Newbie Question

I have long 29' class c on an E350 chassis. It's 460 delivers plenty of power but at 70mph, I sometimes feel like it wants to fly with its lighter and narrower chassis than a E450. Gas is great though for an RV at 9mpg at 60mph.

Hi Mike,
We have a 21 foot Cobra "Chev" 350 motorhome. It is super awsome for weekends
and up to 2 weeks for 2 people. No need for a towable, and small enough to back
boats up at the lake. We can park it any where, and no problem if you happen
down a dead end road. We have been down many roads where a 30 footer would
have been a real pain. I like to go where I want without wondering if there
is an out for the vehicle. That said, the gas mileage is 10.5 a gallon, so
you won't save a whole lot with a shorter rig.

Enjoy what ever you get, Brian

I did not really phrase it properly. I am looking at a 24 ft Chevy 350 eengine class c vs 27 ft Ford 460 engine rv. I felt as if the smaller unit could navigate around town and use larger parking lots while I almost feel the 27 would always been a tow vehicle. Tell me your thoughts please.

Mike
.

Ol' yeller summed it up well.

We have a 23 ft that is a 2000 on an E450 chassis.
It fits us perfect.

We just spent 3 weeks in it in May in Louisiana.
Due to heat and humidity aggravating health issues we did spend
a lot of time in it.
We had NO problem.
As they say your millage will very.

Realistically look at why you are buying it.
If you are not planing to use it full time there are a lot of
advantages to the shorter units. We do not want a longer one.

Ours pulls the Honda CRV on an Acme Dolley like it is not there
with the V10 in an E450.

Also when you look at units the E350 series are narrower than the E450
series. To us this was more of a difference than the length.
We did change the dining booth to a table and 2 computer chairs.
Why?
It fit what we wanted to do better and gave more floor area to move about.
We would have done that regardless of length.

If you can, I would suggest renting a unit or two before deciding.
See how floor plans work for you and how each handles.

Hope you find the one that works for you.

If you get stuck in bad weather and have to spend several days inside, the extra 3 feet will make the RV feel like a mansion.

We went from a 23 ft to a 38 ft and will never go back to a smaller RV. In fact our next will be at least a 40 ft.

We rarely venture more than 300 miles from home.

Welcome Mike! You are mixing up a couple things here. There are generally 2 Ford chassis upon which Class C's sit, the E350, and the E450. Also generally in the E350 chassis there was the 460CI V8 until 1998ish when the 6.8L V10 became available. The 460 V8 was replaced with the smaller displacement 5.4L which is available in the E350 chassis around that time frame. So what you were mixing up was engine size vs chassis. The E350 is generally used on the shorter length Class C and the longer Class C's were built upon the heavier duty E450 chassis. I say generally because I have seen some smaller Class C's that are built upon the E450 chassis. Prior to '97-98 I'll defer to someone who knows more about those years.

To add to the confusion, the chassis could be a year or more older than the house part of your Class C. A 2000 Class C could have a 1999 chassis.

I am completely ignoring the GM chassis or Dodge options as I know little to nothing about either of them.