Despite having all the time in the world to write during this weird pandemic I seem to be writing less. Call it writers block or perhaps feeling like I’ve got nothing interesting to write about, either or both maybe? While I was puzzling about what to write about the other day, it dawned on me that I promised to fill you in on the new Road House… yep, over a year ago… August 5th, 2019 to be exact…. okay, well over a year ago.

So the upside to this very tardy post is we have had plenty of time to travel in the new Road House and collect our thoughts on what we love about this coach and what we actually miss about the other coach.

The new Road House is a 2013 43 ft Entegra DEQ, Class A Diesel Pusher with a 450HP Cummins engine and 4 slide outs. Similar to the original Road House but 5 ft longer, 10 years newer and a bigger engine – 120 hp more. She is definitely a plus size gal!

Like the Monaco, the Entegra coach is also a class A diesel pusher. What’s a Class A you might wonder or a diesel pusher… well, constructed on either a commercial truck chassis, a specially designed motor vehicle chassis, or a commercial bus chassis, a Class A motorhome resembles a bus in design and has a flat or vertical front end and large windows.

The Entegra is built on a Spartan Chassis which is considered to be the top of the line in big-ass RV’s. According to the Spartan website “Everything Rides on the Ride Chassis”. Guess that is considered catchy marketing in the truck world! They also claim that “At the bottom of it all is the Spartan chassis, American-made from the finest materials and engineered to give your luxury RV a safe, smooth, and reliable ride. Spartan makes steering, traversing changing terrain, and parking as easy and welcoming as a friendly campground”. So, I can tell you for sure, that’s not a false claim. The first time we test drove an Entegra, with this fancy pants chassis, Wally was grinning ear to ear. Quiet, smooth and it handled no differently than our car. Well, maybe you do need to plan on braking a bit sooner when your ride is 46K lbs! Plus, this coach has a passive tag axle which the Monaco did not. The tag axle is basically a third axle having single wheels at each side that resides behind the dual wheeled drive axle. It gives more stability in the ride and helps the big-ass coach to turn easier in tight conditions. Again, this made Wally grin from ear to ear.

A diesel pusher motorhome is typically a Class A that is powered by a diesel engine mounted in the rear of the RV. Why is all that important?? Because this style of coach is made to last with a high end truck chassis and motor. The Entegra weighs in at 46,600 lbs which is 16,600 lbs heavier than the Monaco and the diesel pusher Cummins engine has high torque for climbing hills and pulling our tow vehicle. This also means a quiet ride as the engine is in the back. All a matter of preference but we opted for this model in both coach’s and went for a older model Entegra with low mileage to get all the amenities we wanted but not have huge depreciation the minute we left the lot.

In 1989, the addition of slideouts dramatically changed the RV industry because they allow a wider living area, provided that the vehicle remains completely stationary during their extension outwards. Nope, its bad form to drive down the road with your slides out. The Monaco had 2 slides on the drivers side and the Entegra has four slides, two on each side. One could argue that it is two more motorized things to go wrong but the trade off is more interior living space. LOL, we probably got an additional 160 square in the new coach.

Like the Monaco, the Entegra is a used, older coach with low miles. We are not typically buy new people. Sure we have splurged and bought new car’s on occasion before we retired but large luxury coaches are expensive – $500K to $950K plus expensive. Not only are they expensive but honestly, everyone we know who has bought new has ended up in the shop more than we ever have… getting things fixed under warranty. Yikes, hope I didn’t just jinx us!!! Great having a warranty but not so great having major things go wrong. If you are a weekend warrior or only use your coach occasionally maybe this isn’t such an issue. Since our coach is our home 8 months out of the year, this is not ideal and we don’t want to be frequent flyers at the repair facility. Not only do you have the warranty honeymoon period with a new coach but you also have serious depreciation the minute you drive a new coach off the lot. Sadly, most anything that is motorized never appreciates. So for us, buying an older, low mileage coach meant we were able to get most all the bells and whistles without the massive price tag of a new coach – aka, we could afford it and not drain the retirement savings account!

