92 Southwind S/P 35 Ford 460 w/ Oshkosh Gurus:

[Mrsmoos]

Well, we finally bought (in a hurry unfortunately) a 92 Southwind S/P 35. Long story--had "someone elses" current reg stickers on license plate even though its been non-op since 2010 (called the DMV and got that info)-we do have the pink slip though --but no smog cert like they said. This is what happens when you drive 2 hours to look at a motorhome and get 1 hour out of town and husband's phone starts ringing from work that everything is going wrong. Add to that my 5 month old grandaughter and needless to say, we did not pay attention to what we should have. It is going to cost us but hopefully we can get this coach running and looking good.
For those of you who may have experience with this model--any advice or things we should address that may not be too obvious otherwise? We need a mentor--had a fifth wheel before but first time motorhome owners.

[RLS7201]

MrWizard wrote:
i thought that would be on a P30/workhorse chassis with a 454 chevy engine

pace arrow / south wind

were very consistent for a long time, with that chassis engine combo

All three chassis (P32, F53, Oshkosh) were available in that era for all 4 Fleetwood gassers (Flair, Bounder, Southwind, Pace Arrow).
F53 came on line in 1988 and Oshkosh went off line in 1991.

Richard

[MrWizard]

i thought that would be on a P30/workhorse chassis with a 454 chevy engine

pace arrow / south wind

were very consistent for a long time, with that chassis engine combo

No experience with the Ford engine and Oshkosh chassis
but the chevy 454 is know to have the occasional "Hot Starter" problem

usually addressed by putting a heat shield blanket around the starter

and check the front by the radiator, should be NO gaps in the rubber "wind dam" that directs air into the radiator
the rubber sheets on each side of the radiator be tween rad and long nose, block the area so the air goes thru the rad, instead of slipping around it

the P30 chassis will have a coil spring front end with air lifts inside the coils, if they don't hold air replace them
i forget the pressure needed, but its not very much something between 10 to 40 pounds? what ever is needed to balance and level the front, i think 10# is the minimum
example 16# on one side and 20# on the other

[RLS7201]

If memory serves me correctly, Oshkosh made their last 460 based MH chassis in 1991. So you have a 92 coach on a 91 chassis. The engine should be fuel injected with a C6 transmission. Freightliner can help you with chassis issues, as they now own Oshkosh. Ford can help you with engine/transmission issues.

Richard

[Bruce_Brown]

The 460 runs good, the known issues are exhaust manifolds and fuel pumps.

When we had ours we added a Banks Power Pack system and carried an extra fuel pump. On ours there were (2) fuel pumps, on in the tank (didn't carry that one) and one on the frame rail that we did carry.

The Banks system dropped the exhaust manifold temps down to where they weren't glowing cherry red at every fuel stop. It was a nice improvement. The full Banks kit would have been better, our budget didn't allow it at the time.