1998 Class A - Chevy chassis and 454 - yay or nay?

My 1999 Ford F53 chassis has an 18,000 lb. GVWR. The identical coach came with either a Ford or a Chevy chassis option from the factory. With the exact same length (30 foot) coach on a Chevy chassis, I believe the GVWR was listed in the spec sheet as +-15400 lbs. 2,600 pounds less due to the smaller wheels/tires on the Chevy. 19.5" vs. 16.5". My motor home is overweight on a Chevy chassis with NOTHING in it but fuel. How stupid is that? No thanks on the Chevy just because of that! That said, the Chevy has a bigger engine with more horsepower and will easily tow more than the Ford but that doesn't work for me.

Chum lee

I had a 92 P30 ,the 454 throttle body ran fine, it was gutless but it performed ok . MPG was 7 8 mpg. I believe the V10 has much more power should you have the choice. Mine had 75000 miles on it.

I have the 1995 TBI version and it has about 124k miles on it now. The P-30 front end caused me a lot of problems and cost me a small fortune to maintain , the auto park needed a lot of attention also but nearly as costly. The 454 engine itself was fine after adding headers which not only eliminated the exhaust manifold cracking but added about 80 or so more HP. Gas mileage was 8.7 mpg over 100 k miles of mixed travel. I drive it with one hand even when trucks pass and have not experienced bad handling as others have described. If you can afford and find a 2006 or newer chassis the front end and auto park problems will not be there.

I am a newb but made one 1800 mile trip in my 97' adventurer34 with the L29 454. It ran like a top and was relatively smooth for what it is.

I can say that I never expected a giant rolling box to handle that well so my expectations weren't high but only in 40-50 knot gusts one morning was I "white-knuckled"

They were ment to be potato chip delivery trucks not fifteen foot extensions welded on to make a rv. I did everything to mine over the years I had it... Henderson bell cranks,springs,tear trac bar,larger ipd front sway bar with poly bushings in front and rear,idler arm,relay rod,steering dampener,steer safe,inner and outer tie rods,Koni shocks all around,Goodyear tires then Hankook tires. It's been a few years and probably missed something but after all this it was still a POS.

I personally don't understand all the hatred against the P30/P32 chassis, I have one on my 28 ft 2002 Safari Trek, though mine has the wide track front end and the 8.1L Vortec engine, along with a number of suspension upgrades thanks mostly to the previous owner. Just to clarify the whole Workhorse/Chevy thing, Workhorse bought the Chevy P30/P32 production line in 1999, they continued production of the P series chassis until about 2005, and introduced their own W series chassis in about 2003.

Sure the P series chassis had some weakness, but many of those are fixable with a few aftermarket parts, like Super Steer Bell cranks, and front springs, along with a Track bar, and a few other things and you are mostly good to go, as long as it does not have too big of a house riding on it. The big issue with the P series was it was not heavy duty enough to handle larger gas coaches once slides started becoming popular.

As to parts there are a handful that can only be found in junk yards, but given the fact thousands upon thousands of these were made there should be an ample supply for many years, but the vast majority of parts are still available either as new, rebuilt, or improved aftermarket designs.

Nothing wrong with a 454, But the Chevy chassis is the worst RV chassis ever made. The front end is weak: control arm bushings, ball joints, bad coil springs bell cranks are all really weak. Needs lost of other anti sway and anti wonder mods. Can cost up to $4000. And then we have that amazing auto park brake. It can lock up at highway speeds and end up in over $2500 in damages.Parts for that system are hard to find and expensive . Work around upgrades are available but around $2000 installed . Parts are not available at GM dealers and Workhorse is out of business.

Moisheh

I agree that the GM 454 is far superior to the Ford v10, as for the chassis itself, I had a p30 chassis for ten years without any problems, other than right side manifiold cracking problem.... which is easily solved by installing a splash skirt so the water doesnt get splashed up on it by the tire and cause it to crack....

ford had an issue with their brakes also, I think more so than gm did... the symptoms were similar, but they were different problems.
ford had internal caliper problems and had to be replaced, where gm had a problem with the calipers not wanting to equalize on the spider. and a bit of tapping with a hammer and some wd 40 would free them up again... some units that spent a lot of time setting at the coast had the most issues, but those that were traveling most of the time had no issues...

the ford V10 is a dependable motor, but it doesnt seem to have the power of the 454, and 2-3 gallons less mileage.... a very inefficient engine. the ford 460 is good and fully stock it delivers a bit better performance than the 454, but the fuel economy still is less than the 454...

dont expect many miles per gallon from a 454, but it is a good engine and it offers the best economy for normal diving conditions.

1998 is a Chevy P32 chassis, NOT a Workhorse chassis. Good engine and transmission. 290 HP, port injected. Good low end torque. Good brakes. The independent front suspension is problematic. Air bags in front coil springs, leave room for improvement. Bell Crank on steering was sloppy when new. Robert Henderson at Henderson Line Up has all the right stuff to correct the front end failures.

Richard

my opinion

the 454 is over square, bore bigger than stroke
its high reving , hard on starters and hard on the trans that is usually installed from the factory

ive had (2) Rvs with the 454 on a p30 chassis, on both i to replace starters, and rebuild trannys,
but i will admit, my dp cost me more in repairs than the chevys ever did combined

i recently bought a 97 Bounder on Ford chassis with the 460
and will be selling the DP