Deciding to purchase a Class ‘B’ was hard. But surprisingly, picking the make and model really wasn’t.
The Chassis. All class B’s are built on one of three chassis: Mercedes Sprinter, Ram Promaster and Ford Transit. Sprinter and Promaster are by far the most popular, but I really wasn’t enthused about either. Sprinters are the most feature-rich, most luxurious, get better mileage, and cost more, but unfortunately have a reputation for needing major service and Mercedes dealers are few and far between. Promasters are acceptable to me, even with somewhat of a negative quality reputation. But the front-wheel drive, square profile and low floor are real advantages.
For those reasons, and for having a slight preference for Ford over the other brands, I decided to look first at Transit based class B’s. It wasn’t a long search. The Crossfit was the only one available.
The 2019 model that I ended up with has the long, tall dual-wheel chassis (good), the 3.7L V6 (meh…) and a fairly stripped set of features – no Sync, no radio controls on the steering wheel, manual seats, second-rate aftermarket radio, etc.
It’s serviceable though – even if primitive by modern pickup truck standards.
The Coach. The Crossfit coach seems to be a pretty decent coach. It probably has better than average build quality and a usable layout. The only major issue has been a poorly vented compressor refrigerator, which the dealer attempted to mitigate, and which I re-implemented.
Tank capacity is adequate for short stays. Battery capacity is poor – barely able to keep the refrigerator running for a day. Solar is typical for a class B – 200 watts. The fresh water tank is internal, but because insulation is pretty haphazardly applied it’s not really set up for winter camping unless it’s winterized.
It’s a dark color – something that will be a pain in hot weather. Our plan though, is to surf the 70 degree wave and stay out of the heat. But it’s fitted with the factory Ford passenger van windows so it’s really bright and open inside.
Cost: The Crossfit is positioned competitively – coming in roughly where the low end Winnebago’s are priced. We paid $80k + Tax for a 2019 model built on a 2017 Transit chassis, without EcoBoost or Lithium, and took delivery a week later.
Michael Janke 