Travelin2
SW Florida
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ol'yeller, I'm glad to hear it's a good rig for you. The owner of the one we are going to look at Monday(it's a 2007) told me that during those years the manufacturer put a clear coating of some kind of armoring around the lower portion of the rig to protect from rock chips. I guess it only comes up 18 inches or so. He said it was found to be a less than desirable product as it discolors with age. According to him it can be removed without damaging the paint. Did/does yours have this? Have you heard of the stuff?
John & Gloria
South West, Florida
2009 Leisure Travel Serenity
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pnichols
The Other California
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John ... did you get a chance to look at that 2005 Winnebago Itasca Spirit brochure I gave the link to earlier in this discussion? If you do take a look, note the 24V (24 foot length) configuration in the specifications and floorplans sections. Winnebago stopped offering this exact model some time ago, with the last year being 2006 in a 24V configuration for their Winnebago Spirit and Outlook model lines.
They're kind of hard to find, but they are out there.
Here's some construction and design aspects of the 24V Itasca Class C and 24V Outlook Class C that came stock ... or were available as options ... on them:
- No slides
- Permanent queen bed in the back, plus queen overhead cab bed, plus a dinette that makes into a full bed
- Single piece fiberglass roof that is crowned - not flat - with rolled over edges the entire length along each side
- Storage tanks often larger than other Class C RV's of this length ... 29 gal GW, 39 gal BW, 43 gal FW, 18 gal propane
- The GW and BW tank gauges are external ones that measure through the tank walls ... so are less likely to foul from gunk ... hence more accurate day-in/day-out
- Can be found on either the Ford E350 chassis or optional (and rare) Ford E450 chassis ... 2005 and later having the 5-speed computer controlled transmission behind the V10
- Seven(7) lockable steel walled and carpet lined external storage cabinets, with two of them being long ones transverse across the chassis for shovels, fishing poles, beach umbrellas, etc.
- High ground clearance everywhere, with no plumbing or the built-in Onan generator hanging lower than the chassis walls ... all external plumbing is way up high
- All electricall hook-up and sewage plumbing is in one lockable outside storage cabinet ... no bumper box storage of the drain line
- A spare tire stored in the rear up in between the chassis frame rails just like in a pickup triuck ... so plenty of room for a larger than stock tire if you want to switch tire size
- A full height shower with an accordian door to separate it from the commode
- The bathroom sink drains into the BW tank - not the GW tank - so as to better balance the filling of these tanks
- Plenty of 120 V AC and 12 V DC receptacles in the coach
- Winnebago's built-in Onan generator installation design provides for fairly quiet operation inside and out ... and can be tolerated running for hours when inside the coach
- Microwave, oven, three burner cooktop with vent fan, and foldout counter extension in the galley
- Six(6) cubic foot refrigerator
- Digital controller for the furnace and the air conditioner
- Full size dinette so four(4) people can comfortably eat, talk, or play board games there
- Each dinette seat has it's full underneath volume for storage ... no furnace or water heater under the seats
- The rear bed and cabover bed have privacy curtains
- The cab has a curtain that can be drawn to separate it from the coach for better maintenance of coach temperature in cold or hot weather
- The weather band/CD cab radio has a switch on the dash for it to be powered from either the engine battery or coach batteries
- The coach battery storage area is right under the step so as to not take up storage cabinet space and so that the batteries can be checked from inside the coach
- The coach battery storage area is large enough for up to two(2) Group 31 deep cycle batteries or one(1) 8D deep cycle battery
- In addition to speakers in the cab, the weather ban/CD cab radio has coach speakers above the dinette and above the cooktop in the galley
- The flooring in the coach is a combination of vinyl and carpeting ... for both easy cleaning in the galley and comfort/ambiance in the dinnette and lounge chair feet areas
- The lounge chair swivels to face the galley or dinette or forward ... and slides forward/back to permit using a dinette seat as a foot stool
- The forward facing dinette seat and lounge chair have seat belts ... for a total of five(5) belted seats for travel in the motorhome
- Some of them may have the important options of heated tanks, a powered coach step, and pre-wiring for dual batteries ... in addition to other options
- The rear coach walls start angling immediately from the rear tires back up to the rear coach wall/rear bumper ... providing for a good rear approach angle for going up sloped driveways
* This post was
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edited 01/28/17 06:55pm by pnichols *
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2005 E450 Itasca 24V Class C
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Travelin2
SW Florida
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Thanks for all that info Phil. Sounds like a sweet rig. I spent about 20 minutes online and didn't find a one in my area in the 24v configuration. Pretty well tells you they are being hoarded by their owners.
