opinions sunova 29 R

cappy · 12-05-2005, 05:52 PM

Hi

We looked at the Sunova 29R. We liked the floor plan and the quality of the coach. The one we are looking at is on the Ford chassis. I would like to hear from anyone who has had problems with this MH and their opinion of the Sunova.

Cappy

cappy · 12-05-2005, 05:52 PM

Hi

We looked at the Sunova 29R. We liked the floor plan and the quality of the coach. The one we are looking at is on the Ford chassis. I would like to hear from anyone who has had problems with this MH and their opinion of the Sunova.

Cappy

RGW · 12-06-2005, 03:02 PM

We my wife and I have a 2005 Sunova. We like it very much. We had some warrenty issus but they are slowly getting done. Very slowly. We have it on the Workhorse chassis. I often wonder if maybe we should of went for Ford chassis. The Workhorse cost more.

FrontRangeRVer · 12-06-2005, 04:39 PM

We have the Sightseer 30b (which is the twin of the Itasca Sunova) on the Workhorse chassis...we were told how good and much better the Workhorse was than the Ford....We believe now that it was salesman talk.

The coach has been flawless and I recommend it. We have been in -5 degree weather with full water systems with no problems...just need to run the furnace to keep the holding tanks heated.

cappy · 12-06-2005, 04:40 PM

RGW
Could you give me some information on the type of warrenty issues you have had?
Cappy

RGW · 12-06-2005, 08:06 PM

Warrenty issues were: There was a peace of rubber that was wraped in plastic under the rear slide. We were charged to have this removed and latter reimbursed after much letter writing, we are still owed $34.95. The wipers stopped working the dealer couldn't seem to fixed this so I took it to my mechanic and he fixed it and also fixed a problem with the heater, after much letter writing I was reimbursed. Two of the storage doors were a differant colour then the rest of the coach. The front bumper had a strees crack. The power steering pump went out. The bathroom tap was unable to be cleaned. When the power steering pump went out this was a workhorse problem and we were towed to a workhorse dealer. (the tow truck operator broke the drive shaft universal) The workhorse dealer was also a Winnebago dealer and they fixed everything, the painting, the stress crack, the tap, the power steering pump. The dealer were I purchased it seemed to not be able to fix anything. I have a fill an inch thick on letters I have wrote just to get these things fixed. These were miner issues for a new motorhome I just bought it from the wrong dealer.

sdcyclist · 12-08-2005, 07:01 AM

Cappy,

I have a 2005 Sunova 29R on the Ford F53 chassis. We bought in January 05 and have 7000 + miles on it. I have had problems with front dash shake that still exists despite having extra braces welded to the chassis. Even with reduced tire pressures, there is still enough shake to cause the CD player to skip. The second issue is the windshield holding tabs--they rusted out in just a few months of San Diego's winter. They were replaced under warantee but I had to get factory authorization. The transmission failed at 3000 miles in the middle of a mountain trip (how inconvenient!) It was replaced under warantee by Ford. Other than these issues, I have been pretty satisfied with the rig.

sdcyclist

JD Allen · 12-08-2005, 10:38 AM

I have a Sightseer 29R on a 2006 Ford Chassis. When we bought the rig in June I took about 4 hours to inspect it. I'm a retired flight engineer on Chinook Helicopters so I inspected it the same way I would pre-flight a helicopter. Before I inspected the rig I read several acceptance related articles and looked at several acceptance check lists. The only thing I found on inspection was a loose wire on the left front parking light. The DW found some cosmetic defects on the inside. We decided we could fix the cosmetic stuff better than they would. They fixed the wire.

On our first trip the water heater wouldn't work. I took the rig in for service and they told me it was fine. I took the rig home and the water heater wouldn't work so I called and asked if I could bring the rig back so the mechanic could show dumb little me how to start the water heater. He came out to the rig and it wouldn't light. He scratched his head and said "Well, it worked yesterday". He replaced the circuit board and it has worked fine ever since.

Our freeway here is like a washboard and the motorhome would almost shake itself apart driving on it. I would slow down to about 45 MPH to lessen the shaking. I took the rig in and had the front end aligned. They said it was way out and they had to put shims in to set it back to Ford factory specs. The ride is still rough but it doesn't shake as bad on the washboard and I can now drive 55 MPH without thinking the dash is going to fall apart.

Funny thing about our washboard road, it ends at the county line. Right at the sign that says entering Pierce County the freeway smoothes out. Don't interpret this to say the rig drives badly; it drives great on freeways, highways, and on two way roads. It just doesn't like the washboard freeway near our house. My Mazda Miata also shakes very badly through the washboard area. I believe the shaking is a function of the distance between the front and rear axles.

I hope this helps and good luck.

cappy · 12-09-2005, 08:44 AM

I want to thank everyone for sharing the good and bad experiences they have had with their Sunova. My present MH is a used class C 94 Winnebago that I've owned for 4 years. In that period of time I had problems with water leaks and the generator. My thought was when you buy used you have to expect to have problems. I would not expect to have problems with new one priced at $95000 I think with the technology that is available today the industry could build a better product. Are these problems common with all manufactures or just Winnegago?

JD Allen · 12-09-2005, 12:14 PM

$95,000.00 sounds high for a 29R. Is that the MSRP price? If it is you should be able to negotiate a price around $71,250.

Reading this board and others I get the impression Winnebago quality is better than some and not as good as others. I think I read a post were Winnebago was rated number 3 in quality but for those who feel they got a lemon that doesn't matter. I believe every manufacturer is capable of building a bad coach.

Part of the reason I selected the Sightseer 29R was because of data from http://www.rv.org. I purchased their data and because we wanted a walk around bed I looked at data for Class A motor homes between 28 and 32 feet long. Compared to all Class A's in that range the 29R was rated at 75 percentile for Value, Quality, and Highway Control. In other words 25% of Class A's were rated higher and 75% were rated lower. The clincher was average price paid. 70% of the Class A's sold for a higher average price and 30% sold for a lower average price.

The Sightseer 29R was rated with the top rigs for Value, Quality, and Highway Control and near the bottom for average price paid. That sold me. If I recall correctly average price paid for a 2005 Sightseer 29R was around $73,500. I paid less than the average price for mine. Remember the Sunova is considered the upgraded model over the Sightseer.

FrontRangeRVer · 12-09-2005, 06:46 PM

The RV.org material is a waste of money in my opinion. There is ONE guy there that is raking in a ton of money from people that unknowingly think that somehow RV.org knows anything about what they are pushing for ($100). THEY DONT EVEN SET FOOT IN THE MOTORHOMES THEY RATE....Hows that for assurance....LMAO. Unfortunately, there is no REAL Consumer Reports yet on RV's.

Also, the Sunova and Sightseer are the same units, built side by side at Winnebago Industries. There is no "upgraded" model.