A Home Builder Tried To Solve The Problem Of Motorhomes Being Too Tall

If you’ve ever stepped into a modern Class A coach before you’ve probably realized that you have to climb a few steps to hop inside. Riding high is great for storage solutions, but perhaps not so much if you don’t have the greatest mobility. A builder of mobile and modular homes tried to fix that with the Champion Ultrastar, a luxury coach that rode low to the ground. One of them is for sale, and it features an incredible interior.

This week, a couple of readers sent in some awesome historic buses. I will write about them, but I am waiting on some additional research first. As I wait, I decided to see if I could find any of my own favorite buses for sale. I have an example of GM’s famous RTS, but another dream bus for me is the legendary GM New Look. Every once in a while I find one for sale, but I’ve been coming up dry save for a project bus down south. In my nationwide search for a New Look, I found this, a 1991 Champion Ultrastar.

Houses, Buses, And Campers

If the Champion name sounds familiar, it may be because you’ve seen or known about products that fall under the Champion brand. The company was founded as Champion Home Builders in 1953 and the company got its start by constructing mobile homes. Champion expanded into the RV space in the early 1970s, building travel trailers and motorhomes. The company further expanded its line of campers in the 1980s and they were joined by commercial buses. Champion Home Builders eventually splintered the commercial bus line and the RV line into Champion Motor Coach, which continued to build buses and campers until the mid-1990s. By that point, Champion stopped building RVs and in 1998, Thor Industries acquired the bus division. Thor renamed the bus division to Champion Bus, and today, Champion Bus is a part of Forest River. Though, it was reported that the Champion Bus plant shuttered in 2021.

While Champion no longer builds recreational vehicles and buses, the original company still builds mobile, manufactured, and modular homes. To give you a picture of what Champion builds today, here’s one of its homes:

One thing I’ve found that Champion touted in its brochures is a steel skeleton construction. The company said that with its steel framing, its RVs were sturdy and stable. Champion also says in a number of its brochures that its campers were filled with sprayed-in insulation foam to keep the cold, dirt, and grime outside and comfort inside.

Check out this cutaway illustration talking up the construction of a Champion Class A:

The Ultrastar

Seemingly less-known from Champion’s camper days is this Ultrastar. After some hours of digging I haven’t come up with a ton about this motorhome, but it seems to have been built to solve a problem. According to a single page archived from Motorhome Magazine‘s review of a 1988 Champion Ultrastar, Champion bucked the day’s trends. Motorhome producers were getting into building larger and taller coaches that featured “basement” storage compartments that hauled around your junk.

Since everyone else was going big with basement models, Champion saw a hole in the market that it could fill. From Motorhome Magazine:

Precisely because so many manufacturers are concentrating on basement models, we felt there was a significant segment of the market that was being overlooked,” says Clare Wentworth, vice president of Champion’s RV division, headquartered in Imlay City, Michigan. “A great many people who buy Class A motorhomes are 55 and older, and a lot of them don’t like the idea of climbing in and out of a basement model or driving a vehicle that has such a high profile. It was our perception that those people were looking for something decidedly different. Thus, the Ultrastar.”

In addition to catering to those who don’t want to climb up into their RV, the Ultrastar was meant to show that RVs didn’t have to drive like a brick trying to cut through the wind. Unfortunately, while Motorhome Magazine reviewed the coach and said that excellent road manners are a primary feature, whoever started the archiving process of the article never finished it.

That said, the Ultrastar sounds like a solid concept. When I talked to RV owners at the 2023 Florida RV SuperShow, a number of them noted that they didn’t like climbing up into massive rolling palaces and driving something that handled like a bus. That’s why the Wingamm Oasi 540.1 was so popular during the show. In theory, the Champion Ultrastar would have been great for these people as they didn’t have to climb a staircase and lengths got as short as about 28 feet.

Champion marketed the Ultrastar as having a “tri-level” concept that allowed the floor to ride low and for the coach to be more aerodynamic but still allowed for underfloor storage. The motorhome was also advertised as having unique styling, a plush luxury interior, and the same steel skeleton structure that I talked about before.

Draped on top of the steel skeleton is a fiberglass body with an aluminum roof. You can see the style on this 1991 Champion Ultrastar that I found for sale. While I could not find published numbers about its aero, it does look pretty low and sleek. The body of this example looks to be in good shape despite being almost 32 years of age.

Many of these were built on a Chevrolet chassis, but some of the later ones like this example have a chassis from Oshkosh Corporation and is powered by a 5.9-liter Cummins straight-six diesel backed by an Allison transmission. It measures in at 33-feet-long and the real treat is inside, where the interior was given a modern makeover.

It’s sort of mind-blowing how good this interior looks and if it weren’t for the dashboard and the exterior shots, this looks like something that could have rolled out of the factory not too long ago.

Whoever carried out the remodel didn’t just throw random household parts together like you’d see in some skoolie builds. The motorhome has a Norcold refrigerator that feeds from electricity or propane, the kitchen has an RV stove, oven, and microwave, and the kitchen itself looks ripped right out of a real motorhome.

The bathroom features a nice sink, an RV toilet, and a decent-sized shower with a waterfall head. I also dig what appears to be a skylight in the bathroom.

In the rear of the camper is the bedroom, which holds a queen bed. Additional goodies come in the form of hydraulic jacks, a Sonos sound system, an air-conditioner that runs on electricity or propane, and an Onan generator. The seller doesn’t mention anything about holding tank sizes, but at least to my eye, this is pretty close to the luxury RVs that I’ve seen for $300,000 or more, but for the low price of $18,500.

Of course, you aren’t getting any slides and the powertrain is definitely dated, but for the price, I’m not going to complain. The seller even notes a neat 360-degree searchlight, a backup camera, and LED fog lights for when you really need to see where you’re headed.

It’s unclear how many of these are out there, but I did find just two for sale right now. The seller of the other one took pictures of old pictures for the listing. Owners of these seem to think that they’re rare, but documentation on these things seems to be very light. Even so, this camper is utilizing a common engine and transmission, so getting those kinds of parts shouldn’t be too difficult. If you’re interested, you could find this rig for $18,500 in Las Vegas, Nevada.

It seems that there isn’t much about the Ultrastar out there. I couldn’t even find solid power figures or all that much about Champion’s RV years at all. If you have some information about Champion or the Ultrastar, drop me a line at mercedes@theautopian.com.

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