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Travelin2
SW Florida
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Still haven't found a 2450 Phoenix with the 5 speed tranny in our budget and the Winnebago spirit 24v is like hens teeth. We are headed out to look at a 2007 Winnebago Aspect 26A tomorrow. It has the full body paint, Alcoa aluminum wheels, levelers and such. Tires are dated about the middle of 2015 and the batteries were changed last Wednesday. He started out asking $41K and I have him down to $35K before we would go look. I don't really know what their worth. According to NADA we are OK but who writes NADA? I was warned ahead of time that the factory back then applied 3M clear paint protection film on the lower portion where the flare from cab to fiberglass is. Apparently the stuff looks a little unsightly after 10 years. I talked to a body shop manager here at the GMC dealer and he said they deal with it all the time and it's quite do-able as a DIY project. He said I could drive it by and he would offer suggestions on how he would approach it. Has anyone undertaken that job?
* This post was
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edited 01/29/17 01:33pm by Travelin2 *
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pnichols
The Other California
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John,
Are you really, really sure that the 26A isn't a bit too long? (just kidding) Good luck in your hunting for a rig ... and make sure that 26A is on the E450 chassis ... it should be, knowing Winnebago.
P.S. Here's our E450 24V out in the Utah desert camping in a small spot we had to slowly and carefully jockey into to so as to get the view just right from our dinette ![[emoticon]](http://www.coastresorts.com/sharedcontent/cfb/images/wink.gif "wink") :
![[image]](http://i.imgur.com/1pvRO8yl.jpg)
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Travelin2
SW Florida
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Wow! that's great looking country. That's what RVing is about for me. We had hoped to stay a little shorter than the Aspect but impatience being what it is, it's hard to wait for the perfect one to come by.
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pnichols
The Other California
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If you pass on the 26A, here's a couple 24Vs to start your renewed search:
https://www.rvtrader.com/dealers/Optimum........ing/2006-Winnebago-Outlook-24V-119723050
http://www.mwrvcenter.com/rv/2005-Itasca-Spirit-24V-0185
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Travelin2
SW Florida
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The 2006 Outlook 24V that you mentioned is very similar to the Spirit. Any idea what the difference is, or is the Spirit the Itasca and the outlook is Winnie?
This is actually rather serendipitous since it is located only about 2 miles from the Aspect we are going to see. I am liking the storage, roof and overall simplicity for easy upkeep.
* This post was
edited 01/29/17 06:34pm by Travelin2 *
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pnichols
The Other California
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I believe that Spirit was to Itasca as Outlook was to Winnebago (... or something like that).
I notice that Winnebago no longer has a Class C they call an "Itasca", but they do have a Spirit Class C line (... or something like that).
I never quite understood where Winnie Minnie fit in (... or something like that).
![[emoticon]](http://www.coastresorts.com/sharedcontent/cfb/images/scratchead.gif "scratchead")
Keep us informed on what you decide!
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ol' yeller
Redmond, WA
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Travelin2 wrote:ol'yeller, I'm glad to hear it's a good rig for you. The owner of the one we are going to look at Monday(it's a 2007) told me that during those years the manufacturer put a clear coating of some kind of armoring around the lower portion of the rig to protect from rock chips. I guess it only comes up 18 inches or so. He said it was found to be a less than desirable product as it discolors with age. According to him it can be removed without damaging the paint. Did/does yours have this? Have you heard of the stuff?
No, my issue is along the roof line where the roof meets the side panels as well as the front cap. My RV came from AZ sand it is the dark maroon full body paint. I assume mine was due to the hot climate and dark color. I know the years prior had more of an issue of clear coat peeling due to poor paint application even on the light colored ones.
I am NOT a mechanic although I do play one in my garage!
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