Considering a Winnnebago Tour 42

I've seen a few around, like the style and have spoken to a couple of FT owners that love their rig.  I don't know that much about them other than what searches I've done here and a couple of other sites.  It seems some of the faults of the earlier Tours were weak or poorly engineered slide mechanisms which have since been corrected.  A few other issues here or there but not anything any other unit wouldn't have.

I can't afford new and am considering possibly moving up within the next year or so.  Are there years or models to stay away from?  Any must haves?  My search is just beginning and still need to sell the DW on the change. ;D

Thanks, Ed

Make sure it uses HWH jacks & slides...4 slide outs is better than a full wall. Get roof checked for any delam.

We love our Tour. It's the third Class A we've owned in 25 years, and our first Winnebago product. We bought it when it was about 1&1/2 years old, and it's given us very few problems. We like the full-wall slide, because it really opens the coach up. If something went wrong with it, it would probably be a handful to manually retract, because it's 28 feet long and has a lot of weight in it, but it has given us no trouble at all.

Our slides are Power Gear, but in 2012, Winnie started putting Lippert slide mechanisms in the Tour, and a lot of people had problems with them. I believe they finally got those issues resolved. Bath and a half, a little more than 7 MPG, 15,000 lb towing capacity, great roomy floorplan (the 42QD) nice amenities, tag axle, handles great... I could go on and on.

Kev

Kevin Means said:

We love our Tour. It's the third Class A we've owned in 25 years, and our first Winnebago product. We bought it when it was about 1&1/2 years old, and it's given us very few problems. We like the full-wall slide, because it really opens the coach up. If something went wrong with it, it would probably be a handful to manually retract, because it's 28 feet long and has a lot of weight in it, but it has given us no trouble at all.

Our slides are Power Gear, but in 2012, Winnie started putting Lippert slide mechanisms in the Tour, and a lot of people had problems with them. I believe they finally got those issues resolved. Bath and a half, a little more than 7 MPG, 15,000 lb towing capacity, great roomy floorplan (the 42QD) nice amenities, tag axle, handles great... I could go on and on.

Kev

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It sounds like you have the exact same coach as a FT couple a few spaces down from me, 2011 with full wall slide.  They have the 400 Cummins and mentioned to me that in 2012 or 2013 Winnie switched to 450hp.  They said their 400 isn't lacking any power and mentioned about the same MPG as you.  They have owned theirs 3 years and love it.  They couldn't be driving it too much though as it had 11k miles when they bought it and 28k now.  Maybe I just travel more than most.

I may need you as a resource for your knowledge if or when DW gets on board with this Kev. 

Thanks!
Ed

Love the 42QD floorplan!

For the most part, the jacks and slides are going to be LCI on the late models.  2013-2016 were LCI jacks and Schwinteck inwall for the small slides, PowerGear underfloor for the full wall or large slides.  2017 and up the jacks are LCI PowerGear, and the slides will be LCI PowerGear inwall for the small slides and LCI PowerGear underfloor for the full wall or large slides.  (as you can see, Lippert bought PowerGear so no matter what you get LCI)

I did see the 2018 Grand Tour with HWH jacks, but none of these are made anymore so I think that is where it all stopped.

ELeland said:

It sounds like you have the exact same coach as a FT couple a few spaces down from me, 2011 with full wall slide.  They have the 400 Cummins and mentioned to me that in 2012 or 2013 Winnie switched to 450hp.  They said their 400 isn't lacking any power and mentioned about the same MPG as you.

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The 400 and 450 ISL is the same engine same power. (great engine btw...mine has 115k miles trouble free on it)

ELeland said:

It sounds like you have the exact same coach as a FT couple a few spaces down from me, 2011 with full wall slide.  They have the 400 Cummins and mentioned to me that in 2012 or 2013 Winnie switched to 450hp.  They said their 400 isn't lacking any power and mentioned about the same MPG as you.  They have owned theirs 3 years and love it.  They couldn't be driving it too much though as it had 11k miles when they bought it and 28k now.  Maybe I just travel more than most.

