Hendrik van Wyk: We’ve had a fair round of motives that the cowboys have had some good experiences some not-so-good experiences. What interests us is the price point for the kind of A classes that’s starting to come up why are they getting so popular now?
Keith Crone: There’s too many advantages to an a class in the old days the chasis that we were building motorhomes on were too light. Now even this motorhome at 30 feet is built on an 18,000 pound GBW truck. The front stance of the wheels is at 11 a half inches wider than on a c-class so it makes her a much more stable ride. If you were to build a 30-foot c-class motorhomes the same length of motorhome, you would have no carrying capacity because just the weight of the raw motorhome uses up all the 14,000 pounds of available chassis. This motorhome fully loaded with full water, full fuel, full propane, ready to go will weigh in at about sixteen seven sixteen eight allowing us another twelve hundred pounds of cargo capacity onboard the motorhome. That’s really important because you don’t want to take the chassis right to its limit you want to have a little extra carrying capacity because it enhances the handling and the braking.
Hendrik van Wyk: Check it out this is like a living room.
Keith Crone: The driver and passenger seats are now part of our entertainment and part of our living. In a c-class motorhome the seats are too close together down to low for the most part the chairs don’t even swivel. A lot of people gravitate towards the Class C because they want the extra sleeping accommodation or the one push of a button we can bring this right down and now we’ve got a bunk.
Hendrik van Wyk: The one thing you haven’t mentioned yet which is typically a-class is when we think a class is diesel that’s not the case anymore.
Keith Crone: No it certainly isn’t. the Tritan V10 for that they’re using in this chassis produces over 300 horsepower and over 400 foot-pounds of torque it’s now coupled with a six-speed transmission. Well that’s what we see in the diesel pushers the six-speed transmissions we have it right here at this level.
Hendrik van Wyk: V10 gas though some people might argue it’s underpowered you’re going to struggle uphill people are gonna gonna be upset behind you is that that is that the case?
Keith Crone: Let’s go for a ride. I’ll show you how easy it is to park a class-a Motorhome. Oh that would be too easy. Let’s try this one here yeah. We’ve got a lot of aids that we can use we’ve got the backup camera here when I go to signal I can look down this side of the motorhome with my side vision camera. So let’s say you know I know I can see it in the mirror the mirror right here I’ve got the camera but on a class-a Motorhome here’s something that I really like. It’s as simple as taking a peek out the window. I guess it all comes back to maneuverability and I think the class-a is just that very maneuverable. Where it’s such a huge advantage with this 43 square feet of glass the elevation that we’re at being able to judge the a pillar in the corner here versus say the overhead again of the C. We can come at this fifth wheel here and you can see with confidence right up the edge of the motorhome. I find that difficult to do in a c-class motorhome because you’re judging the overhang we’re in here tight. Another thing I want to show you is the ability to turn the motorhome okay. So this little area that I selected on our lot I’m just gonna pull this hard over for a second and just show you how this comes around. This is just not possible in a c-class. I know they kept doing this all day we get dizzy so all unwind and let it go but that’s just something I wanted to point out to you.
Hendrik van Wyk: There is so much that’s an in an a-class and the price point is so acceptable now. What do you think is the summoning block why don’t people go for this instead of going for a c-class?
Keith Crone: Oh for sure this perception they think they can drive a Class C it looks easier. First-time buyers gravitate towards c-class motorhomes it’s just the way it is. They come out here and gravitate towards the Class A because it’s not hard to drive.
