Looking for Majestic or Imperial Owner experiences

[Covfam]

Iss been a while since we have posted hre, mostly just lurked over the years, we previously has a 2001 built for two and we LOVED the build quality and the factory support and that almost 10 years later at an rv show Ed trill remembered us and our names and my wifes occupation. the only problem was as both of us being 6 feet tall we needed a queen bed unit and for the longest time there wasnt a consistant option for that, our camping days have changed some and need a unit that we can full time for 2 years for my wifes job and our choiced are an inferior built united from another company or a Majestic or Imperial, i dont see many posts on here about either mostly the smaller units. would anyone here that have one of either give us some of your experiences with it and the F550 chassis we really dont like the E450 thats predominant in the motorhome world)

Thank you for any assistance you may have.

[Roger H]

I don't know how many Imperials have been sold yet, not many I'd expect. I don't have one, nor can I give you any input on the F550 chassis as I don't have one of those either (although Ed took me in the back to see an Imperial on the F550 being built last June.) I've seen photos of the completed unit, and they're pretty impressive. I think that unit went to George Sutton, who has subsequently sold it, so there's at least one Imperial that has been released into the wild.

I DO, however have the 32RQ on the gas Kodiak chassis that I bought in June with 32,000 miles on the chassis. It is the direct ancestor of the Imperial having a rear queen setup and being built on the medium-duty Chevy Kodiak chassis that was discontinued by Chevrolet in '09. I've spent about five weeks in it so far this summer and put about 5,000 miles on it since I've had it. I have the couch/captain's chairs living room in mine. I hope that some of my experience with my 32RQ will extrapolate to the Imperial for you.

I can tell you that this is the best coach I've ever owned in terms of reliability, convenience, floorplan, liveability, and ease of operation. It combines the best qualities of my '01 Born Free 23RK and the '85 Airstream 325 motorhome I had some years ago. The fit and finish is amazing, and even after nine years the only repairs have been that the rear A/C unit is newer (replaced by a former owner,) my front A/C stopped working this week, so I need to have that looked at, and I replaced the original coach water system pump. I have an appointment for this coming Monday to have the roof thru-hulls and seam re-sealed as I've got a roof leak. That should have been done about three years ago as PM, but the previous owner(s) didn't do it and now it's leaking. I've tightend screws, and replaced the TVs (the original '06 units weren't digital.) I've done chassis maintenance, tires, and added aftermarket anti-sway bars. I had a solenoid replaced on one of my HWH jacks at the HWH factory. And that's it for maintenance in nine years. Not bad.

The medium-duty truck chassis really makes a big difference over the E450 chassis my '01 23RK had. The big V8 has plenty of power and is MUCH easier to service than a van chassis. The 19.5" tires roll and ride really nicely. It will tow literally any four-wheeled vehicle you want as a dingy. The medium duty truck chassis really makes it a solid RV; much more solid (IMHO) than the one-ton van chassis.

The rear queen is a wonderful and very livable floorplan, however is a little short on hanging clothes storage (not that I'd have any idea how to provide more.) The split-bath is much appreciated. The ceilings are a foot taller than on the E-450 coaches which give a really open and "large" feel to the coach. Being 6'5" tall, I didn't realize how much I'd appreciate that. My '06 32RQ has no slides, of course, and if I were to order a new one, I think I'd order the same floorplan I have now without slides. From the photos, I don't think that the slide arrangement is as practical as my floorplan without slides, and it's been my experience over the years that slides add weight and complexity, often without any significant gain in livability. In my case, I really like the long couch in my floorplan rather than the hideabed in the Imperial slide model, and the added living room floor space from the slide is really minimal over what my widebody offers anyway. I guess I'm neutral about the east-west bed orientation on a slide as opposed to my north-south orientation without a slide. I don't see much room-savings with the slide, I guess.

With the Imperial, they've updated the coach windows and coverings; the coach body is the new style, and generally the decor is more 2015-ish than 2006-ish, but having seen the one in the early stages of construction, the quality is still every bit what Born Free is known for. The one thing I really like about the F550 chassis is that it's much lower and easier to get in and out of than the Kodiak... not a big deal for me at all, but it is for my wife who has had a hip replacement and back surgeries.

In summary, I don't think you could do any better than an Imperial for your plans. Please keep us posted on what you decide!


Roger

[Covfam]

Thanks for your reply roger, my wife and i looked at upgrading to the kodiak chassis models but when we got around to doing it GM stoped it. and we really would prefer to have a Medium duty chassis, since we will be towing our Jeep Cherokee and we would prefer having Diesel, with toad we find that our current 31 foot class c on E450 is more subject to poor pump island placement and prefer the ease of pulling in and out of the diesel side of truck stops. not to mention we do alot of travel over the rockies and cascades and would prefer the Ehaust brake on the newer F550's, while we did fine with our e450 on coming down on some of the long declines, id rather have the Exhaust brakes to assist with the descent. and we really did enjoy the build quality of our '01 built for two the only problem we had was that its floorplan just wasnt too goot for 2 6 foot people to sleep in. but these majestics and imperials sure do look slick! a permanent bed for us is a must especially for full timing for 2 year in.

[Roger H]

You're entirely welcome. Obviously, since I bought my coach used, I didn't have a choice of engine but I think I'd order a gasser rather than a diesel, but for a host of reasons completely different from your "want" list.

Check with a diesel shop and ask about the performance of current diesels. I don' t know what Ford offers now or what the current buzz is about them, but I know that the two diesels they produced after the 7.3 had a raft of complaints and issues... and the Duramax has had its share of issues over the years as well, with blown head gaskets and other issues.

Perhaps the current offerings have those issues resolved. I sure hope so.

Roger

[montir]

We have a 2015 Triumph Royal RB on the F550 Diesel 4X4 chassis. I can't give you any feedback about the Majestic or Imperial models but the F550 diesel chassis is a tremendous improvement over the E450. We briefly thought about the gasoline version but quickly discarded that idea because it only comes with a 28 gallon fuel tank and with the V-10 engine on a much heavier chassis than the E450 would have a pretty poor power to weight ratio. The new Ford Power Stroke diesel gets excellent reviews on the Ford Diesel forum and other places I have checked. It is very quiet, has plenty of power for driving in the Rocky Mountains and we usually see 11 to 12 mpg when towing a Honda CR-V. When I drive it in the winter without towing to exercise it, it is not unusual to see 13 to 14 mpg (empty tanks, no food or clothing). (EDIT: the average mpg over 5,000 miles is 10.7 which includes some generator use) The diesel version has two fuel tanks totaling 68 gallons which gives really good range. I did not realize that an exhaust brake was available when I ordered it and would appreciate that feature if I had it. However, the tow-haul feature of the Transmission works very well for controlling speed on the mountain passes and in manual mode the transmission can be placed in any gear and held there. It tows the car so easily that we don't even feel it back there. Climbing hills is pretty much a matter of deciding how much fuel you want to use as it will pretty much go up them at any reasonable speed. There are limits but I haven't tried to find them. I tend to use the cruise control a lot to hold the speed down on flat and rolling terrain as the Honda is not supposed to be towed above 65 mph and the BF really likes to cruise at 75 mph.