FlyWright wrote:
What did you end up buying, 2bucks? What sold you on the choice you made?
*We bought an 07 Beaver Contessa, 43'. Beaver was owned by Monaco at the time, but run as an independant company. It has an RR10S chassis which a production/custom built motorhome chassis with 10 air bag suspension outside the frame which gives better stability. Duals in back with a tag axle for more capacity. Many 40' motorhomes with just duals in back are over, sometimes way over, the rated weight for the axle, tires, and road limits. We full time, part time, 7 months on the road at a time, so being able to take what we want with us was important.
The tag axle also improves handling. The tag can be "lifted" with the push of a button so the effective wheelbase is less than many 40' in tight spaces.
We have 4 slides for plenty of space when parked. We have stacked washer and dryer for easy cheap laundry. The newer rigs have enormous windshields, so the view while driving is fantastic. We opted for the higher end type of motorhome with no particle board, no contact paper etc. All our cabinets are real wood, the paneling that isn't wallpaper is veneered plywood.
Little things like wiring are better in the higher end MH's also. Every wire in the entire coash has its purpose printed on it. When you look in the electrical bay and see hundreds of white wires, you can separate the bundle and read where each goes right off the wire. The exception to this rule is an item that has it's own power cord won't be marked until it connects to the rigs wiring.
Other items like PEX water tubing, Magnum inverter/charger, Onan gen set on electric operated*front slide out, double pane windows, fuel fill on both sides directly into the tank with no hose bends or kink areas, hydro-hot system for hot domestic water and heat run either on electric alone or with diesel alone or both virtually unlimited hot water and hydronic heat, Hydro hot uses the same Webasto 2010 heat unit that my boat has for familiarity, auto-start gen set which will start the genny when voltage gets low or when temp in coach gets too high. Corian counters, tile floors except bedroom, queen walkaround.
It sounds like a sales pitch, but if you shop around you'll find a lot of difference in quality and workmanship. Obviously your pocketbook will help you decide how much quality you can afford. If you pocketbook is big, start with the Prevost conversions and work your way down. But definitely look at the little stuff that you know are problems on boats, inverters, plastic pieces, wiring, etc.
For us once we decided what we wanted we did the craigslist searches and dealership searches looking for the right deal. Since we were paying cash we could make the right deal at the right time which turned out to be a bank repo before the repo. The lady had lost her husband and could not make the payments on her pension and current job alone. She needed to get out from under the loan within 6 weeks or they would reposses. So, we bought it and she saved her credit rating. They even rewrote her loan so she could pay off the difference between our buying price and her loan amount. Why people let themselves get that far upside down in debt*amazes me still.
That's my story.....
Ken*
