Purchasing considerations-Consumer Group

[dentmac]

Thank you-- I wondered if they included conversions.
They refer to`Lay down and roll-over` Areas where only conversions excel.

Taken from the non-member area:

. Almost everyone we contact in the RV arena acknowledges that most class A motor homes are close to capacity when they leave the factory. They acknowledge it but don't know what to do about it. The manufacturers are overloading the chassis for marketing purposes and they can do so with impunity. (I think BB wrote that )

Structural Integrity
The structural integrity of a class A motor home should be the most important issue for the buyer but it rarely is. Our opinion is that close to 50% of class A motor homes are structurally unsound and will not sustain a collision at 20 miles per hour without serious damage to the coach and the occupants. In many models there is no steel bar to act as a bumper to prevent damage in low-speed collisions. The law requires this type of structure in automobiles and trucks, but apparently the lives and property of RVers are not important enough to get the attention of the agencies involved in vehicle safety.

Structural integrity goes beyond chassis modifications and low-speed collision bars. We believe the biggest problem is that most motor homes are incapable of sustaining a laydown at 50 miles per hour, let alone a rollover. Although we cannot support this opinion with enough statistics to satisfy many, we get little argument from those who know about the structure of class A motor homes in general. The cutting of the wall for the addition of long slideout rooms — especially galley slideouts — has us deeply concerned about the ability of a motor home to sustain a laydown or rollover without serious consequences to driver and passengers. Although the class A motor home accidents we have investigated do not paint a rosy picture, we are firmly convinced that a class A motor home with a highway control rating and reliability rating of a least 70 should be reasonably safe on the road and have enough structural integrity to provide driver and passenger(s) with some protection in an accident situation.

Wanrdlst 2006 450LXi
Ross MacKillop