Need Advise Before Upgrade

Folks,

    Thanks first to the contributors and founders of the forum.  It has been a
wealth of information.  Two years ago we bought a new Fleetwood Tioga 23E
class C camper.  We purchased the unit mostly to get my disabled father-in-law
out of the house.  We care for him and he can barely walk.  We fell in love with
camping and have had a number of great trips always meeting good people and
going to some beautiful places.  We are considering upgrading to a Newmar
Baystar 3401 for size reasons and have a couple of questions.

- We have had a terrible time on the highway with the class C.  I don't think
this has anything to do with the brand but class C vehicles in general.  You
have to hold onto the wheel from 45 to a max safe speed of 60 on a
straight interstate road section.  We hit crosswinds a few weeks back with
25 mph gusts and it was almost undriveable.  My question is are we in for a
better ride if we upgrade and is this common for Class C vehicles?

- My second question is on Newmar.  We have been looking at the Hurricane
and Winnebago Sightseer with bunks and everyone we meet says the
quality is better on the Newmar.  I'm a firm believer they all have issues
but any advise would be welcome.

Thanks again for any thoughts!

Mark
 

From what I have seen of Newmar products and Winnebago products IMHO the Newmar products I have seen appear to be a higher quality.  However, we have not compared product level against each other.

Many Class C's are overloaded, but yours sounds like it needed some suspension work and maybe some upgrades.  But yes, the van chassis under most Class C's is not really designed to carry the big, broad-sided body and cross winds and passing vehicles can make it  handful.

The Baystar is an entry level Class A but I would chose a Newmar product over a Hurricane. The Winnebago is probably more comparable - we have at least one Sightseer owner here and I'll let them give their own opinion on that.  I couldn't find any reference to a 3401 model though and Newmar has not such model in the 2008 line-up. Maybe it is an 07 model?

The larger Baystars are on the Ford 20,500 lb F53 chassis and it's a good one.

Some of the older class C/s were overloaded when they came out of the factory.

Heck  a few years Back some Nationals were overloaded when you put clothes postand pans and a family of 4.  Not many but some were

A few years ago in the late 90/s Jim and I were looking at a Country Coach Conquest I believe it was that per the stickers inside it had a whooping 980 LBS carrying capacity.  That was the top of the line if I remmeber correctly before getting into the Prevo based rigs.  When I asked about the low carrying capacity he told me it wasn't anything to worry about. ( About what one could expect from most salesman.) 

Thanks all for the advise.  My mistake on the original email.
The Newmar unit is a 2008 Bay Star BSCA 3304 at a dealer
just outside of Boston.  I actually had a few hours free
around lunch and went to see the unit.  In comparision to
other brands I saw (Gulfstream, and Fleetwood) the
workmanship seemed better.  I wish I had more time or
I could have done a highway drive.  I literally went around
the complex but it was smooth and quiet.  On the best
of roads my class C wobbles a lot. 

Mark

No comparison between A's and C's in my estimation.  Also IMO  Anything on the market is virtually better than Gulf Stream.  Others may disagree but that is their prerogative.  I have a 98 Pace Arrow by Fleetwood and it does very well.  Not saying its the best but very good intermediate Coach.  It's like cars every one has their choices, maybe that's why they make so many styles and types.

mfcarbrey said:

- We have had a terrible time on the highway with the class C.  I don't think this has anything to do with the brand but class C vehicles in general.  You have to hold onto the wheel from 45 to a max safe speed of 60 on a straight interstate road section.  We hit crosswinds a few weeks back with 25 mph gusts and it was almost undriveable.  My question is are we in for a
better ride if we upgrade and is this common for Class C vehicles?

Click to expand...

Mark, I don't think Class C's "as" a class necessarily would have the problems you list. For example, the most popular rentals are 24' Class C MH's. If they all wobbled as you described, I doubt that would be the case. My last rig was a '98, 29' Tioga Class C with a V-10 sitting on a Ford 450 chassis. Normal driving down the highway was very comfortable -- and no "wobbling" as you mention. It was not much different than when driving a small 150 van that I used to own.

However, it was too tall -- taller than most class C's I had seen. If I turned too quickly, it leaned to the point of "scary". And in the wind or when a truck passed, it was at times also scary. So the higher center of gravity coupled with the size of the sail it emulated, would keep me from ever owning a similar rig. Carrying capacity was OK for the rig -- over 2000 #'s.

The other item was that the chassis on those rigs was "extended" to give more length by welding on additional "I" beam sections. This puts the rear wheels almost amid ship. If the concept of a 5th wheel is to put the focal point of the load over the rear axles, that class C was really in trouble.   This made it really difficult to keep the rear axle load within limits. And even so, I had 2 rear wheel blowouts on long lonesome highways. Chuck hole impact loads can make the load limit soar beyond capacity.

And lastly, the room inside a Class C also drove me to a Class A. I didn't have a slide so lived in an aisle vs. a room. If a slide that year was included, the carrying capacity was only around 500 lbs.  Even so, every time I put something in that rig, I had to remove something of equal weight.

Last year I traded for a '96 -- 34' Winny Adventurer with a 14 ft. slide -- and that solved every problem item mentioned above. I live in a "room" now vs. an aisle, have no problems with loading, the rear axle is where is should be, and when a truck passes me, I do not feel "any" wind effect whatsoever.

Mark, "do" keep in mind that my input here is from a random sampling of "one"  .

Folks,

    Thanks for all the replies.  We are off Saturday to look at a new Winnebago Sightseer 35J.
It has the bunks and we now have our search between the Newmar Baystar 3304 and the
Winnebago Sightseer.  Can anybody comment on the Sightseer or experience with Newmar?
I understand any comments are purely individual experience but would greatly appreciate.

Thanks!

Mark