[truckguy]

I guess you have to choose which benefits are more important to you.

From what it sounds noise and ride are at the top. And with a HDT your gonna have noise and a rough ride at times. You can add airride and ping tanks to try and smooth it out, but the more you soften the ride the less stability you'll have in cross winds, cornering and when trucks pass you.

There should be some happy medium here. People seem to tell me that HDTs ride pretty well loaded with the stock spring rate. With a smaller load, reducing the spring rate should provide a similarly good ride with similar handling.

Is a bus going to ride better than a truck conversion, most likely and for sure quieter since the motor is 40' behind you. But a HDT is much cooler than a bus any day! Big Grin

I don't understand why a HDT conversion couldn't be made to ride the same as a bus. Can anyone give me a reason ?

Class 8 trucks are definitely not for everyone, kinda has to be in your blood. Two years ago I drove back to Cleveland from San Antonio (1450 miles) left at 8 a.m. Saturday mourning and was pulling in the driveway Sunday at around 4 p.m. Ran mainly at about 65 mph and even stopped at a Hampton Inn for a good nights sleep at 9 p.m. I did all of the driving and when we got I home I was not dead to the world, actually washed the rig before putting it away. Sitting in my comfy air chair floating along, never sawing at the wheel even when we hit the Okie winds. With 300 gallons of fuel on board, never had to stop for fuel, and with the air chair keeping the body form jarring only stop twice a day to hit the restroom. You just can't do that in a F250 pulling a trailer with out killing yourself.

On our last trip we pulled 1300 miles from Friday morning at 8AM to Sunday at noon. It doesn't kill one to do that in an F250, but one is a bit tired.

I'm not a diesel junkie. I could do without listening to a turbo whistle while I drive. If they all performed the same, I could like a HDT, bus or motorhome equally well, save I have real problems with the driver safety with the later two.

But what you describe, ie travelling long distances easily in relative comfort, is my primary goal.

"As I mentioned before, definitely take one for a spin you may just fine that you have big truck blood running through those veins Wink"

I'm wondering if using a HDT with a nice big sleeper as my TV would be ideal. The problem with that is the lack of a smaller daily driving vehicle.

I'm a bit turned off of a HDT conversion by the length and lack of maneuverability in smaller campsites. You would probably be amazed at the diverse and difficult locations we can get our 5er into with the F250. After 7 years of RVing with it, one gets pretty good at backing a trailer into tight sites.

This discussion has been very helpful, even if I haven't arrived at a conclusion yet.