TXheat
RVF VIP
- Joined
- Jan 6, 2021
- Messages
- 257
- RV Year
- 2003
- RV Make
- Holiday Rambler
- RV Model
- Endeavor
- RV Length
- 38
- Chassis
- Roadmaster
- Engine
- 350 Cummins
- TOW/TOAD
- None
- Fulltimer
- Yes
So here's our situation we recently finally got our wildfire settlement and we want to upgrade out of this old Winnebago that we have outgrown. Our budget is around $60,000 maybe a little more and we would like to find a diesel pusher with a leveling system and slide outs. This may sound a bit unrealistic for the price range but we had a 1994 Tiffin Allegro Bay that had all that including a Cummins engine with Allison transmission and a large propane tank and propane generator, what a rig that wass, we purchased it around 2011 for $12k, unfortunately we lost it in the wildfire. Today it would be very hard to find one of those, they are very rare we're not sure we would want to live in one given the sentimental connection to wildfire loss. Our current full time 1997 Winnebago is about 30 ft and that is for the most part close to the longest I have driven, not considering towing a auto trailer which would be close to about 40 ft. The reason I mention that is because I'm leery of getting into a much longer Class A. Which is kind of a shame because right here in our RV park that we have been staying is a Holiday rambler Endeavor for around $30k that's been for sale for quite some time since the owner had to go into a nursing home. For me 40 ft is already pushing it, add a towed to that and I'm going to be looking at almost 50 ft that I'm going to be responsible for. Not to mention without a tow. I would be driving around town with a 40-foot motorhome to run errands and whatnot. It's been difficult enough with the 30 ft getting around a small City like Corpus Christi, then there was the time when we had just gotten to Texas and stopped in San Antonio to go to Trader Joe's and the parking there was a nightmare my wife had to go into the store and I had to drive around until she got done. Been there done that don't want to do it again.
On a different note the current Class A we live in has solar 300 watts and we would like to find a similar system or better. If we cannot find one we are considering moving the current system to the newer Class A of course we will have to hire someone to do that for us, as that would require removing the panels and putting them on the newer class A. It is a shame that we cannot continue in this class A given the fact that it has solar and a Chevy vortec engine, but we have too many bad memories related to the wildfire and we've outgrown it. One thing I should mention is that the reason we want to go back to diesel is because we want to be able to not only use biodiesel but to do a conversion to run on straight vegetable oil I realize that's usually done with diesel School bus conversions but I imagine it can be done also with a Class A ,otherwise diesel prices are fairly high and since they are not in parity with gasoline it wouldn't make any sense. Speaking of gasoline there is a dealer in corpus Christi that has a 2000s Mirada with 48,000 MI for around $48k , but it has a Ford V10 Triton which while I read is not much worse or better than the Chevy Vortec it's not a diesel engine so that's not our first choice, not to mention neither one of us really like the interior, It's kind of sterile looking., but we have that dealer on the lookout now for what we're looking for and hopefully it's just a matter of time before they find something. I do realize that the more particularly we are the harder is going to be to find, for example, our preference for a non-smoker-owned lightly fragrance class A, used may hinder our search but given the sensitivities we have it's not something we can compromise on. Another thing we don't want to compromise is we want 50 amp not 30 amp 30 amp has been very restrictive for us and we're constantly having to turn off the air conditioning to be able to use the microwave, just tired of it. Some of the other brands were considering are Fleetwood possibly Tiffin, our dream Tiffin would be the Phaeton, they're actually is one that's been parked across from us here all slides it's older but I'm sure we'll worth over $100k easily they are usually very long too. Back when we owned the Allegro Bay we went through Georgia to a Tiffin used parts lot and while we were there, we took the Tiffin factory tour, kit's quite an experience and if you haven't done yet it we highly recommend it
So given the wisdom and advice that I have been given over the years in this forum, with all the various issues that have arisen I would hope that there are some minds here that would be able to make some suggestions that make sense and at the same time are not limiting it would be great to have 40 ft of living space not to mention two slides and that is right here a stone's throw away literally, but again no experience driving something that long, would you be inclined to do it? I also should mention that our intention is to whatever we buy go camping for the rest of the summer and then settle on a property and continue live in the class A until we build alternative housing. I'm sorry this is too much information but unfortunately a lot of it is relevant I look forward to your thoughts, Thanks
On a different note the current Class A we live in has solar 300 watts and we would like to find a similar system or better. If we cannot find one we are considering moving the current system to the newer Class A of course we will have to hire someone to do that for us, as that would require removing the panels and putting them on the newer class A. It is a shame that we cannot continue in this class A given the fact that it has solar and a Chevy vortec engine, but we have too many bad memories related to the wildfire and we've outgrown it. One thing I should mention is that the reason we want to go back to diesel is because we want to be able to not only use biodiesel but to do a conversion to run on straight vegetable oil I realize that's usually done with diesel School bus conversions but I imagine it can be done also with a Class A ,otherwise diesel prices are fairly high and since they are not in parity with gasoline it wouldn't make any sense. Speaking of gasoline there is a dealer in corpus Christi that has a 2000s Mirada with 48,000 MI for around $48k , but it has a Ford V10 Triton which while I read is not much worse or better than the Chevy Vortec it's not a diesel engine so that's not our first choice, not to mention neither one of us really like the interior, It's kind of sterile looking., but we have that dealer on the lookout now for what we're looking for and hopefully it's just a matter of time before they find something. I do realize that the more particularly we are the harder is going to be to find, for example, our preference for a non-smoker-owned lightly fragrance class A, used may hinder our search but given the sensitivities we have it's not something we can compromise on. Another thing we don't want to compromise is we want 50 amp not 30 amp 30 amp has been very restrictive for us and we're constantly having to turn off the air conditioning to be able to use the microwave, just tired of it. Some of the other brands were considering are Fleetwood possibly Tiffin, our dream Tiffin would be the Phaeton, they're actually is one that's been parked across from us here all slides it's older but I'm sure we'll worth over $100k easily they are usually very long too. Back when we owned the Allegro Bay we went through Georgia to a Tiffin used parts lot and while we were there, we took the Tiffin factory tour, kit's quite an experience and if you haven't done yet it we highly recommend it
So given the wisdom and advice that I have been given over the years in this forum, with all the various issues that have arisen I would hope that there are some minds here that would be able to make some suggestions that make sense and at the same time are not limiting it would be great to have 40 ft of living space not to mention two slides and that is right here a stone's throw away literally, but again no experience driving something that long, would you be inclined to do it? I also should mention that our intention is to whatever we buy go camping for the rest of the summer and then settle on a property and continue live in the class A until we build alternative housing. I'm sorry this is too much information but unfortunately a lot of it is relevant I look forward to your thoughts, Thanks
