Greetings from the Mojave desert

[Bronco4me]

Hello All,
Bronco checking in with a family of four from the southern California/eastern Sierra area.  After renting for many years we took the plunge and bought our first MH this past weekend. We've lurked for some time now and have enjoyed the many interesting and educational discussions on the forums. 

Bronco

 

[Ron]

Welcome to the RV Forum and congratulations on getting your first motorhome.  Please join in on any of the discussions, ask questions, or start new discussions relating to the RVing lifestyle.  Glad you found us.

 

[Tom]

Bronco, congratulations on the purchase. What did you buy?

 

[Bronco4me]

We bought a '91 Holiday Rambler Aluma-Lite XL 33ft.  Outstanding exterior and interior, strong motor and tranny, good layout..pretty much everything we were looking for in a "starter coach" of our own.  Previous owner was meticulous in maintenance and the cost was very fair. We know we'll trade up in a few years, but this works great for the family until then.

 

[Jim Dick]

Hi Bronco,

Welcome to the forum and congratulations on the HR. I'm sure you and your family will enjoy your trips. Be sure to stick around and participate in the greatest forum in cyberspace.

 

[Tom]

Holiday Rambler has always had a good name for quality products. Now, being part of the Monaco family, they're even better.

 

[Ned]

Holiday Rambler has always had a good name for quality products. Now, being part of the Monaco family, they're even better.

I thought it was the other way around   The products built in Indiana don't seem to make nearly as many trips back to the factory as the ones built in Oregon.

 

[Tom]

LOL Ned, I knew I'd get a rise out of you with that one.

I haven't yet looked at the HR coaches on display here at Pomona, but I might do that today. In the case of Beaver, it's very clear that they're slowly being Monaco'ized. One of the Beaver's features was the flush slideouts (i.e. they didn't protrude from the side of the coach when retracted). Monaco redesigned them to be the same as the Monaco line.

 

[Ned]

RVs are just like cars, it's hard to tell one from another.

 

[Ron]

Holiday Rambler has always had a good name for quality products. Now, being part of the Monaco family, they're even better.

The way I heard it Monaco bought Holiday Rambler to get HR's better slide design.

 

[Ned]

They wanted the kitchen slide technology.  I believe HR had patents on it.

 

[Tom]

They wanted the kitchen slide technology.

Is that the one where the gas line, water lines &/or drain line breaks when the slide is moved in and out?

Yesterday we saw Monaco's full-length slideout in a new Dynasty. The floorplan left something to be desired, but the concept opens up some possibilities.

 

[Ron]

The story I got from a Monaco owner was that after buying HR for the slide technology Monaco made some changes to Monacoize it and screwed things up.  Then realizing the error of their ways went back to the original HR design.  According to they guy telling me this he had one of the affected Monaco coaches but Monaco stood behind their product and repaired his coach by changing parts as required to return the slide to HR configuration.

 

[Ned]

The is design is so good, there are never any leaks or breaks.  The only change they made to ours was replacing the hose clamps (probably a Monaco idea to save cost) with crimped connections.  No problems in 9 years of operation.

 

[Ron from Big D]

Ned:

    I have to agree with that statement.  I used to be a real fan of HR.

 

[Ned]

We sure like ours.  So much we have NO incentive to look at newer models.