I may need you as a resource for your knowledge if or when DW gets on board with this Kev. 

Thanks!
Ed

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They actually made the swap from 400 to 450 horsepower in late 2011. Early 2011 models had the 400 horse engines, and later built 2011s, like ours, had 450 horse engines. I've never heard anyone complain about the 400 horse engines being under powered though. Like Five2o said, they're both 8.9 Cummins engines. You're welcome to reach out to us anytime Ed.

Kev

Years ago the Cummins ISL in the Ultimate Freedom (queen of the Winnebago fleet then) was 370 HP but the same 1200 ft lbs of torque as the late ISLs. I think Cummins added 50 more ft lbs to the 450 HP engine- basically it?s a marketing tool. The Allison 3000 tranny is limited to 1200 ft lbs (maybe they added 50).

Torque gets you up the hill.

John Canfield said:

Years ago the Cummins ISL in the Ultimate Freedom (queen of the Winnebago fleet then) was 370 HP but the same 1200 ft lbs of torque as the late ISLs. I think Cummins added 50 more ft lbs to the 450 HP engine- basically it?s a marketing tool. The Allison 3000 tranny is limited to 1200 ft lbs (maybe they added 50).

Torque gets you up the hill.

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Thanks John - I was wondering if the use of the Allison 3000 is marginal with the 42.  I have the same tranny with my 300 CAT with 860 torque on a much smaller / lighter rig.  Are there any known issues with tranny failures on the heavier units?  It seems like they are asking a lot of the 3000 if all weights are maxed out.  On the other hand, I'm sure they wouldn't build them that way if there were problems.

Thanks
Ed

I was chatting with the Cummins-Onan rep (for generators) at a Winnebago Grand National Rally a few years ago about the Onan 7.5Kw QuietDiesel - I was curious about the new power rating of 8Kw. It was no surprise when the rep told me the 8Kw model was the same as the 7.5Kw with a software change.

I'll hazard a guess the 450HP Cummins ISL is basically the same as the 400HP version with a different tune, and maybe larger injectors and different air flow sensor. If I was ever going to buy another coach, I would look for a used one with the Cummins ISX engine - this is a million mile engine designed for over the road tractors. It would be paired with an Allison 4000 (which could have a retarder brake.)

One other random comment. The two stage Jake brake with my ISL is absolutely amazing, in the high mode going down a steep grade we modulate our speed with the throttle, no need to ever touch the service brakes. The Jake needs no routine maintenance unlike an exhaust brake (so I've heard.)

While it's probably not the best choice to run an engine and tranny at its max capability all the time, remember that RVs seldom run a lot of miles or under severe conditions. Motorhomes are considered a very light duty application.  Both Allison and Cummins rate their products higher in the motorhome application than they do, for example, in OTR trucking of construction equipment.

The Allison 3000 is extremely reliable, and the ISL engine isn't shabby either. I would not be concerned about either.

As an aside, the beefier Cummins ISX 650 engine had a history of dropping a valve and Cummins had to re-work the design to eliminate the problem. Bigger isn't always better.

Ours has the 400 ISL and Allison 3000.  Not quite as heavy as the Tour but still a 45,000 lb GVWR and it continues to amaze me at the power it has, even towing.

When shopping we got called in to look at a Tour QD that just got traded and I noticed it said 550 hp on the back.  I asked what that was about, and a call to the owner said it was a kind of a joke because he had chipped up the ISL to produce about 550 hp.  Among some other things, it was honestly a deal breaker for me because of the stress I knew that was putting on the already maxed out 3000 Allison.  I would not hesitate with the 450, but when folks start trying to make dragsters out of them thing get silly.

We had to have the head pulled and a valve job done on our ISL at ~80,000 miles. That was a nice little $10,000 service bill (including routine chassis and generator service.) Gary's right about the Allison 3000, extremely durable and there's a zillion of them in service.

The ISL was marketed for short haul applications and dump trucks, concrete mixers, etc.