My dear bride Sylvia and I have just purchased our second diesel coach and fourth motor home and went through a lot of sole searching making all the choices involved. How much should we spend? How big should it be? How long are we going to live this lifestyle? Where will we keep it? How many days are we going to spend in the coach per year? Where will we camp most of the time? How much should it weigh? How much are we going to tow? What should the floor plan be? Do we want two couches? Do we want a dinette? Do we want a slide out or two? How are we going to entertain? These are just a few of the questions that we answered to decide to buy our new coach.

The "Life Style" that we have grown to enjoy very much is the reason that we motor home. "What" motor home does not really change the opportunity to enjoy the freedom, friendship, challenge, enjoyment, scenery, people, food, and all the other things that are part of the life. When we think of our first motor home which was a 19' Cortez, or the 25' Winnebago, or the 34' Georgie Boy, or our current 36' Monaco we come to the same conclusion: We love the "Life Style". We want to continue to enjoy it until we are not able to do it safely.

The safety of motor homing is a subject that has many facets. Driveability is important and in general the more expensive the unit is, the better it drives. Gas motor homes tend to be overloaded and under braked. They also tend to be more effected by winds, passing trucks, ruts in the roads, and other conditions that we all experience. The more miles you drive, the more important driveability becomes. We took delivery of our new coach in September 1998 and have enjoyed over 16,000 miles of safe travel in just these first four months. We are planning a trip to Georgia in March; Montana, British Columbia, and Oregon in June; Iowa in July and a few side trips in between. It would be hard to think about all these miles in anything but a long wheelbase, stable, heavy motor home. For me, Safety is the paramount issue in the purchase of a new motor home of any class. There are some motor homes in any class that I would not drive under any circumstances because they are not stable at highway speeds and cannot stop safely. This group of motor homes is characterized by overloading, bad balance of weight, short wheelbase, and inadequate brakes. An underpowered rig is not unsafe except in two conditions. (1) Getting on a busy Interstate and (2) staying away from slow 18 wheelers on long mountain passes. Thousands of underpowered 18 wheelers drive safely millions of miles, but one thing they have to do is stop well under emergency conditions. So hundreds of underpowered motor homes can drive thousands of miles safely, but it isn't much fun. I like at least 1.1 horse powere per 100 lbs. of GCW. It is also difficult to resell and underpowered coach.

Tom asked me to think about writing an article that takes the reader through all the choices necessary to make an informed purchase of a diesel pusher and I thought "No Way". How could I write a non-biased article not mentioning brand names and being totally objective? Well I decided that I could not do that, but I could take each major part of a motor home and describe the considerations that should be made in deciding which coach to buy. This article will concentrate only on new Class A coaches and contains my opinions and feelings on this subject. You need to remember that previously owned and loved coaches offer a significant value but purchasing one can be very scary. I will leave that to another article. This article will touch on some living and traveling considerations but will not represent any comprehensive discussion on the exact requirements that will be true for each and every purchaser.

How much to spend? There are generally four or five price levels for Class A motor homes including Gas Coaches. Many of us have a budget that will stand no more than $100, 000 and that means a Gas Coach. The new Ford Chassis makes this choice a very viable option that offers living space and carrying capacity that is enough to support most of us, even full timing. So why spend more? That is a question that can only be answered by understanding why at least 10,000 of us guys talk our spouses into spending extra for a diesel coach every year. Why is that? A lot has to do with the purchasing power of us retired people. We have been lucking enough to save a little and make a little in real estate or invest in a Microsoft at $17 in 1980. Us guys like all the engines, transmissions, suspensions, brakes, and stuff that has grease on it. Our spouses like the floor plans, wall paper design, fabrics on the furniture, bathroom design, window dressings and all other factors concerning the living space Many of these camping places limit RV sizes so that is one specification that you must place on your list of requirements.

How long should it be? Many campgrounds limit lengths, especially National, State, and County Parks. Many driveways of friends and relatives can not accommodate a 42' coach, so how long should the coach be? Where are you going to store the motor home when not in use?

