Commercial chassis or not...?

I get the majority of my parts from O'Reilly's.
Look on line for your parts and availability. Most come to Moses Lake overnight to store.

I found the Ford service manual (3 volume set) for my 2007 on Ebay very cheap. Someone is always selling those things.

On other vehicles owned, I have compared Chiltons and Haynes to the chassis manufacture service manual. They are much more friendly to read, but they often differ from the service manual. Some sections are generic, Chiltons often copies them from other common platform vehicles, but in reality don't match up.

I love having all 3, Haynes for step-by-step pictures, Chiltons for understandable instruction, and the service manual to get it right. When there is conflict, the service manual rules.

You will be able to gleam most of the info you'll need for repair and maintenance from the 350 repair books. as mentioned above having the GVWR or the vin will be critical in getting the correct part

path1 wrote:
My limited experience is sometimes gvwr makes a difference. Not often but twice I got the wrong part because of GVWR.

When I replaced my brakes the new front brake lines wouldn't fit. Took it back and the ones they gave me had a little different fitting at top. Barley noticeable difference but a little metal tang at the top. Second trip to part store, I brought old line with me to show them the difference. Part guy look up info again and then asked me what the gvwr was (first guy did not ask for gvwr). I didn't remember what gvwr was. Stopped by Ford being it was on the way home. They did ask for gvwr or last 6 of vin. Turned out there was difference of brake lines for gvwr ratings. The one I needed (heavy duty) was out of stock and took 3 days to get in. And another time I was given the wrong size bushing for the sway bar.

Now when I go after a part, after the part guy asks for year, engine size etc I ask if he could look closely to see if there is any difference between gvwr ratings or what some part places call "heavy duty". Only has happened twice.

When I was looking at the Haynes manual at our local automotive store it said "not for commercial chassis vehicles." I am assuming that the RV is considered a commercial chassis vehicle, can anyone confirm this?


I've never seen a sticker that say commercial or not commercial on mine. Probably was at one time and now long gone. But I do have a sticker that says "not ambulance ready" or words to that effect. I asked ford part guy to explain the difference. Turns out ambulance has some different wiring and few other things, like bigger alternator and "heavy duty" blinker flasher.

If torque values are not listed in the section you are looking at, my Haynes has a page in back that gives common torque values for sizes of nuts and bolts.

If I ever do my brakes again...to include changing calipers I would spray the caliper mounting bolts with PB Blaster 3 or 4 days before and let it soak in. Mine were pretty hard to get off and required lots of force to break them lose.

Hope this helps

Thanks for the info.. The rotors I ordered online needed to know if it was single or dual rear wheel. I specified dual rear wheel and this must be similar to the GVWR you are talking to, since I am assuming that a higher GVWR would be on the dual rear wheel model.

At least I hope so..

My limited experience is sometimes gvwr makes a difference. Not often but twice I got the wrong part because of GVWR.

When I replaced my brakes the new front brake lines wouldn't fit. Took it back and the ones they gave me had a little different fitting at top. Barley noticeable difference but a little metal tang at the top. Second trip to part store, I brought old line with me to show them the difference. Part guy look up info again and then asked me what the gvwr was (first guy did not ask for gvwr). I didn't remember what gvwr was. Stopped by Ford being it was on the way home. They did ask for gvwr or last 6 of vin. Turned out there was difference of brake lines for gvwr ratings. The one I needed (heavy duty) was out of stock and took 3 days to get in. And another time I was given the wrong size bushing for the sway bar.

Now when I go after a part, after the part guy asks for year, engine size etc I ask if he could look closely to see if there is any difference between gvwr ratings or what some part places call "heavy duty". Only has happened twice.

When I was looking at the Haynes manual at our local automotive store it said "not for commercial chassis vehicles." I am assuming that the RV is considered a commercial chassis vehicle, can anyone confirm this?


I've never seen a sticker that say commercial or not commercial on mine. Probably was at one time and now long gone. But I do have a sticker that says "not ambulance ready" or words to that effect. I asked ford part guy to explain the difference. Turns out ambulance has some different wiring and few other things, like bigger alternator and "heavy duty" blinker flasher.

If torque values are not listed in the section you are looking at, my Haynes has a page in back that gives common torque values for sizes of nuts and bolts.

If I ever do my brakes again...to include changing calipers I would spray the caliper mounting bolts with PB Blaster 3 or 4 days before and let it soak in. Mine were pretty hard to get off and required lots of force to break them lose.

Hope this helps

enblethen wrote:
This should cover most of what you need.
Chilton's manual for MH

Hey thanks!!! When I head up to Soap Lakes I'll drop you some beer somewhere ;)

This should cover most of what you need.
Chilton's manual for MH

pconroy328 wrote:
torque values for what? I've browsed the Haynes manual for my Chevy platform and found it useful.

Well just whatever... I do most all of the maintenance myself. It would be nice to have them for like the driveline, etc...

I will be doing the front rotors, pads and bearings in the next couple weeks and it would be nice to just run through the procedure and see if anything differs, from the 'standard' brake jobs I am used to...

torque values for what? I've browsed the Haynes manual for my Chevy platform and found it useful.

Explorer1016 wrote:
Your E350 started life as a Cab and Chassis vehicle and those are typically considered commercial chassis

I suspected as much... I wonder if the torque values and other things in the Haynes manual would be the same...

Well the search continues for a service manual...