ron.dittmer
Northern Illinois
Senior Member
Joined: 02/26/2007
View Profile
 Offline
|
What to avoid? I couldn't give you "Brands". I advise to get educated on indicators of poorly designed shells and then how well the workmanship & materials are. They can be designed well, but assembled lousey, and/or built with less desirable materials. Your main focus should be the house, not it's contents, and not the chassis. If the house is coming apart and leaking water (of which many do with age), the rest won't matter.
ADDING:
I found this advise I gave to someone else a while back.
When shopping for a motor home, don't get caught up in what I call "Eye Candy". You want to pay close attention to how the house is constructed, because rain and snow melt water leakage is the number one killer of motor homes. They rot out long before they wear out. Once water gets in, it is like termites. By the time you realize there is a problem, a lot of damage has already occurred. So my advise focuses around what to look for in a Well Sealed motor home.
#1 BEST (Very Expensive, Can Be 1.75 to 2 times the cost of Second Best)
A motor home with a house shell that has NO structural seam work. The brand Coach House RV is a fine example of that. Google the name. It is made of a single piece seamless shell. The only places where water can leak is cutouts for windows, door, roof-top vents and a/c unit, all of which are in areas of very low stress. Because they are a single shell, these motor homes are limited in size.
#2 SECOND BEST (This is much more common and is what I will focus most on)
CLICK HERE for an example of #2.
A motor home made in sections, but the sections are pieced together in a way that greatly reduces water from leaking in. Here are the points to note.
a) All Structural Seams Located Away From Corners
Seam work in the corners and edges is bad. Seam work away from them is good. When a motor home is driven, the house shakes and leans, many thousands of times. Seam work in the corners are very stressed to the point that they are subject to split, especially as the caulk gets brittle with age & exposure to the sun.
Seams hold up much better when they are brought in from the corners in low stress areas.
b) A Seamless Front Cap, Aerodynamic (B+ Design) or Cab-Over-Bed (C Design)
A huge bed over the driver's compartment (the van portion) is the most vulnerable area of a motor home. No matter how well they are made, that long frontal over-hang resonates when the RV is driven. It's common for seams to split there and windows there leak too. They are often troublesome with age. The small front aerodynamic cap the B+ design eliminates the overhang and also eliminates most seam work. There are a few C Designs (big over-driver bed) styles where that area is near seamless. If you absolutely must have a bed over the driver, then be sure to get this (bucket front) type. If you plan to accommodate more than 2 people, that extra bed would be extremely important.
c) A Crowned Roof
Rain and snow melt runs off a crowned roof. A flat roof will sag over time, then water puddles around heavy roof-top items like the a/c unit. Water eventually finds it's way inside after the caulk is dried out from the sun and time, or fatigued from ice.
d) Rolled-Over-The-Edge seamless Fiberglass Roof Sheathing
Generally using a single sheet of fiberglass, the edges of the roof are curved, and the fiberglass sheet is rolled over them, down the wall a few inches. The fiberglass sheathing holds up better than roofs made of sheet rubber or thin plastic called TPO, which require more attention to keep your RV well protected.
e) A 5 Sided Rear Wall, I Call A Rear Cap
This cap makes the rear edges seamless, bringing the seams around to the sides and up top too, again moving the seam work to areas of greatly reduced stress.
Many of the entry level motor homes are made with seams in corners and finished off with trim to hide the caulk. They are most affordable, and come in small to huge sizes. But remember, a well constructed motor home is not related to square footage and/or accommodations. Buying one like that is not stupid. Just remember when buying a used one, you really don't know how well the previous owner monitored and kept up with re-sealing it. Buying new or used, the RV will be counting on you to be a good non-neglectful owner.
Then there is Lazy Daze as one of the rare execptions which has seamwork in the corners, but the substructure and seal is of the highest quality that it holds up like a seamless body. It's excellent sectional construction methods are not commonly found in other brands. I am no expert on this, but I'd give it a #1.5 Almost Like Best
About the chassis. The most popular is the Ford E-Series with the V10 engine. The Sprinter diesel is bringing up the rear, becoming popular in the smaller sizes. The GM chassis has been discontinued as of recently. Any of those three brands since 1998 are real good, new or used. If you plan to tow a car or trailer, then I advise to avoid the Sprinter because it is not as powerful as the Ford-V10 to handle the extra load of the tow plus the house together. But there are a few people who tow cars with a Sprinter. They just take it easier to make it work for them.
* This post was
last
edited 07/31/10 09:41am by ron.dittmer *
View edit history
2007 Phoenix Cruiser model 2350, with 2006 Jeep Liberty in-tow
|
