Can someone tell me their experiences with the 6.5 diesel engine? Good? Bad?

Hi, Lem, and welcome!

I have not owned one, but we have several in trucks at work, and they are OK, but doggy. Our mechanics say they stand up OK, but our usage is not the same as motor home usage.

Several years ago, I test-drove a Barth with either a 6.2 or 6.5, and it was a dog, too.

However, if I did not have to deal with mountains, it would have been OK. I guess it depends on your "need for speed" up the hills. With gas over 2 dollars a gallon, the increased mileage of a diesel is perhaps a little more attractive now.

Here is a good link:

http://www.62-65-dieselpage.com/

Hi Lem,
I was at one time interested in buying a Safari Trek which had the 6.5 Chevy turbodiesel. I read were they were underpowered and called "Banks Performance" for their advice in power enhancements. The guy flat-out told me not to buy any RV with that engine. He said the new Chevy Duramax was great but the life expectancy was minimal with the 6.5 engine. I read on the Safari Trek Tracks website a lot about disappointed owners of the 6.5. Trek. Hope this helps you out. Nick

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Barth Wannabe
Nick and Glo

I have an ‘82 GM 6.5 L, forward unit. (coach is an ’84). It’s a 25’ on a P chassis. So far my experience has been good. The transmission seems to be the weak link in my rig. I’m the second owner. The first owner had to have a new engine installed just past the 50 K warranty. Since Bob is no longer with us, I am not exactly sure why it was replaced. The receipts are not enough to provide the complete story. The only thing that I can tell was that it was something to do with excessive oil consumption and it was a factory problem. The “new engine” has about 35K on it. It tends to fire right up.

I’ve not been out west with it. So, I can only comment relative to the Tennessee mountains. It’s a diesel with a three-speed transmission; it’s not built for speed! It’s done real well on the mountains over here, going up the long grades at reasonable speed. Normal flat to rolling highways, I can easily maintain 65 mph with room left under the petal. In GA. I’ve been known to have it at 70. We get 12–16 Mpg. Toadless. So far the main problems have been old wiring and exposed connections. I’m looking into additional cooling for the transmission.

Very few Barth’s have this engine set up. So, that reduces the number of folks on the website providing advice on this engine. Hope that helps

In a weak moment, I considered converting a school bus into a motorhome. During the research, I was referred to a full-time school bus mechanic in California. He advised that the 6.2 and 6.5 diesels were nothing but problems in school buses, especially w/ new electronics. Normally, he said that a stalled bus had to be towed in and a replacement bus dispatched to offload students. Jump-starting does not work, due to some electronic chip that won't let things happen. I'm not a mechanic, so forgive my translation of his explanation.

[This message has been edited by Bob Gramer (edited March 10, 2004).]