bmwdriver2019
usa
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well thank you for your reply BUT i would and will honestly say, its not the driver , before the addition of a rear track bar and front steering dampener, the drive was a white knuckler to say the least , couldnt drive it faster than 50 mph , it was like driving in a wind tunnnel , after the additions of stated parts , on the same highway , same type of day , no crosswinds, we were able to bring it up to 70 mph, and the windtunnel affect was gone and so was the white knuckles , im not a kid , nor is my fiancée , im used to driving high peformance bmws for which i worked at a bmw dealership for 20 years ,
from me speaking to many of the people whom i know, this is pretty much a common issue with the f53 chassis , some of stated here that Winnebago , the builder of our coach should have added the rear track bar , many say heck no, its a common issue on MANY CLASS A MOTORHOMES with the f53 chassis , no matter who made it , i have pointed this out seeking what can be done , not to point fingers, but how some blame winnebago when it affects many class A coaches , nit just winnebgao , to me its a ford issue, doing what they do best, put as little as they can in and let it fly
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Rick Jay
Greater Springfield area, MA
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bmwdriver2019,
With all due respect, while you say there are many who think the way that you do that this is a Ford issue, there are are apparently many who do not share those same thoughts. I'm still in the camp that says if the chassis is properly aligned, proper air pressure in the tires and it IS NOT overloaded, it's going to perform like a big ol' heavy vehicle! LOL That's what it is. Apparently people are having mixed results with their own respective rigs. But how many of them have actually weighed their rigs, adjusted the tire air pressure accordingly, and actually have had it to an alignment shop to have it aligned fully loaded and ready to travel? Not many, I can tell you. The vast majority of RV'ers have never even weighed their rigs and have no idea if they are overloaded or not. The assumption is that if there's storage space, they can fill it and carry it! True on some rigs, not on others. Only weighing the rig will reveal how close the chassis is to its weight limits. But I digress...
That said, if you really feel adamant about blaming Ford, then you should direct your energy toward NHTSA. THEY are the ones that IF there really is a problem, could do something about it. There's a "Report a Safety Problem" link right on their home page. At least contact them and report the problem and see what their response is?
I'd be interested in hearing their response.
Good Luck,
~Rick
* This post was
edited 03/02/23 12:15pm by Rick Jay *
2005 Georgie Boy Cruise Master 3625 DS on a Workhorse W-22
Rick, Gail, 1 girl (27-Angel since 2008), 1 girl (22), 2 boys (23 & 20).
2001 Honda Odyssey, Demco Aluminator tow bar & tow plate, SMI Silent Partner brake controller.
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Sandia Man
Rio Rancho, NM
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Well, I can see your beef with your class A rig if driving above 50 mph causes the dreaded white knuckle effect. When shopping for our current class A we viewed/drove 2 dozen units across 4 states over 2 years, whether diesel or gasser, they all did relatively fine at 50-65mph, no white knuckle events, of course this is in fair weather conditions.
When we picked up our Monaco gasser first summer of pandemic a few years ago, we had to drive through record breaking Texas heat back home to NM. We drove the entire way at 65-80mph. Before this purchase I had never drove a 40' long, 13' high, 9'wide, square block down the road (towing 5K# GMC toad) at highways speeds, all things considered it was a pretty smooth and uneventful ride home.
Only issue which significantly affects our ride quality is high winds, rain is no issue, but we experience crazy wind during our Springs here in NM. After hearing your improved ride quality results with installed rear trac bar, it definitely has me thinking of adding one as Springtime is nearly upon us. We still have factory Bilsteins and bump stops, probably get around to changing them out this year too.
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bmwdriver2019
usa
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well thank you sandia man , im being very open minded here, i have spoken to many people whom are friends and on facebook , they all pretty much experinced the same issue as i , they made the addition of a rear track bar , and it was another vehicle and having alot less stress,it was like driving in a tornado before the rear track bar installation afterwards, smooth as silk , i have heard this from many rv owners , not just on winnebagos , due to ford makes a cookie cutter chassis , one size fits all , they build them as cheaply as possible , and the motorhome coach builder wont add it on since they are NOT building the chassis, just the motorhome , to me its a safety issue , no less , and im headstrong about this , funny how sao many people have experienced the same issue, and some have not ,
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opnspaces
San Diego Ca
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bmwdriver2019 wrote: funny how sao many people have experienced the same issue, and some have not ,
Based on all your posts it's pretty obvious that you believe Ford is at fault and should be responsible to change a proven design. Your statement above is even further proof that you are convinced and nothing is going to change your mind.
How can you say "so many" people have experienced it and "some" have not? Where is your data aside from a facebook group and some people you know.
I'll bet Ford has built at least 100,000 units that were turned into an RV. So to use your type of reasoning to reinforce your point.
It's a well known fact that people that are happy with their purchase may never say a word or possibly tell a friend. But a person who is unhappy will tell 10. Now let's assume that you have actually heard from 100 people that they were unhappy and a rear track bar fixed the issue.
This leaves 99,900 people who are happy with their well behaved rig without the added rear track bar. Meaning in actuality "so many" people are happy and "some" are not.
2001 Suburban 4x4. 6.0L, 4.10 3/4 ton
2005 Jayco Jay Flight 27BH
1986 Coleman Columbia Popup.
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JaxDad
Greater Toronto Area
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bmwdriver2019 wrote:… to me its a safety issue , no less , and im headstrong about this , funny how sao many people have experienced the same issue, and some have not ….
As Abraham Lincoln once said “You can’t believe everything you read on the internet.”
