Winnebago/Itasca 30A

[mrdino]

Looking at a 2012 Itasca Sunova 30A for our first coach. The wife loves the big booth with the slide out benches. I like the fact it's a Winnebago/Itasca as they have a good reputation out there. Has anyone owned either the Winne or Itasca 30A's and can give me the good and the bad. One thing I'm wondering is will I need to sell in a year or 2 because it is not big enough. Only sleeps 4 I would guess, but we like the fact it's only 30 feet. Should be easy to maneuver for a couple of rookies! Thanks in advance. Gary

[Deny]

We have a 25' Winnebago. I would advise you to get as small a Motorhome as you can get by with. They really are a lot like houses, in that regard.

You are right about the quality.

Best advise-get the one your wife likes-they are the ones that seem to determine how often we travel.

Enjoy the ride.

[Todd157k]

We have one.. for about a year now. We love it however I will tell you a couple minor things.
1. Not much room to walk through it when the sides are in. My wife is 4'11" and 100 lbs so she fits through fine. Me, at 5'9" and 175 lbs, well I slide through sideways.
2. The bathroom door doesn't open very much with the sides in either.. but we make it through if we have to (on the road)
3. The telescoping table in ours didn't "raise" itself when we got it (we bought used.. 7k miles at one year old). However (thanks to peeps on this forum) I was able to send the pedestal part back to the manufacturer who replaced it for free. (minus shipping).
http://www.irv2.com/forums/f101/anyo...ks-240858.html
I did replace the cabinets under the TV with a fireplace.
http://www.irv2.com/forums/f258/anyo...ce-234978.html

oh ya.. one other thing.. I pull a 27' boat (35' overall) with it. I did upgrade the hitch from 5k lb, to a 10k lb. just to be safe. It's still on the edge of "max towing weight" but I travel slow. I've been able to launch the boat with it and it works ok. Some boat ramps are just too small though.

[GGrab]

We also loved the 30 but researched it on the internet & found there are many people who have handling issues. It seems that the small chassis is overloaded & does not even meet the weight distribution specs of the manufacturer (Ford). Both Ford & Winnebago have denied any issues even though numerous owners have demonstrated that the chassis is unbalanced. I was definitely scared off by what I read, also being a prospective new owner. I opted for a 27N, which is a great size. I also went with Winnebago for the quality, however be warned- Winnebago is churning out units as fast as they can & quality is horrible! My unit never should have left the factory. The body trim was not fastened & sagged down on one side of the doorway to the point that it was being scraped by the stairs when they retracted. The unit was painted & shipped out this way! Slide out seals were cut too short- you could see outside with the slides open. Drainpipe from the kitchen sink was not connected & the water drained into the storage compartments! etc, etc, etc. My unit has spent almost half it's 1st year in the shop! Winnebago customer service stinks! I could go on & on! Buyer beware!

[Todd157k]

oh.. forgot one other thing about that beautiful U shaped dinette.. your butt slides down it when you slouch. You'll need to take a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser and some rubbing alcohol to it and remove the wax they put on it. Then just use a vinyl cleaner/conditioner on it. There was some discussion about it here somewhere.

As for the chassis problem mentioned above, I haven't experienced it and tow my boat most of the time. Being in CA, we only get 55 mph speed limit when towing (which usually turns into 60-62 mph) so maybe the chassis issue pops up at higher speeds. There is a sticky about the CHF (cheap handling fix) for the F53 chassis however I haven't done it yet. Probably will soon though.

[Yellowboat]

Hi.

We just traded in our Winnebago Sightseer 29R for a Sightseer 33C. When purchasing our first Sightseer DW wanted the 30B but we agreed on the 29R.

On our 29R the slides were all on one side making the drivers side about 1,000 pounds heavy. I loaded all of my heavy items (tools and etc.) on the passenger side to balance out our coach. Our 29R drove OK and we were happy with it.

Ten years and no major Winnebago problems. We did have a major Ford problem. Our V-10 engine failed at 17,800 miles. I never knew why we had an engine failure until we were inspecting our new coach. I had told the mechanic above our engine failure and while inspecting our new coach I mentioned that our old coach lost cooling fluid before the engine replacement and that I never could find a leak. He put the two together and said that is why your engine failed. My engine, most likely, had an internal coolant leak. That said, aFoed V-10 engine failure is rare.

Safe travels. JD

[jazzerjump]

Our first coach was a Sightseer 30B on a Workhorse Chassis with Chevy 8.1. We really enjoyed the coach and after some front end work-bad ball joints- the handling was great. Our only issue with the 30B (one slide) was the bedroom layout lacked room. When we decided to upgrade some two years later we settled on a used 2012 Vista 30T (three slides)on the Ford F53 chassis with the V-10.

We have been comfortable in the 30 footers-we winter for about 3 months in it in the SW Arizona desert-so replaced with another 30 footer. For what it is worth-and there are as many opinions as there are MH owners-I feel that the Class A gas coach handling is very subjective with most owners making some handling modifications as can be found on this forum.

We have been comfortable in a 30 footer and I feel it is the middle of the road length for the F-53 chassis which I believe is about the only Cl A gas chassis available now along with the V10 motor. I just felt that the bigger you go the more weight therefore the potential for less power and more handling issues could increase. We wanted a couch for longer term living comfort-not just weekends-and a 30' coach seemed to be the smallest size with a couch.

Both of our coaches have had after market handling items added by the original owners-steering controls, extra sway bars, etc. These boxes on wheels are not sports cars or even pickups and won't handle like one. Bottom line is to drive them before purchase. You have to feel comfortable in it. The after market add ons do resolve some swaying issues, wind problems, etc. but not all owners feel they need them to be comfortable. Again this forum has a wealth of info.

RVing is fun and we look forward to heading south shortly to warmer weather. Good luck on finding your coach and happy trips to you!

[ChileRick]

We have a Winnebago Sightseer 30A. We love it now. We bought it new. It's our first and only RV, so we can't compare it to anything else. We think size wise it works out perfectly for us, because the kitchen is big enough to function in and with the front captains chairs turned, the living space is comfortable for 2 people and the dog. We just spent 3 months on the road to determine if it was big enough for us to summer in each year and we discovered it was perfect. Occasionally, we take the grandkids camping. We take 2 at a time. The dinette turned into a bed is not comfortable, so we purchased a full size air mattress to place over the cushions. It makes it a little high, but much more comfortable. Converting the dinette back and forth gets old and if we were planning to sleep 4 on a more regular basis, this coach would be too small. As far as maneuvering the 30, we were rookies too when we first got it and got used to driving it very quickly, even took it over the Rockies first year, no problems. At 30 feet we can take it pretty much anywhere from National Parks to top end luxury RV resorts and we do a variety of things with it.

We really liked the dinette benches too, but have yet to use them.

Todd157k is right about the tightness of the walking space with the slides in, and the bathroom door and fridge door opening only slightly. We also had the dinette pedestal replaced. Walk around in it with the slides in, make sure if you had to, you could manage.

We had initial fit and finish issues primarily with the cabinetry and our slide wipe seals have never been right. Make sure you inspect it thoroughly. Make sure everything works. Ask for service records. Check the cabinets, the issues with cabinets in that year were common in the southwest in particular. If you look at some of our early posts you will see we had quite a time getting stuff fixed by the dealer. It took us 2 years, but all is well now and we think we have found the right motor home for us. Hope you find the right one for you.