to the 5,000 lbs of a gasser. We do not FT. We like to say that with the DP, we feel like we are on vacation the second we sit in the drivers seat with the DP. The Gasser was always a hot, noisy chore to get somewhere. Since we vacation within 500 miles from home, we never have to stop for fuel with the DP. Fill it up at home and again when we get back home. When parked, we are not 3 feet in the air since the bags drop before the levelers are down. No way would I ever get a Ford V10 based gasser again. If I ever decided i wanted something smaller, I'd get a Mercedes based diesel Sprinter model. That is a true "alternative" to a DP. A 35-40ft Class A gasser is a "compromise". What did your gas MH weigh vs the weight of your 34y DP? What HP do you have in the DP? What was the MPG of each? Assuming your gas MH was a 362 HP ford how did the performance compare with your DP? I am not sure if this was for my post or the other, but the gasoline motorhome I had was a 36' F-53 chassis with the V-10 engine weighed I believe 19K lbs. I would get 8-9 mpg. Good engine, bad transmission. The diesel pusher I bought after that has the Caterpillar engine, I get 8 mpg average. The coach is 38'long and weigh's 30K lbs. It has a six speed Allison transmission. Very good coach. Have now 60K miles on it and it is running better now then ever. Lots of power going up long grades. Ray it was actually for the other one. I found it hard to understand that a vehicle that weight 14,000 lbs with 362 HP would have less performance and 1/2 the mpgs of one that weighed 27,000 lbs and only 340 HP. Your numbers look very normal. I can only speak to what we experienced. The 14,000lb gasser MPG was miserable (2008 Gulfstream 31'). If I slowed down to 50-55MPH and wasn't towing, the MPG went up to 8 or so. But at 70 MPH, towing a Jeep Wrangler, it was always in the low to mid 5.x MPG. The 34y DP never gets below 8 MPG under any circumstances, is typically is around 10 towing the Wrangler, and easily 12 if not towing. That's the nearly 2x the fuel mileage as the gasser at 70MPH. Some will say "slow down" but since we still work, two hours cut off my Friday evening "commute" to a weekend getaway and two less hours home is priceless. As for performance, the low end torque of the DP is better than the V10 Ford. HP doesn't matter much at all. You need to check your math. Even if you drove 300 miles at 60mph that is 5 hours. To drive 300 miles in 3 (you said it saved two hours) that would be 100mph. At 70mph you would save about 45 minutes. OMG :S Since you went there - LOL. Our typical long weekend trip is about 350 miles one way. At 70MPH that would take 5 hours. If we were to drive 50MPH** the same trip would take 7 hours. 7-5=2. Two hours saved. The point is if I drove at 70MPH, I got 5.x MPG in the gasser. At 50MPH, I could get better MPG but wasn't worth my time. I used more fuel with the gasser. Travel speed is a non-issue with the DP. It's mileage is greater and more consistent at all speeds. It's also a lot more comfortable to drive at any speed and we feel like our vacation starts the second we get behind the wheel. **I never mentioned 60MPH in my hypothetical argument since the breaking point of the gasser mileage dropping was about 50-55.625Views0likes0CommentsRe: Diesel vs gas for Class A....also length of RV....
Gjac wrote: RayChez wrote: Gjac wrote: offthewall wrote: RayChez wrote: LOL! Some of these RVer's that are saying a gasoline coach is just as good as a diesel pusher do not know what they are talking about. They should take a drive on a diesel pusher and they would never go back to a gasoline coach. Now if they do not want to spend that kind of money, that is a different story. But to say that a gasoline motorhome rides just as good is insane. Gasoline motorhomes are OK, but not comparison to a diesel pusher. SORRY! A gasoline engine once it starts hitting 100K it is already in the twilight of being a good engine, while a diesel is just barely getting broke in. ^^^^^ THAT I'm with you. We've owned a 2008 gasser and now a 2010 DP. No comparison in ride or pulling power. We now have our second DP on order (2015 Newmar Ventana 4037). We are getting almost twice the fuel mileage with the DP. The CC of our DP on order is 11,300 lbs!!! The slide out, fully pass through storage bays will be a delight on my old back and I won't miss whacking my head on the bottom of an open slide loading or unloading. The ride is heavenly due to the air suspension, engine heat and noise in the back and huge increase in torque. We could tow anything, rather than being limited to the 5,000 lbs of a gasser. We do not FT. We like to say that with the DP, we feel like we are on vacation the second we sit in the drivers seat with the DP. The Gasser was always a hot, noisy chore to get somewhere. Since we vacation within 500 miles from home, we never have to stop for fuel with the DP. Fill it up at home and again when we get back home. When parked, we are not 3 feet in the air since the bags drop before the levelers are down. No way would I ever get a Ford V10 based gasser again. If I ever decided i wanted something smaller, I'd get a Mercedes based diesel Sprinter model. That is a true "alternative" to a DP. A 35-40ft Class A gasser is a "compromise". What did your gas MH weigh vs the weight of your 34y DP? What HP do you have in the DP? What was the MPG of each? Assuming