HDC Gone Riding wrote: We went with the Seneca 34ss. I didn't start out with one on my short list, but after tromping through a million different MH's I kept coming back to it for a lot of reasons. I probably still would not have bought one until I happened across a dealer who made me a good enough deal on one that it all of a sudden seemed possible. It is top heavy and drives like it, but after reading on this site about how others have dealt with the issue I decided it wasn't a deal killer for me. When I go somewhere in it I am not in a hurry, to me the drive is part of the adventure, so I just wave at 9c when he blows by me. Driving carefully has also kept my mileage between 10 and 11 mpg. I'm not towing a big trailer now, but have room to grow, probably will set up my jeep to tow also. My future plans include using it for stays for 2 to 3 months at a time during winter trips to AZ. We also have a truck camper, staying in it for a 3 week trip was tough, that convinced me that I needed more room. I drove the MH to Colorado and back over some interesting mountain roads and in some high winds. You can,t say enough about the exhaust brake, but will admit to some white knuckles in the wind, but still nothing too scary. Kind of funny that we are so worried about a safe driving MH to drive to a desert race and line up on a bomb run with a hundred or so other wild eyed idiots that can't wait to ride a dirt bike at speeds close to 90mph over terrain they can barely see. Go figure RRR
Small world! 26M I presume? I'll have to let Ray know I got busted using his story. LOL. The safety thing is more for my family than me, but I'll have two other young desert racers in the RV too! If I buy a super C it will be a Jayco. The other stuff I've seen out there didn't impress me. Even with what I considered to be foo-foo, it still seems to be a better made unit. I have a dealer that will sell us a 2007 34ss without the full body paint for right near $100K. That's quite a price break over the $150 asking price, but it's still $100K! My previous house only cost me $137K! That being said, I'm still pondering that E450. For just over half the price of the Seneca, I can get a lot of features we want, I'll still have cash to do some upgrades if I need to, and maybe trade up in a few years if we really need to. I gotta be able to pay all my kids' entry fees and gas for quite a few more years.
* This post was
edited 12/19/07 07:09pm by Serpexc *
That's it, you got 26m here. Tell Ray I said hi, your deal sounds about like what I paid too. I know it is a lot of money but I think it is a lot of bang for the buck. Keep adding up those weight limits too, you probably will be trading up when those young speedsters need bigger bikes, wait a minute, what about that tent?? The kids can sleep in that... LOL... 26m
We bought our Kodiak based MH because I like to take the family out to the races and do a little dry camping, this is where the added tank capacities of the Kodiak chassis comes in handy. Look closely at the fresh, black, and gray tanks and you'll see what I mean. We took the kids up to Mammoth Lakes this past summer and dry camped for almost a week with some really creative conservation!
It would have been nice to save the $$$ with the Ford chassis, but we're happy with our purchase.
* This post was
edited 12/19/07 09:26pm by Rich Panganiban *
Jarlaxle wrote: You might be forgetting durability. The Super C's are on commercial chassis--a class 7 truck with an RV body, with all the associated equipment: tough diesel engine, HD Allison transmission, huge brakes, real truck tires instead of 16's running right at their limits, anvil-tough chassis durability, often rear air-ride. These chassis, under commercial trucks, regularly go 15-20 years & hundreds of thousands of miles. I find a class 7 truck orders of magnitude easier to drive than a cutaway E-450.
).
Most super C's are not on a class 7 chassis. The TopKick is a class 4/5 chassis. E450 is also a class 4. The Under 30k Topkicks do not have a longer life expectancy than the E450. The "Huge" brakes aren't always that great. They won't stop as fast as an E450 and are not any more resistant to fade (remember the rig is heavier). But a brake job runs $1400 on the rear axle since drums don't slide off. I used to drive a 24k Topkick 4500 8-12 hours per day. It is not immune to breakdowns (our Allison needed re-building every 95,000 miles).
But, the the Topkick does have the wheel advantage. Ford should offer 19.5" wheels as a factory option.
Bryan
2000 Ford E350 DRW Wagon (14-pass all captains chairs)
V10 w/ Banks PowerPack, Diablo Predator, 4.56 LS, 230,000+ miles
Had: Weekend Warrior 41' FSW (still looking for its replacement)
I drove a GMC 5500 (set up as a shuttle bus, GVWR about 24-25K, hydraulic brakes with air assist, rear air-ride, 19.5" wheels) back to back with many E-450's. The GMC was orders of magnitude superior in every category except maneuverability (it was simply longer than the Fords). The Duramax 6600 left the 7.3 PSD's, 460's, and V10's behind (while getting twice the MPG of the gassers & matching the PSD's), it NEVER bottomed out even with 30 people & luggage on board, and it would cruise effortlessly (and it was almost eerily quiet) on the 75MPH governor with the cruise control on for hours. I'm glad it was governed, because it drove nicely enough that one could easily run considerably faster than intended without realizing it.
Hills & heavy traffic never even came close to challenging the brakes, especially with the Allison's downshifting (no exhaust brake or trans retarder), even in Vermont. It was essentially impervious to crosswinds unless they were VERY strong. Empty, it rode stiffer than the E-450's...loaded with people, it was smooth, unlike the often-overwhelmed chassis of the underbuilt & overweight E-450's.
And, of course, it has an anvil-simple, anvil-reliable beam axle in front instead of tire-chewing swing axles.
John
1984 Ford B-700 school bus conversion, Thomas body
A bunch of other vehicles
3 nutty cats (Maya, Vierna, Briza)
One lazy dog (Marmaduke)
One wife (Liz)
"A wasted youth is better by far than a wise and productive old age"
-Jim Steinman
Jarlaxle wrote: I drove a GMC 5500 (set up as a shuttle bus, GVWR about 24-25K, hydraulic brakes with air assist, rear air-ride, 19.5" wheels) back to back with many E-450's. The GMC was orders of magnitude superior in every category except maneuverability (it was simply longer than the Fords). The Duramax 6600 left the 7.3 PSD's, 460's, and V10's behind (while getting twice the MPG of the gassers & matching the PSD's), it NEVER bottomed out even with 30 people & luggage on board, and it would cruise effortlessly (and it was almost eerily quiet) on the 75MPH governor with the cruise control on for hours. I'm glad it was governed, because it drove nicely enough that one could easily run considerably faster than intended without realizing it.
Hills & heavy traffic never even came close to challenging the brakes, especially with the Allison's downshifting (no exhaust brake or trans retarder), even in Vermont. It was essentially impervious to crosswinds unless they were VERY strong. Empty, it rode stiffer than the E-450's...loaded with people, it was smooth, unlike the often-overwhelmed chassis of the underbuilt & overweight E-450's.
And, of course, it has an anvil-simple, anvil-reliable beam axle in front instead of tire-chewing swing axles.
The problem is, the Kodiak motohomes are a lot taller and more top heavy. The Duramax is obviously the powerplant to have. I have a Duramax 2500 pick up and it's the bomb, but it doesn' feel like it's gonna fall over either.
I agree with RVpappy in that CCC is what you need to consider. Some Class Cs have a very low carrying capacity when fuel, water, and passengers are aboard many are close to or even over their designed weight limits. We chose to buy an older Class A which gave us a CCC of nearly 5800 pounds and allows us to tow a fairly heavy toad without concern. Good Luck!
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