What about the floor plan? Since most of us travel as a couple, dinettes are as popular as a dining table and two chairs with a leaf to expand and accommodate two people on folding chairs. A potty that has a door, seems to be very popular choice. A shower that can handle a man of a mature size is also important. Two facing couches seem important to some people. A Queen walk around bed seems to be a very minimum requirement. Slide outs are currently delivered in over 90% of the coaches manufactured, but should you get one? I have written a subsequent article on this subject.

I have decided as I write this article that I should concentrate on two classes of diesel pushers or this article will never end. The two classes are under $150,000 and over $150,000. I will not spend time on coaches that cost more than $250,000. There are many choices from almost all manufacturers in the under $150,000 class. This class can be generalized by the 32-38', 275hp engine, Freightliner or Spartan Chassis, Air Brakes, propane generator, manufactured wood cabinets with print grain, 1000 watt inverter/charger, two group 57 coach batteries and 5,000 lb. tow capacity. Typical examples of this class are Fleetwood Destiny, Winnebago Chieftan, National Tradewind, Holiday Rambler Endeavor, Allegro Bay, Rexhall Rose, Monaco Diplomat, Coachmen Sportscoach and others. We put 80,000 miles on a 1993 model example of this kind of coach and had a great time. We experienced the average amount of maintenance and repair costs, but we starting to have failures in the components like the steering box, which were starting to wear out. My conclusion is that some components used in this class coach are not true heavy-duty truck parts. In my experience, this class of coach is great for many people, because they will never put that many miles on the coach and they will spend most nights in Campgrounds hooked up to shore power. The generator will have less than 300 hours on it and the tires will weather check before they wear out. There will be many happy campers in this class of coach who will experience all the "Life Style" benefits of motor homing. However there are some coaches in this class that are only marginally safe when it comes to highway stability, balance, power, and braking. They are the ones that overload the chassis, leave little net payload capacity, have too small of brake size for safe stopping, and are not stable in high winds.

The $150,000-$225,000 category is characterized by 36'-40', 330+hp, Custom Chassis, Air Suspension, Air Brakes, Diesel Generator, real wood cabinets, 2000 watt inverter charger, four golf cart batteries, 10,000 lb. towing capacity, and higher quality finish. Examples of this class are Monaco Windsor, Fleetwood American, Winnebago Ultimate, Holiday Rambler Imperial, Coachman SportsCoach, Allegro Bus, Country Coach Allure, Western RV Apline Coach and others. These coaches are serious rving machines. Large holding tanks, large fuel tanks, 500 amp hour capacity battery bank, large tires, weight ratings that allow huge carrying and towing capacity, high quality audio and video equipment, and other luxury features makes this class of motor home a true "High Line". Custom paint jobs including matched paint jobs on the towed cars. Is this price justified? The buyers can only answer that question. This class of coach is typically used by full timers or near full timers and usually covers 15,000 to 20,000 miles per year. That means usage patterns that require heavy duty truck parts used in the chassis. Customers demand whisper quiet road noise level, over the road video capability, luxury materials and finish used inside, and many other options. These coaches are typically built on custom chassis that are build for the exact length and floor plan of the coach. This integrated design of house and vehicle facilitates proper weight distribution, optimum placement of components like the generator.

Several attempts have been made to use diesel engines in less expensive coaches but all have failed to garner any market share. An Isuzu Chassis was used but found to have too few horses. Chevrolet tried collaboration with Spartan to produce a very low-end diesel pusher using their pickup sized diesel engine in a frame rail chassis. It did not work. The demands we make on manufacturers for more and more features, functions, and conveniences will no doubt cause and always bigger is better mentality. We will continue to push design limits of components that are economically available for use in motor homes. Currently Spartan offers a chassis with a Cummins 210 hp/ Allison 542 that is in my opinion going to wind up failing to gain market share because it has too little ump and too little braking. Diesel pushers are here to stay in a big way with over 10,000 being built every year. I doubt that costs will come down.

So why should you spend the additional $40,000 to get a diesel? Or why should you spend an additional $100,000 or more to buy a luxury diesel? Each individual purchaser can only state the parameters of this decision making. The "Life Style" we share does not demand it, because you can experience the great scenery, friendships, and freedom in a used motor home costing less than $10,000.

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