We have a 5Th wheel pulled by a diesel PU truck and we are moving up to a Motorhome. We have seem many brands and have narrowed it down to a Winnebago 38 feet in length. The issue we have is do we go with a gas engine or diesel? We are not full timers but go awat for 1-3 months at least two times a year. I have heard the sales pitches form the dealers but would like to hear from the users...any comments will be greatly appreciated
Gas Vrs diesel??
- Thread starter pbb2005
- Start date
Kirk
Senior Member
Gas Vrs diesel??
We have now been full-time in a 35' gas powered motor-home for 5 1/2 years. We have many friends who are also full-time in motor-homes and probably somewhat more of them are in diesel/pushers than in gas powered. There clearly are some advantages to a diesel over a gas chassis, but the gasser has a few things going for it as well. I think the most important things are that the coach fit you and your use and that it also fits your budget. If your budget is comfortable with the added cost of a diesel chassis, the go for it. But remember, the cost of the bare chassis for a pusher is about $30K to $40K more than the cost of the same size of gas chassis. The reason that is important is that in today's market, the high end gas powered coach is of a much higher quality than is the lowest priced group of disel pushers. To us, the quality of the coach is much more important than the fuel that it burns. While diesel motorhomes can have a far greater CCC than the gas powered ones, that is not true of all of them, so make sure of what you are comparing. The air ride of a diesel is very hard to beat. No gas powered motorhome yet has air ride or air brakes and those are two significant advantages of the diesel. Another is that the diesel chassis probably has about twice the useful life of the gas chassis, but most motorhome buyers do not keep the coach nearly as long as the useful mileage of the gas chassis, so in most cases that really isn't a good justification.
The key is to balance the budget side aginst the real advantages, using care to compare coaches of the same quality and construction.
We have now been full-time in a 35' gas powered motor-home for 5 1/2 years. We have many friends who are also full-time in motor-homes and probably somewhat more of them are in diesel/pushers than in gas powered. There clearly are some advantages to a diesel over a gas chassis, but the gasser has a few things going for it as well. I think the most important things are that the coach fit you and your use and that it also fits your budget. If your budget is comfortable with the added cost of a diesel chassis, the go for it. But remember, the cost of the bare chassis for a pusher is about $30K to $40K more than the cost of the same size of gas chassis. The reason that is important is that in today's market, the high end gas powered coach is of a much higher quality than is the lowest priced group of disel pushers. To us, the quality of the coach is much more important than the fuel that it burns. While diesel motorhomes can have a far greater CCC than the gas powered ones, that is not true of all of them, so make sure of what you are comparing. The air ride of a diesel is very hard to beat. No gas powered motorhome yet has air ride or air brakes and those are two significant advantages of the diesel. Another is that the diesel chassis probably has about twice the useful life of the gas chassis, but most motorhome buyers do not keep the coach nearly as long as the useful mileage of the gas chassis, so in most cases that really isn't a good justification.
The key is to balance the budget side aginst the real advantages, using care to compare coaches of the same quality and construction.