I was looking at two road tests recently. One was a 34' Dynamax Dynaquest with a Cummins 8.3 and a GVWR of 33000# and a GCWR of 54000#. The other was a Coachman Freelander,28'long, with a Ford6.8 V-10 with a GVWR of 14000# and a GCWR of 20000#. Both are Class C's. The fuel economy of the Coachman was 9.73mpg. The Dynamax was 13mpg. Yeah I know the price difference is pretty large, but Dynamax has proved you don't have to put a diesel engine in the back to make a very nice luxury coach, and in fact, it's far more fuel efficient and much easier to work on. I actually drove the Dynamax a couple of years ago, and it is a dream to drive. My wife drove it right through the middle of Tarpon Springs and had no problem. If I had the money, I'd buy it in a minute.

I've always heard that the biggest drawback to a front diesel is the noise factor. Is the Dyna pretty quiet?

Danny Anne and I drove a dynamax this past spring, the drive was allright, but it did not impress me very much. I now have a gillig chassis.
The coach we drove had a good bit of noise and vibration from the drive train. Of course it had mercedes engine. I am sticking with the barth
sky

The Dynamax we drove was very quiet, actually less than my front engine Regal. But for $297000, I think I'll also stick with my Barth (like I have a choice?). Main point is that these big diesels mounted in the front are quite efficient.

OK now I'll open up a real can of worms. I have a friend who owns a limo service, thought the Dodge-Mercedes vans would be the way to go, and after a year dumped them for whatever he could get. One van went through 3 motors in less than 200,000 miles. According to him they were all JUNK. He'll stick to Chevy 12 passengers with gassers.

The Dynamax are nice, but one still loses 5'-8' of room for the engineroom compared to a pusher. The engine's a lot easier to work on than a puller, but not much easier than a pusher.

The Dodge-Mercedes Sprinter's problem is that they've a 2.5 or 3.0L TD - my 1-ton van's the same size, and it's not overpowered with a 6.9L NA. Too much truck for too little engine in the Sprinter.

The Dynamax is built on the GM 5500 or 6500 chassis. It is powered by the GM Duramax 6.6L V-8 Diesel and hooked up to the six-speed Allison 1000 Tranny. This engine is extremely quiet, makes gobs of torque, pretty efficient and extremely reliable. Enjoy !
BILLY T

The one Anne and I drove definitely had MBE engine in it. The noise was not too bad but the vibration was bad.
Here is a url on one.

Dynamax

sky

The one I drove was on a Freightliner M2 HD chassis with an 8.3 Cummins. Overall length was 35 feet and plenty of room for two to full time. Basement storage was unbelievable. Could tow a Sherman Tank with it. Think I want to become a truck driver.
Jim (not Tere, that's for sure)