V 10 mpg

jjrbus wrote:
Been thinking about getting a newer class C for some time, seems the most common 24 foot or under on the used market is the V10. After following this thread and reading about repair costs on the V10, The community has convinced me to keep my Toyota V6 until it falls apart like some Keystone Cops movie.

I would like to have more power so will be watching for a Toyota 3.4 donor vehicle.

Repair costs?

The Ford van chassis are not particularly trouble-prone nor expensive to repair. I mean, it's not like vehicles in general are cheap to repair, but on the scale of things, the E series is pretty simple to work on overall and doesn't have parts made out of depleted unobtanium. The V10 engine and the Ford transmissions are generally quite reliable when given basic care and feeding.

With a now over 20 year old class C, that I've owned for about five years and have driven from Vermont to Alaska and back, among other trips, the chassis related repairs that I've had to make have consisted of brakes (old calipers get sticky), ball joints (permanent lubrication is less permanent when the rubber booties give out), shocks, and a steering tie rod that had worn ends--all the standard sorts of things that one might expect from a used vehicle, and none extraordinarily expensive to get repaired. The engine itself runs beautifully.

I certainly can appreciate the appeal of the old Toyota class C's; they have a definite charm, despite (or perhaps partly because of) some significant limitations. I'm certainly not one to suggest upgrading without reason, nor to recommend against keeping what one has and is satisfied with. I just think it's mistaken to write off the Ford chassis for some impression of unreliability and expensive repairs when that's not well grounded in reality.