432batman1 said:
thinking about trading in my 29ft wildcat 5th wheel for a 97 Winnebago adventurer 34 ft its super clean 23,000 miles with a ford 460 its set up perfect for what we intend to use it for. i would like some feedback about the winnebago and the 460. this would be my first class a ive always owned 5th wheels. thanks.
My Adventurer is a '96 on a Ford chassis. It had 30,000 when I bought it 3 years ago, and I now have about 55,000. Mine has the 15' slide, and I would not recommend purchase unless the one you are looking at has a slide. No sense going to a Class A if you would have to live in an aisle vs. a room when parked.
That said, I did have a problem with the slide after the 1st year. I had to replace the solenoids, and then later, one of the hydraulic plungers. Both were fairly expensive repairs. The slide and jacks have worked great since having the fixes done.
I also had a problem with the topper awnings on the slide windows. The original was one of those that the topper part was then extended to become the window awnings. It never worked right, and tended to come loose while driving. It became a real pain so I had it replaced by a separate topper and separate awnings for each slide window.
The Ford chassis has worked well. I get about 7.5 average mpg -- and am always pulling a 3500# Jeep Cherokee. That "is" the max tow limit, so a Grand Cherokee would not work.
Ford did a recall about a year ago on my chassis that I finally had done. It involved the cruise control release by pressing the brake pedal. There were cases that something went wrong and a fire ensued. The fix was to place a fuse in the line that stopped the cruise if necessary.
Have been a full-timer since '95 and have lived in a '94 Winny Brave, a Travel Trailer, a Fifth Wheel, and a 29'Class C Tioga. This rig is the first one that has caused me to stop going to RV shows looking for an RV that would satisfy my problems with the one I was living in at the time.
