Motor Home Shopping Tips

Harvey51 wrote:
Do the MH makers upgrade the brakes on an E350 or 450 to handle the overload?

The brakes and all the rest, Ford "supposedly" engineered under NTSB approval with consideration to the chassis max load limit. But some motor home owners like myself question the approval process.

I have no complaints about the 4-wheel-disk brakes on our 2007 E350 cut-away chassis. People unhappy with braking performance seem to be owners with an older chassis having rear drum brakes. There is no official report out on the matter, but it seems the rear brake shoes do not self adjust effectively which causes them to become less effective as they get used. For those people, I recommend they adjust their brakes manually. How to do it is another subject.

Before 2008, there were other significant deficiencies with 4 different suspension components, front and rear stabilizer bars, shock absorbers, and the steering damper. The 2008 through to a current-day 2016 are improved but still could have been much better.

Our rig is built on a 2007 E350 chassis. We bought the motor home brand new in June 2007. The chassis was built a few months prior. The front stabilizer bar and shock absorbers on the 2007 E350 & E450 cut-away motor home chassis direct from Ford were the same ones installed on a 2007 E250 cargo van. Our 2007 motor home handled like a drunken sailor until I replaced the 4 aforementioned components with aftermarket heavy duty versions along with adding a rear trac bar. Before 2008, Ford did not install a rear stabilizer bar of any kind on the E350 cut-away. The E450 did get one but it was weak and less effective than an aftermarket heavy duty version.

Ford missed the mark badly over that decision. I consider those deficiencies a "Ford" matter, not a motor home manufacture deficiency. Ford should be installing such heavy duty components on their "motor home application" chassis to begin with. The NTSB has always closed their eyes over this. Given the situation, it would be nice if motor home manufactures addressed the situation, but most consumers don't understand this stuff and therefore don't want to spend an extra $4000 to get the 4 systems upgraded. The real shame here is that if Ford installed them to begin with, the cost would be 10% of that or $400, maybe even less.

If you own a motor home, every brand of chassis can benefit the same, not just the Ford E-Series. We talk "Ford" because of it's popularity, but the deficiency exists to one degree or another across the board of all brands.

To those of you who own a 2007 or older Ford E350, look underneath by the rear axle and see if you have a rear stabilizer bar. If you bought the rig used, maybe a previous owner or RV dealership installed a rear stabilizer bar. But if not, you will surely benefit much from adding a heavy duty one.

Right behind that, for all pre-2008 E350/E450 would be replacing the front stabilizer bar with a heavy duty version. The stock front stabilizer bar is not only weak, but it's design is flawed. The end links use simple round rubber grommets that quickly wear "oval" which render the bar ineffective until the rig is already in a significant lean. A heavy duty front stabilizer bar has a different design to eliminate that condition.

Heavy duty front & rear stabilizer bars compliment each other. Driving down mountains and canyons will keep the rig firmly planted in the curves so your braking is much more effective and your steering more responsive, improving control for safety and comfort. Wherever you are driving, driver fatigue is much less and passenger comfort is greatly improved. Even while parked, the rig is much more stable, often eliminating the need for stabilizer jacks at the camp site. There is much to gain in many different ways having heavy duty front and rear stabilizer bars.

If you are a do-it-yourself person, you can purchase and install heavy duty front and rear stabilizer bars yourself, made by Helwig at a cost of around $600 for the pair. No special tools required. It helps to have a second person to hold the bar up while you assemble. I know because I installed a rear Helwig H.D. stabilizer bar on my brother's 1998 E350 based motor home, done on my driveway. I could not convince him to buy a front bar to replace his weak & worn-grommet one.

Replacing your shocks and steering damper with heavy duty versions, further improves the handling. Doing everything mentioned makes driving a real joy instead of a dread.