Motor home chassis pro's and con's

Chum lee wrote:
Check the GVWR on both the Ford and the Chevy. In older years the Ford was rated significantly higher than the Chevy. If you see older P30 chassis on the road, they usually look like a kneeling bus because the front springs sag over time due to being at, close to, or above GVWR most of the time. Ford F53 chassis typically have 19.5" rims, not so the Chevy.

Chum lee

I think you have wheel sizes backwards and unlike Ford, have never seen a Chevy with 16" wheels.
As for the front end, the weight is usually within specs, but since the OEM coils weren't sufficient and have air bags, then a replacement with Henderson super steer replacements, works wonders for restoring ride height.
With rating being higher on the Ford, it was with the GCWR mainly and all because of the tranny that might overheat on long steep grades when pulling heavy loads. Still not a problem in most cases, if you know what you're doing and the 4L80E was a very good transmission overall.
Having said all this, I think the OP would most likely be going with the WH W chassis and the Allison tranny, anyway, if not going with the Ford.

Check the GVWR on both the Ford and the Chevy. In older years the Ford was rated significantly higher than the Chevy. If you see older P30 chassis on the road, they usually look like a kneeling bus because the front springs sag over time due to being at, close to, or above GVWR most of the time. Ford F53 chassis typically have 19.5" rims, not so the Chevy.

Chum lee

To RVER above :

Some RV manufactories sound proof the doghouse area and some don't, as to the Bounder being noisy so was mine but zero sound proofing so I did it myself and now its very quiet to drive, also the 5 star program on the Ford 5 speed helps with the high RPM's.

Also my last motorhome was a Flair on the Workhorse and it was nosier than the Bounder.

Its not the chassis maker that makes it loud its the RV maker that lacks to sound proof the motor area.

I was looking at used units and found the FORDS much noisier in side the rig while driving, MUCH noisier!! I found one with WH and it is quiet and shifts smoothly which again I did not find the Fords did. The Fords I looked at were in Fleetwood Bounders, the one I bought is a Newmar Mountain AIre. The Fords were in coaches that were 2010 and newer. The Newmar is a 2003 but drives very nicely engine wise!

To answer your question the main discriminator for me would be the 6 speed Allison transmission that is in the WH chassis. Having said that I am also in the process of looking for a newer MH and storage, FW capacity, lay out and how well the MH was maintained is more important to me than chassis. Every thing is a trade off. I am quickly finding that you cant find every thing you want in one MH.

crawford wrote:
Lets see WH gone Ford is left no brainer.

Nothing wrong with a Ford, except I wouldn't go with the very first V10's and not an even older 460V8, either.
Given the two choices, I'd probably go with WH and especially the heavier W24 chassis. The GM 8.1 and 6 speed Allison tranny is a very good combination. Not much chance of running out of parts for it in the next 50yrs and any mechanic worth his salt should be able to work on it.
Those buying new, don't have a choice, but at least Ford now has a 6 speed tranny and these coaches do have one stop shopping in being all Ford and excluding the house of course.

crawford wrote:
Lets see WH gone Ford is left no brainer.

Maybe if your buying a brand new coach.

There are plenty of service centers that work on the WH chassis

Lets see WH gone Ford is left no brainer.

Thanks for all the info.

rgatijnet1 wrote:

timmac wrote:

LA-REDNECK wrote:
Thoughts on Ford vs Workhorse chassis.

Depends on what year of chassis, if 2006 and newer I would go with the Ford since they improved the HP/Torque and the new 5 speed transmission, older than 2006 than Workhorse might be a better deal.

At that same time, 2006, Workhorse had the SIX speed Allison transmission so the newer WH chassis still has it's advantages right up to 2012.

Yea except that they don't produce the WH anymore and Ford does, the V-10 2006 and newer has more HP/Torque than the GM 8.1 and Ford has no recalls..