Potential Seneca owner

[Johnny Lightning]

OK groovy gals and grubby guys I have a general question for all of you. My wife and I are going to move into a motorhome in the next few months. I'm looking real seriously at an older (2006 -2010) Seneca, they fit my power, size, price and towing profile nicely. From what I see all of them seem to be built on a Chevy 5500 chassis with the duramax diesel. Is that true? I am also interested in any known issues with the coach. I'm not looking for every little thing that has ever gone wrong with one (I realize that things go wrong with every RV) but recurring issue such as the cabinets fall apart, the refrigerator needs this particular upgrade etc. It probably won't keep me from buying one but it may affect the price I'm willing to pay. Thanks in advance for any help. I'm also interested in what type of brakes they have, air, hydraulic, air over hydraulic etc. Also any out of the ordinary maintenance that needs to be done. Since I'm going to be retired and get bored easily the normal routine maintenance shouldn't be an issue. I can't fish all day every day, or can I??

[WinnieView]

We just sold our '08 after three years (downsized) and really enjoyed it.

You might want to also include the Seneca first generation Social Group in your web travels;

https://www.jaycoowners.com/forums/g...on+owners.html

There were some earlier models that were not HD (Heavy Duty) and did not come equipped with the Duramax diesel.

The brakes are vacuum-assisted hydraulic.

Maintenance was fairly typical on ours and we did all our own.
The Duramax in the C5500 has a deeper oil pan which holds 3.5 gallons.

Happy fishing!

[Johnny Lightning]

on the non-HD models, I thought that was the case but all of them I saw for sale were the HD models so it looks like that was the popular one. I did join the first generation group and it looks like it's good information. I'll probably do all or at least the biggest part of the maintenance myself. Thanks again.

[Grumpy]

Originally Posted by Johnny Lightning

on the non-HD models, I thought that was the case but all of them I saw for sale were the HD models so it looks like that was the popular one. I did join the first generation group and it looks like it's good information. I'll probably do all or at least the biggest part of the maintenance myself. Thanks again.

They made an HG that was gas and even a few Greyhawks on a Kodiak chassis that was also gas. The ZX was the toy hauler. 05 was diesel, 06 had gas and diesel. Then gas was the phased out.

[crumgater]

Have you downloaded the annual brochures and/or owner's manuals from the Jayco website yet?

You can go back multiple years and get the specs on all the old models.

Here's a link to 2008, as an example: https://www.jayco.com/tools/archive/2008-seneca-hd-m/

We found a 2015 37TS, 2 yrs old at the time. I was looking at the 2008, but DH wanted newer tech gadgets, and we couldn't pass up the deal when the 2015 popped up on RV Trader.

[SloPoke]

One thing that we really like with the later Seneca's... the Refrigerator. We spent a full 6 months in our Seneca, and like the fact that we don't have to keep visiting the grocery store each week. We can fit a ton of food in it! (we did buy four additional door shelves that allow a lot more efficient storage in the doors of the fridge and freezer)