'97 Safari Trek - any experience?

The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an RV or an interest in RVing!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.

leohamm

New member
Joined
Jan 22, 2009
Posts
4
I'm considering buying a '97 Safari Trek model 2830 front diesel. Does anyone out there have any experience with this model? The coach is in great shape, pristine to be exact, but I'm concerned about the chassis (P30) reliability, handling, etc. 89000 miles Thanks, Leo
 
89k miles is getting up there for that chassis - the engine and tranny work hard in a motorhome and a lot of the miles will be in hot weather and heat the the #1 enemy of a transmission. 

A 12 year old P chassis probably needs (or soon will need) new front air bags too - Workhorse has a redesigned bag that is an improvement over the original. It will also want to have a new Bell crank in the steering gear if this hasn't already been done. The original wears quickly and leads to sloppy steering. A replacement using the Henderson Supersteer bell crank is highly recommended.

I was not aware that Chevy ever put a diesel in the P chassis, but I see there were quite a few diesel Treks produced around that time. That would have to be the 6.5L GM diesel, which is not one of the finer engines in the world, though it is an improvement over the original 6.2L Chevy diesel.

Safari did a nice job with the Trek interiors in those years, so if the style suits you and the price is right, you can have a pretty nice small coach.
 
if the style suits you

Leo,

Gary alluded to a very important subject that we were just talking about this afternoon.  If you are a single guy traveling alone, the Trek is great for one person.  It gives you the roominess of a Class A but is smaller overall.  The downside is if you're a couple.  That bed in the middle of the lounge can create a real problem if one person wants to go to bed while the other wants to stay up and watch TV or read or whatever.  When the Trek first came out we considered getting one, but decided it simply didn't fit US in terms of who goes to bed when and what the other person wants to do.  Consider noise, lights, and the space you have to move around in when the bed is down.

ArdraF 
 
Diesel fuel has changed over the past couple of years - what is available now is Ultra Low Sulfur diesel, which did not exist when that engine was made.

The situation is similar to what happened when lead was removed from gasoline - in order to use the new fuel some engines required replacement of certain components or the addition of fuel additives to each tank of gas.

Sulfur acts as a lubricant in diesel fuel, and despite claims to the contrary, USLD does not lubricate the fuel system as well as the older, high sulfur diesel.   The components that are at risk are the fuel injectors and their high pressure pump, which are machined to very close tolerances and must have proper lubrication from the fuel to continue working.   I have a 1995 Ford turbodiesel pickup, and it has been strongly recommended by several mechanics to add a fuel lubricant to each tank of USLD diesel.  Besides the inconvenience of having to carry and add the additive to each tank of fuel, you also have to consider the cost - about 10 cents per gallon of fuel treated.

Diesel engines do get better gas mileage than their gas cousins, because diesel fuel contains more energy per gallon than gasoline.  But the generally higher cost of USLD diesel vs. regular gas pretty much wipes out any cost advantage of using diesel.  The light duty diesel engine in my pickup and in the Safari also won't last significantly longer than a well maintained gas engine, which eliminates another reason to go diesel.

Some of these arguments don't apply to the heavy duty diesels found in large rear-engine diesel pusher motorhomes.   They're different animals than the light duty engines found in my pickup and the Safari you are considering.   If I had it to do over I'd go with a gas engine instead of a light duty diesel.
 
Thanks Lou.  I am familiar with all of the facts you discussed, all of which are valid concerns.

Leo
 
Have you tried out the Safari Majic Bed in the Trek to determine if:

1) you and your spouse can get in and out of the bed without difficulty
2) the comfort level is satisfactory.  Some people find the mattress creates pressure points, because the mattress is thin and in a wooden box.

Another consideration of the Trek is that when one partner is in bed for the night, there is no place other than the bathroom for the other partner to go.

Gary's concerns about the mechanical issues would also need to be considered.
 
When we were looking at motor homes in the early 2000's, I was very interested in the TREK.  I did quite a bit of research and found that the Trek had stability issues and was difficult to drive.  Often people reported that it was "all over the road".  This issue may have been fixed in later models.

Marsha~
 
I'm considering buying a '97 Safari Trek model 2830 front diesel. Does anyone out there have any experience with this model? The coach is in great shape, pristine to be exact, but I'm concerned about the chassis (P30) reliability, handling, etc. 89000 miles Thanks, Leo
Leo,
I purchased a 1997 Safari Trek Pathmaker Diesel about 2 years ago. I wish I had done more research on this RV. It turns out that there was issues with overheating. I was told that everything in the coach worked, I had a friend with mechanical knowledge look over everything and on the surface all appeared good. I was also told it would make it from LA to Laurel MD. Wish I would have payed the $1,000 to have it gone through by a RV dealership. I paid $16,500 for it . I made it just outside of Vegas after the steep incline, as the motor over heated the gauges were not working so I was unaware that the motor was getting hot till it was to late. $41,000 later and things are still falling apart. The Electro Majic Bed for one came off the tracks and we are unable to get it working again. We have had no luck finding anyone to fix it as the company that made them went out of business.. The new motor and fuel system that we had installed was about $19,000 of that $41,000. Really do the due diligence on your researching this RV as they can become very costly. I found out the hard way.... Valerie
 
Note this thread was started in 2009 by someone who has only made 4 posts on the forum.

As to Safari Treks I have a 2002 Trek 2830, and while I have to do work on it, I am very happy with it overall, and would not trade it for anything I have seen at RV shows, etc. in its size range.
 
Note this thread was started in 2009 by someone who has only made 4 posts on the forum.

As to Safari Treks I have a 2002 Trek 2830, and while I have to do work on it, I am very happy with it overall, and would not trade it for anything I have seen at RV shows, etc. in its size range.
 
The 2002 is different than the 1997 as they had worked out some of the issues that they had with the over heating. After mine over heated and I had to replace the motor with a new one (jasper) as well as new fuel system so far no issues with the new motor.
 
The 1997 model was offered with both the 6.5L diesel and the 7.4L gasoline engine, only the 6.5L diesel suffered from overheating issues. The 6.5L diesel continued to be offered as an option until the 2001 model, and even a few 2002 models built on left over 2001 chassis.
 
Back
Top Bottom