your gas MH was a 362 HP ford how did the performance compare with your DP? I am not sure if this was for my post or the other, but the gasoline motorhome I had was a 36' F-53 chassis with the V-10 engine weighed I believe 19K lbs. I would get 8-9 mpg. Good engine, bad transmission. The diesel pusher I bought after that has the Caterpillar engine, I get 8 mpg average. The coach is 38'long and weigh's 30K lbs. It has a six speed Allison transmission. Very good coach. Have now 60K miles on it and it is running better now then ever. Lots of power going up long grades. Ray it was actually for the other one. I found it hard to understand that a vehicle that weight 14,000 lbs with 362 HP would have less performance and 1/2 the mpgs of one that weighed 27,000 lbs and only 340 HP. Your numbers look very normal. I can only speak to what we experienced. The 14,000lb gasser MPG was miserable (2008 Gulfstream 31'). If I slowed down to 50-55MPH and wasn't towing, the MPG went up to 8 or so. But at 70 MPH, towing a Jeep Wrangler, it was always in the low to mid 5.x MPG. The 34y DP never gets below 8 MPG under any circumstances, is typically is around 10 towing the Wrangler, and easily 12 if not towing. That's the nearly 2x the fuel mileage as the gasser at 70MPH. Some will say "slow down" but since we still work, two hours cut off my Friday evening "commute" to a weekend getaway and two less hours home is priceless. As for performance, the low end torque of the DP is better than the V10 Ford. HP doesn't matter much at all.625Views0likes0CommentsRe: Diesel vs gas for Class A....also length of RV....
Gjac wrote: ... What did your gas MH weigh vs the weight of your 34y DP? What HP do you have in the DP? What was the MPG of each? Assuming your gas MH was a 362 HP ford how did the performance compare with your DP? Gasser had a GVWR of 14,500. The DP has a GVWR 27,910. DP has a 340 HP Cummins. Gasser a 362 HP Ford. MPG of the gasser was 5-7. DP 9-12. I usually drive the speed limit +5 (60-70 mostly). The DP is quieter, cooler, climbs hills better, has better acceleration than the gasser. The ride of the gasser was rough owing to it's truck based chassis. The DP, smooth owing to it's bus/air bag chassis.625Views0likes0CommentsRe: Diesel vs gas for Class A....also length of RV....
RayChez wrote: LOL! Some of these RVer's that are saying a gasoline coach is just as good as a diesel pusher do not know what they are talking about. They should take a drive on a diesel pusher and they would never go back to a gasoline coach. Now if they do not want to spend that kind of money, that is a different story. But to say that a gasoline motorhome rides just as good is insane. Gasoline motorhomes are OK, but not comparison to a diesel pusher. SORRY! A gasoline engine once it starts hitting 100K it is already in the twilight of being a good engine, while a diesel is just barely getting broke in. ^^^^^ THAT I'm with you. We've owned a 2008 gasser and now a 2010 DP. No comparison in ride or pulling power. We now have our second DP on order (2015 Newmar Ventana 4037). We are getting almost twice the fuel mileage with the DP. The CC of our DP on order is 11,300 lbs!!! The slide out, fully pass through storage bays will be a delight on my old back and I won't miss whacking my head on the bottom of an open slide loading or unloading. The ride is heavenly due to the air suspension, engine heat and noise in the back and huge increase in torque. We could tow anything, rather than being limited to the 5,000 lbs of a gasser. We do not FT. We like to say that with the DP, we feel like we are on vacation the second we sit in the drivers seat with the DP. The Gasser was always a hot, noisy chore to get somewhere. Since we vacation within 500 miles from home, we never have to stop for fuel with the DP. Fill it up at home and again when we get back home. When parked, we are not 3 feet in the air since the bags drop before the levelers are down. No way would I ever get a Ford V10 based gasser again. If I ever decided i wanted something smaller, I'd get a Mercedes based diesel Sprinter model. That is a true "alternative" to a DP. A 35-40ft Class A gasser is a "compromise".295Views0likes0CommentsRe: Enough Power?
davedefruiter wrote: Looking to buy my first RV; question for those of you with experience. Does a Ford V10 have enough power for a 35 footer in mountain driving? Yes but the Ford V10 is high reving and WILL be screaming up those hills. I always thought mine was going to blow up but it never did and was super reliable. IMHO, the only downside to that engine is the fuel milage. I get about twice the fuel mileage towing with my DP than I did with the old 31' Class C V10.154Views0likes0CommentsRe: Will that ladder and roof hold a 300-pounder?
klebs wrote: I'm definitely planning to lose weight after I retire from my desk job, but the possibility I'm dreading is that if I (300 lb.) have to climb up that ladder or walk around a Class A roof to do some maintenance, I may just end up in somebody's hilariously funny fail video just before the ambulance arrives. How much weight can those things hold? I wouldn't worry about the roof holding 300lbs but I would NEVER trust that attached ladder for that weight. I weigh about 175 and both RV's I've owned with rear ladders seemed sketchy while climbing.671Views0likes0Comments
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