If you read the vast majority of stuff out there on the interwebs you’d come to conclusion the Ford Pinto was a death trap too.
If you read the FACTS however, you’d see the Chevy Vega had a worse safety record.
My Class A (Itasca 34’ Sunrise) is bone stock, it goes down the road amazingly well considering the size, shape and weight of it.
Of course cross-winds will affect something with more than 400 square feet of sail area, but what else would a sane person expect?
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Dutch_12078
Winters south, summers north
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bmwdriver2019 wrote:well thank you sandia man , im being very open minded here, i have spoken to many people whom are friends and on facebook , they all pretty much experinced the same issue as i , they made the addition of a rear track bar , and it was another vehicle and having alot less stress,it was like driving in a tornado before the rear track bar installation afterwards, smooth as silk , i have heard this from many rv owners , not just on winnebagos , due to ford makes a cookie cutter chassis , one size fits all , they build them as cheaply as possible , and the motorhome coach builder wont add it on since they are NOT building the chassis, just the motorhome , to me its a safety issue , no less , and im headstrong about this , funny how sao many people have experienced the same issue, and some have not ,
I'm certainly in the camp that has not experienced your issues. I've owned two F53 based motorhomes, and driven many more that were in our shop for service. Both of my own handled and still handle comfortably at 65-75 MPH speeds and I only rarely ran into a customer's F53 based coach that handled badly. Typically as said, those were corrected with a proper alignment and proper tire inflation. My current motorhome did have what we call the "Cheap Handling Fix" done by a previous owner, but all that amounts to is moving the sway bar links to a different set of holes as provided by Ford. The coach manufacturer could have made the same simple mod, but then they couldn't even be bothered with moving the OBD2 plug to a more accessible location as recommended by Ford in the body builders manual that covers the stripped chassis. Is that Ford's fault too?
Dutch
2001 GBM Landau 34' Class A
F53 chassis, Triton V10, TST TPMS
Bigfoot Automatic Leveling System
2011 Toyota RAV4 4WD/Remco pump
ReadyBrute Elite tow bar/Blue Ox baseplate
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bmwdriver2019
usa
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good morning all
i sincerely do appreciate all the comments, what i dont understand is the following and im being totally open minded about it in reference to the ford f53 chassis handling issues some have experienced
1 - why does it happen on many class a motorhomes and not on others
2- why is when just the ADDITION of a rear track bar end all handling issues that were once there as i have experienced and countless others?and with no other change being made what so ever , and driving at the same speed , and higher and on the same exact roadways and in the same type of weather conditions and with no change to tire pressure and or alignment ??
this is my question , some have stated that its the fault of winnebago , how , they made the coach , not the chassis , the added rear track bar is added to the chassis , at least as of this week it is , somebody had stated that why didnt Winnebago moved the obd 2 connection port as recommended by ford , well to be honest , its not a big deal to me, and its surely not a safety issue , more of a convivence issue , as a bmw tech , i have done more in my day than most, replacing complete body harneses in a 7 series , rebuilding and setting up suspensions after a crash , and never had an issue, my problem is i do think out of the box, and at times , things must be questioned, at least when it comes to safety, yours and mine
thank you again
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way2roll
Wilmington NC
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bmwdriver2019 wrote:good morning all
i sincerely do appreciate all the comments, what i dont understand is the following and im being totally open minded about it in reference to the ford f53 chassis handling issues some have experienced
1 - why does it happen on many class a motorhomes and not on others
2- why is when just the ADDITION of a rear track bar end all handling issues that were once there as i have experienced and countless others?and with no other change being made what so ever , and driving at the same speed , and higher and on the same exact roadways and in the same type of weather conditions and with no change to tire pressure and or alignment ??
this is my question , some have stated that its the fault of winnebago , how , they made the coach , not the chassis , the added rear track bar is added to the chassis , at least as of this week it is , somebody had stated that why didnt Winnebago moved the obd 2 connection port as recommended by ford , well to be honest , its not a big deal to me, and its surely not a safety issue , more of a convivence issue , as a bmw tech , i have done more in my day than most, replacing complete body harneses in a 7 series , rebuilding and setting up suspensions after a crash , and never had an issue, my problem is i do think out of the box, and at times , things must be questioned, at least when it comes to safety, yours and mine
thank you again
Per #1 - It happens on some and not others because Ford builds the chassis for many uses. (we've all said this over and over) Every motorhome manufacturer buys them and builds dozens of different floorplans and configurations. Some have full wall slides, some have multiple slides, some are 27 feet some are 37 feet, etc etc. So, all the houses on those chassis are different, loaded different and built different. What happens when you take one chassis and build a bunch of different houses on them? None of them will handle the same. Is this Ford's fault? No. How in the world can they be responsible for the hundreds of configurations that dozens of different manufactures build on them? Would you put the onus on a stud manufacturer because builders put them in sideways and a wall won't stand up?
#2, trac bars won't solve all handling issues so this is not a one size fits all. Just so happened it addressed your issue. Most have success with proper alignment and psi adjustments. The F53 doesn't need trac bars in a lot of cases. My 2 previous gas MH's never had them.
This will be my last post on this. Seems you are willing to die on this hill despite every post trying desperately to educate you on this subject. You aren't looking at it open mindedly. If you were you'd have gotten it by now. If you don't get, you don't get it. And you keep reminding us of all your accomplishments at BMW. We are talking about Ford chassis MH's - so you might as well compare oranges to basketballs.
2023 FR Sunseeker 2400B MBS
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bmwdriver2019
usa
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thank you again,
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