Ford V10 vs Pending V8

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.

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.

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.

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 !

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.

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.

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.

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 ?

DrewE wrote:
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.

I do believe the engine is more narrow. No overhead cams, so perhaps more foot room. Certainly cheaper to produce. Myself, I'm going to employ "watchful waiting" (a medical term I'm applying to new engines) to see what weak points show up before I lay down good money. Let other people be the test mules.

I’ve been watching this as well, it is tempting to wait. Even in the explorer and ranger, the OHV engines performanced so much better IMO than the high revving SOHC engines that’s followed. I had an e350 v10 with 5 speed torque shift and it got the job done, but you get tired of the engine screaming all the time. The idea of a monster v8 and six speed is certainly appealing. Big second alternator, lots of solar and lithium batteries. Low end torque for days. You guys go ahead and buy the remaining V10s mkay?