Four Winds Mandalay reviews

the first thing is that this brand/unit had many more features of much more expensive Class A Diesel Motor coaches. The fit and finish was excellent, and the entire rig looked and felt like one of the high end coaches much more expensive in price. The ride was very smooth, comfortable, and the steering Show less

My experienced with this motor home has been a very positive one. It has so many exceptional qualities. It is roomy and has a homey feel to it and driving and maneuvering it is a breeze. I would not hesitate to purchase another motor home just like it. Show less

When I purchased my 40G Mandalay Brand New in December 2008, the first thing I noticed is that this brand/unit had many more features of much more expensive Class A Diesel Motor coaches. The fit and finish was excellent, and the entire rig looked and felt like one of the high end coaches much more expensive in price. The ride was very smoothe, comfortable, and the steering &* handling & brakes were incredibly responsive. This coach is truly "riding on air" during operation. We went through the usual 12 to 18 months of "Warranty Work" because we purchased this model brand new; instead of getting the same model from a dealer that was a "demo unit" which the dealer had taken through warranty repairs to bring it up to 110% functionality. Over the last 10 years, we have thoroughly enjoyed ownership of this unit, and have traveled ~33,000 miles so far. Along the way we decided to install a third 15000 btu HVAC Dometic Penguin II C/HEAT PUMP, LCD HD Televisions, top of the line Pioneer in-dash NAV/FM-AM-SIRIUS Radio system (as the original radio actually died in the first 6 months of this unit's life-it was a cheap Ford made radio system. We upgraded our KVH In-motion Satellite System to v5.0, which received HD signals, and it works incredibly well stationary or in motion; the picture on the TV's is incredible through use of Direct TV. We had a full size & feature propane oven installed when before it was delivered, and ensured there was a four burner propane range. Over the years I have changed and updated the interior lighting system to all LED High Output light bulb systems & replaced the ceiling fluorescent lights with Diamond Group LED#52643 Ceiling lights. I purchased through EBAY, the necessary LED replacement bulbs for the built in light fixtures, and what an improvement LED Lighting truly is in our coach. LED bulbs and fixtures really cuts down on the heat gain from the lights proper, as well as illuminating the entire coach as if there is daytime sunlight inside the coach. One of the slight downsides to this model is that it has need for more HP in the Cummins-Allison Setup. At 400HP, the ISL TURBO 400HP Cummins is a great engine on flat, level terrain, but in the inter-mountain Western USA with 6% & 7% very long grades, there are times that when towing a full size SUV, it will take quite along time to scale the uphill grades at 35-40 mph even in Gear#3. With experience and practice I have learned to better handle the Allison Transmission Gears so that the 400HP ISL TURBO seems to manage the hills better if one leaves the cruise control engaged & active before ascending these steep uphill grades. If anyone who has a 400HP ISL TURBO has any suggestions on better use of the Allison gears to maintain cruising speed uphill without sending the temperature of the engine over the safe range, please let me know your insights. One thing I truly enjoy about this coach above other more expensive coaches; which may cost 3 times the original MSRP of my Mandalay ($850,000 - $1M); is the enormous basement storage areas. Quite frankly, I have never found another coach with as much usuable and workable storage as this Mandalay 40G. Over the years I can say that as an RV'er, one can never have enough usable storage (inside and in the basement areas). One other downside to the 2007 Mandalay, is that the Onan 8000KW Genset is not powerful enough to run all three 15000btu Domentic AC HVAC's all at once despite the fact it is needed in the long Arizona and USA Southwestern Desert areas to adequately cool down the entire rig. So we have learned to close off the rear section of the Mandalay, and use the midcabin and aft Dometic AC's while traveling, plus a large high speed fan. That seems to beable to keep the mid and cabin portion of the coach cool enough to travel through upto 110'F heat (with the dash A/C running full blast and the coolant in the system fully recharged). I checked into upgrading to the Onan 10000Kw generator, but unfortunately the space for the genset in the Mandalay does not allow for the extra size of the larger, more powerful 10000Kw Onan Generator. If anyone has upgrade their Mandalay (2007 or 2008 model years) to a more powerful generator (10000Kw or 12500Kw) please let me know how you were able to modify the genset space to accomodate the larger Onan sized generator. All in all, I am very very happy to own this Mandalay 40G, and despite the fact it is a decade old now, it still looks and operates like a rather young, newer coach. Feel free to send me your experiences with your Mandalays (40G, 40F, 42A OR B) Show less

I am the seller of the 2008 Mandalay. I also had a 2004 Mandalay that we bought new and traveled 65,000 miles in 4 yrs. We loved the brand so much that we bought this "08 Mandalay new with a 425hp Cummins ISL pre DEF fluid requirement. The Mandalay's weren't a mass production motorhome and only 8 to 12 were produced each week. Because there were few options they were an expensive coach but when the economy went down in 2009 to 10. Thor stopped making them and instead brought out cheaper version called Tuscany. It severely lacked the horsepower and ride quality and there were many many options but the price and quality was less. To purchase a new coach of this quality TODAY you would need to spend $350 to 400K Show less