CWorthy

if you only change your oil every 40,000 miles you are a miracle worker! Your engineer friend says that's too often? One of you is off your nut! I know....typo! I knew the oil change @ 40K remark would cause some panties to wad up, but I sort of wanted to flush out what I call the Model A mentality. Back then the oil was terrible, and the engines were terrible so @ 3000 miles the oil was breaking down and accumulating metal particles so it was very wise to dump it at that interval. Now that we're in the 21st century it's a different game. The oil & the engines are light years ahead of their predecessors and we also have the ability to test oil to see if it should be changed--most modern engines will go 1000 hours (50,000 miles) before the oil is out of spec. The larger point here is that with all due respect to Mr. Ford the Model As were an unreliable piece of junk and the public's expectations of them were very low. Many in the RV world have these same low expectations and the shoddy manufacturers are quite happy to fulfill these expectations.

Please tell us what coach you have and exactly what issues you have had with it. Wolfe10, first let me say you do a really nice job with this forum and I appreciate your light touch and diplomacy. As you might guess from my user name I don't really have a coach, I have a 22' Sunseeker classC which cost me $42,000 in 2003 and just turned 90,000 miles of which probably 30,000 were on gravel. I have stored it under roof and religiously change the oil every 40,000 miles even though my engineer friends say this is more often than necessary with a modern V-10. I just did a walk thru and with God as my witness could not identify or recall any issues other than the floor covering is at the end of its life. As far as it's comparison with other "toys" I tow a 23' Seaswirl with 2 Yamahas and have never had occasion to visit a boat mechanic. I have to say that it's interesting that this topic has become so contentious--the rub as I see it is that most RV owners drink the Kool Aid that RVs just can't possibly be reliable and they seem really angry at those of us who don't swallow that beverage.

Thank you for visiting the FMCA Forums, where motorhome owners -- from novice to veteran -- can discuss everything about motorhoming. Shopper, The above line is the intro to this Forum, but you need to understand that "everything" in this sentence means everything except lemons--you can't even mention that someone talked to a lawyer about an RV, much less that they had to file a lawsuit over defects. Posts on matters in which legal counsel is/has been involved, including posts related to future, current or past lawsuits, are not allowed. I believe you posed a valid question here, but to avoid getting banned you are going to have to use some kind of euphemism rather than saying lemon.

Shopper, Huffy Puff knows what he's talking about when it comes to options--Class A s have lots of them and it makes perfect sense that all of these are going to break. He's right about slideouts too--if you're only paying 250K for the RV you shouldn't expect that the slide won't give you problems, so just don't order that option. If you can keep the list of options to a minimum the only other things that will give you difficulty are the standard features. When you think about it this is a really pretty comforting--you can assure your parents that except for the standard features and the options that a class A will be trouble free.

Shopper, You aren't going to find any class A where creature comforts take a back seat to reliability--these are all about the ride, the latest floor plan, the number of TVs, and the like. The closest thing to a "manual window" you are going to find in big units are the Super Cs and the Freightliner cab & chassis is about as bulletproof as they come. Some class As use the Freightliner bare chassis, but they have their own staff build the hoods, the doors, the windshields, the dash, etc, etc and they just haven't been able to match Freightliner in these areas.

Shopper, to answer your question you should understand that Class A motorhomes are the "time share" of the RV industry. Time shares have a 93% customer dissatisfaction rate and financial advisers unanimously say they are a terrible investment, but nonetheless they have a devoted band of supporters. There is no dispute that Class A s require frequent repairs and depreciate faster than a speeding bullet, but as you can see from this thread they have a very devoted following. To most people the amount per night of use that either one of these recreation options cost would be a deal breaker. but to the people who love them they make perfect sense and those folks get a lot of enjoyment out of them.