irishtom29
Round about
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I think the Ford based products from these companies are interesting. Experiences, observations and opinions regarding them are solicited.
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pnichols
The Other California
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Joined: 04/26/2005
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What may be the most interesting is ... I'm not sure how much longer those rugged, reliable, and easily maintained/repaired Ford V10 powered E350 and E450 cutaway van chassis are going to be available for U.S. Class C manufacturers to use. In my opinion if out shopping this year for a quality Class C, I'd grab one of those great Ford chassis based rigs before it's too late.
By the way, note that the Coach House Platinum line is only built on the E450, even their smallest Platinum ... the 220 model. The E450 chassis for this small Class C would kindof be an "overkill" chassis for it, which means that braking, towing power, non-towing power, engine/transmission cooling, and overall handling should be superb (... at least that is the case with an E450 under our 24 foot Class C). The E450 is of course married with Coach House's all one piece fiberglass coach body.
What a combination ... you just have to be able to afford it!
2005 E450 Itasca 24V Class C
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rv bill-e
Nashville
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I was interested in Coach House right up to where they quoted $165K as starting price, before options. And that was on the Ford, not the Mercedes platform.
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Islandman
NW Washington
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We have a 2005 Coach House, bought it used from the factory; looks almost the same as a brand new 2018 model. They are very well made and just don't go out of style. You ought to look into purchasing a used one, say five years old and save a lot of money; the used ones are very well taken care of by the former owners as they do cost quite a bit of money when new and most people take good care of expensive things. The Ford chassis is great and service is no problem, I wouldn't buy a Mercedes chassis as service is hard to find if you need something while on the road somewhere.
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garmp
St Louis, MO
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We just bought, a year plus ago, a 2017 Phoenix Cruiser 2100 and love it! It is on a Ford 350, has a slide and a sofa/bed. We came from a SportsMobile penthouse with only a micro wave. Now we have a dry bath with shower, used for storage, and a full kitchen. More conveniences than we ever thought.
From camping out of coolers and no interior room other than sleeping, this is quite the upgrade.
DW would never go for twin beds and the King option is not appealing to us as we no longer want to do the crab crawl to get in and out of bed. Sure we make our bed up each time we move, but the dinette is always there. This just works for us and we are extremely happy with the workmanship, the people and the driveability of the unit.
Our 2351D Phoenix Cruiser, Jack, has turned us from campers into RVers and loving it!
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irishtom29
Round about
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Thanks for the responses.
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ron.dittmer
North-East Illinois
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Eleven years ago, we bought our Phoenix Cruiser 2350 (pictures here) brand new in 2007. Simply put....we love it. Our intention is to keep it until we are too old to drive it which is projected to be at least another 20 years from today. We ordered ours specifically without a slide-out to get a roomy dinette. We store it inside our garage which preserves it extremely well. Back then, we primarily picked the PC-2350 because it fit inside our garage. After we got it home and I started "working" it, I realized how much better it was made compared to all the other rigs we looked at.
Being the kind of person that I am, I made some changes to get our rig better yet, such as reconfiguring the galley base cabinet drawers to increase drawer storage, changing from two 12V wet acid batteries to two 6V AGM batteries and a battery shield, and adding a water accumulator to the on-board fresh water system. Since then, Phoenix either includes now or offers such things upon request. One real nice thing ordering a Phoenix Cruiser, the company is extremely accommodating special requests, and without gouging you.
If buying a used one, I recommend one with the rear wall that has the integrated spare tire introduced mid-model year 2004. Not just for style and practical usefulness, that rear wall with double-wall construction, strengthens the house exceptionally well. 2007 was the first year Phoenix installed two batteries and whole-house 110V inverter on every model which we have in our 2007 and love.
The company changed ownership a year ago. Two guys now own the company (still not answering to stock holders) and seem to be doing business in the same great fashion as the previous owner. I heard prices increased a bit with the new guys, not sure what the bottom line looks like now.
* This post was
edited 05/20/18 09:07am by ron.dittmer *
2007 Phoenix Cruiser model 2350, with 2006 Jeep Liberty in-tow
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irishtom29
Round about
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Thanks, Ron.
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ron.dittmer
North-East Illinois
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irishtom29 wrote:Thanks, Ron.
You are very welcome.
I should have included that you can get a pretty good idea what a new PC of your choice with options you select, using This Interactive Pricing Tool on their website.
It used to be that you could negotiate down a bit more, but don't know if that holds true today. According to the news media, the RV industry is booming right now. RV manufactures cannot keep up with the demand. On the Phoenix forum HERE, people are waiting a very very long time for their custom ordered PC to get built. That indicates to me that the company can hold to their pricing guide. You might get a better price buying one already made and ready for purchase HERE, or buy a used one.
Back in early 2007 when we were determined to buy a Phoenix Cruiser 2350, there were so few used ones to choose from, forcing us into ordering a brand new one....glad we did that to get a no-slide dinette which was important to us. We ordered our unit in the spring and it was ready two months later. The company has been very successful the past 11 years, more than doubling production since 2007 so there are so many more to find in used fashion all around the country.
We are 60 years old this year and our PC-2350 continues to serve us very well. Phoenix USA introduced model 2351 recently which is our model made one foot longer. If it fit in our garage (not sure of it as seen HERE) that one extra foot would be nice to get things inside made just a bit bigger.....kitchen galley, bed & outdoor storage, clothes closet, and dinette.
* This post was
edited 05/21/18 07:58am by ron.dittmer *
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PSW
Oklahoma City
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I'll through in my two cents worth about the Phoenix Cruiser. We have owned a PC2350 for four years now. We were incredibly lucky to find a unit four miles down the street (Oklahoma City) that a new RVer had purchased eleven months earlier and then decided he wanted to try a diesel pusher. We had researched rigs of this size (24 feet) for a couple of years and since we have owned motor homes for over thirty years we really knew what we wanted and were quality sensitive.
We have not had a single problem with our PC or the E350 Ford. Like Ron indicated, the folks that started and built the company recently sold it to two new private owners and we will see how that works out.
Since I see you are in San Antonio, you might take a look at PPL Motorhomes consignment folks at their facility in New Braunfels. They are showing a 2004 PC on their website. Since PC sells factory direct, it can be a problem to find one to look at to see how you like the general design. 2004 is several years ago but you will find the overall body and models to be pretty similar from year to year and give you an idea. PPL seems to usually have a PC or two around most of the time.
We were set to fly up to Elkhart and spec a model 2350 out at the factory when we found ours. Talk about dumb Okie luck. We couldn't be happier with our rig. Much higher quality than most B+/Cs we have seen over the years.
Paul
PSW
2013 Phoenix Cruiser 2350
2014 Jeep Cherokee behind it
and a 2007 Roadtrek 210P for touring
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