We are the second owners of new Road House (kept the same name) and found her sitting on a consignment lot in Poulsbo Washington. Her previously owner, who purchased her new had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and she had a big scrape down the passenger side. Could be why he wasn’t driving her anymore – very sad. The coach only had 14K miles and most of the appliances still had the original stickers on them. Honestly, the entire deal was a complete pain in the arse and took over 4 months to finalize (not fans of Poulsbo RV). The upside was that we had time, negotiated the price down and got the unsightly scape fixed. We did have a complete independent engine, chassis, interior and exterior inspections done. We also bought an extended warranty that has comprehensive coverage on all of the above so we felt very confident all was well when we finally rolled out of the dealership from hell.

We have enjoyed this mobile lifestyle so much, that we decided an upgrade was in order. The Monaco was a great coach – no regrets. I actually felt bad for selling it… I know, coaches are inanimate objects so that sound irrational but she got us where we wanted to go with very little problems. There wasn’t one thing wrong with her… so why did we want an even bigger big-ass coach??

Creature comforts… that really is the bottom line! The Entegra feels like a home inside… albeit a small studio apartment. The kitchen is bigger, there is a king sized bed, we have an L shaped couch that we can both stretch out on. We also have a dishwasher and stackable washer/dyer as opposed to the all in washer/dryer unit we installed on the Monaco. I love the residential sized refrigerator with an icemaker. The downside of that unit is that it vents into the coach. In cooler weather that’s actually nice but in a warmer climate, well not so much. I also hate the freezer layout but it does have more capacity than the Monaco. Hey, this fishing family needs freezer storage for all the crab we catch!!! The list goes on and on…

We love the on demand hot water system, the porcelain tile floors with a heating option, the fireplace, the outdoor TV and stereo system and all the newer technology . Honestly, we love just about everything about the coach.

There are a few things however that we liked better on the Monaco. The Entegra has frameless windows which asthechically look great but they allow much less air in as only a small portion of the window actually opens upward. The Monaco had the older style framed windows which slid open and allowed way more air flow in the coach.

The lighter exterior color on the Monaco, the ability to get more air inside and the three interior Maxx Power Fans meant we rarely had to turn on the AC when the weather heats up. Not sure why the Entegra only has one fan??? The kitchen fan over the cooktop does vent outside but it isn’t nearly as powerful as the Maxx Fan so we are going to have another one installed. The Monaco was a bit brighter inside…more windows and lighter interior colors. There is a lot of brown in the Entegra but fortunately I like brown!!! There are models with lighter colored interiors but with pets I was worried that light upholstery would show all the dog slobber and pet hair.

The other options we love are the full access pull out drawers in the basement. Like the Monaco, the storage under the Entegra coach is great. We have plenty of room for big things like our Traegar BBQ, The Uni Pizza Oven and the portable refrigerator/freezer.

When we bought the Entegra, the prior owner left a treasure trove of “stuff” in the lower storage areas. Honestly, how many chairs does a dude need? Sadly, there were so many duplicates of things I wonder if the treasure trove was a result of his Alzheimer’s. I also found a huge black garbage bag in the rear clothes closet full of spices and food from 2003 – Eww, Gross. I am here to tell you that decade old mayo isn’t a pretty sight. Not sure why the consignment lot didn’t toss that entire bag? Otherwise the coach was so clean… the convention oven and stove top had never been used. Boy, I sure put an end to that quick!

Wally likes driving the Entegra way more… it rides and drives like a luxury car, quiet and smooth. With the additional horse power the Entegra cruises effortlessly up and down steep mountain passes and really doesn’t burn much more fuel than the Monaco did. At 9+ MPG and an 88 gallon fuel tank, we have a decent fuel range too.

Overall we are thrilled with our upgraded home on wheels. While Covid has slowed down our travels a bit, 2021 and 2022 are going to be big travel years for us. This spring our plans are taking us through Idaho, Wyoming and Montana. If the Canadian/US border opens, we plan to be in Alaska for 2 months and then on to the Beach House for 3 months. The fall will see the Road House rolling south and east with a 2 month stay in Texas on the inter-coastal water way, then on to Alabama and Louisiana. Most of the winter will be spent in Florida, then in the spring we hope to cruise to the Carolinas, Tennessee and Kentucky before heading back to Anacortes Washington for the summer. Fingers crossed!!