Forum Discussion

John_R_C1's avatar
John_R_C1
Explorer
Jan 20, 2020

Ford V10 vs Pending V8

I understand Ford has developed a 7.3 liter (IIRC) V8 as a replacement for the 6.8 Liter V10 that has been around for some time. I've also been told the 2021 model Motorhomes come out in March, 2021. DW wants a bigger Class C, currently a Forester 2401 MBS, so I'm looking in the 32' range on a Ford 450 chassis. I'm happy to wait for the V8 if it will be out the first half of 2021.

Does anyone have any insight as to the status of the new V8 in motorhomes?

Thanks,

John R C

28 Replies

  • As long as you have the $ to take the hit if it doesn't perform during it's first year out.
    I would want to wait to see how this new engine performs in the field. The price of a new MH is not exactly cheap, I would have to wait to establish some kind of track record.
    Didn't Ford have a bomb with one of their diesels, I think it was the 6.0 ?
  • I suspect you won't ever see a significant chassis front-end redesign on the E series platform. If Ford were to spend money to make large changes to the basic chassis, it would be far more sensible for them (from a corporate bean-counter point of view) to put the resources into an improvement or variant of the Transit chassis. The E series is rather a legacy product; it's still being built because a fair few people are buying them and the basic engineering has been long amoritized so it doesn't cost too much to keep making them. Updates are made to it mostly to get rid of things that are unique to it, hence changing the engine and transmission and dashboard to be more common with the F series.

    If the new engine is narrower than the V10, you might find a little more foot space in the cab. I don't know offhand if it's narrower or not.
  • The cab appears unchanged other than the instrument cluster and steering wheel, which will be common with the F-series. This allows for adaptive cruise, lane departure warning, auto emergency braking etc.

    The 6-speed transmission is being retained for the motorhome chassis (E-series and F53 stripped chassis). I suspect this is due to a combination of: 1) The tallest ratios of the 10 speed being unusable in a motorhome, and 2) the lowest ratios making too much torque for the existing drivetrain, which is unchanged. It will gain hill-start assist and "neutral idle" to reduce fuel consumption in town.

    It will have an optional dual alternator, with 397 amps available, so with modern lithium battery packages, you may be able to skip on a gen-set.

  • Do you have any information on the new E-series other than the engine? I'm passively interested in other changes such as chassis front-end design and cabin design.
  • John R C wrote:
    I'm happy to wait for the V8 if it will be out the first half of 2021.

    You would probably have to wait that long for Class C with the new engine and transmission.

    I know I WOULD WAIT FOR IT !
  • Thanks for the insights...still don't know what we'll do. Primary interest is the Entegra and Jayco (same basicallY) 29 V/MV rigs.
  • The 2021 E-series was scheduled to start shipping this week. I have no idea if that's full production volume, or if they'll do a slow ramp up (likely). So it'll probably a month or 2 before we start seeing finished units.

    Side note... The power gains are quite a bit more than the numbers alone suggest, because the V10 was rated under the old chassis certification, but now must be certified under the a dyno certification which produces lower numbers.
  • It appears that the 2021 E 450 will have the V8, but when each MH builder will start building on them, will depend on when they run out of the 2020 cab and chassis units they've bought.

    Each manufacturer starts their new year models whenever they feel like it and that's not necessarily in March.

    I bought my current 2014 model year MH in March of 2013. It was built in Jan 2013 on a chassis that was built in Dec 2012.