MH test drives

[Gjac]

Last week I test drove a 2009 National MH and a 2013 Tiffen MH both on the Ford chassis and 32 ft long. Both had plenty of power (13 sec from 40-60 mph). I am in Fla so I could not test them on any hills or rough roads but the ride seemed smooth and the handling seemed ok. The only issue that I had was the eng noise when accelerating. The salesman said it is only noisy for a short time but having driven an old 454 where the max torque is 1800 rpm's this was hard for me to get used to. On my current MH I added another layer of insulation and hear very little eng noise, I hear more exhaust noise due to the headers when accelerating. My question is for those that have the Ford Chassis does adding another layer of insulation under the dog house reduce the eng noise much? Most of this noise seemed to come from the dash area up front and not from the dog house.

[Gjac]

Thanks Ron for your informative post. There are not a lot of options if you want a shorter gas MH. I have not seen any Workhorse chassis to test drive, not sure what year they stopped making them. I have the salesman at La Mesa checking his other stores for one but my suspicion is there are a lot fewer of them compared to the Ford.

[rgatijnet1]

There are several places(JEGS, JC Whitney, etc) that sell different types of sound deadening. material. I used the aluminum shielded fiberglass type under the dog house and the aluminum shielded foam type on the firewall and under the front carpeting. I also used the foam in a can to seal up any air leaks in the firewall which also allowed noise to come in.
Once done, I can hear my wife at all times when we are driving, even if we are in a steep climb. I'm thinking of taking some of the insulation out. :B
Seriously, once everything was sealed, the front end is quiet enough for normal conversation about how much money we are saving with our gasser, compared to the various DP's we used to have.
We do travel out West and get in to the mountains on a regular basis. The amount of time that the engine is noisy is actually very very seldom. Normal driving, like at cruising speed on the interstate, or around town, is not noisy at all. I'm guessing that we eliminated 75% of the noise. I also made sure that I was not getting any wind noise around the window vents, etc.

[Gjac]

rgatijnet1 wrote:
To answer your question...YES, adding sound deadening, and sealing all of the holes on the firewall, will greatly reduce any noise from the engine.

What have you added to yours? and how much of a noise reduction did you get in gross terms from 1-10?

[mike_brez]

I liked these little Allegro Red DP. Even come with a 350 cummins.
Red in Titusville

[rgatijnet1]

To answer your question...YES, adding sound deadening, and sealing all of the holes on the firewall, will greatly reduce any noise from the engine.

[Gjac]

mike brez wrote:
Hey Gary we look out a 2013 Bounder 35 from LaMesa and I thought that engine was screaming. Very noisy while getting up to speed compared to my old 454.

Yeah that is where I did the test drives. The 2013 Tiffin stayed in second gear a lot longer than the 2008 and was very loud for a lot longer. Some on here say that Ford made some sound deadening improvements in the newer models but the 2013 seemed just as loud as the 2008.

[Gjac]

I want to stay between 30-34 ft based on the type of camping and use of the MH. The short DP's I tested were way under powered.

[mike_brez]

Hey Gary we look out a 2013 Bounder 35 from LaMesa and I thought that engine was screaming. Very noisy while getting up to speed compared to my old 454.

[Tom_Barb]

Test drive a rear engine coach, see the big difference.