NeXus RV driving impressions

[Vacay_Wheels]

Coming live from Elkhart, Indiana... Drove some NeXus units today, and thought I'd share my impressions. First I'll say I love the low-pressure sales environment. They let us poke and prod and drive units all without any sleazy sales tactics. Helpful and informative with no BS. Yay.

First thing, I love their new dark cabinetry, especially offset by light upholstry. Really a good looking interior. Fit, finish and build quality was generally very good. Though the cabinet finish did have some imprecision to it, leaving the occasional gaps and swirls. Still, I'd rate it above the Coachmen and Four Winds Class C units I've been in, but below any new DP I've seen.

I think their FBP is super sharp, compared to other Class C paint jobs I've seen, even the Seneca. The Mrs., who really cares not at all about paint, she even noticed.

The biggest surprise was how cramped the E450 is. I had no idea. Now I've found the related threads, it seem this is a well-discussed topic. In short, not enough legroom for me or the Mrs. Too hard to get from house to cab. Not enough reach from seat to steering wheel, so I could never get my wrist to rest on the wheel in optimal driving position (the curse of the 77-inch wingspan I guess). Oh and it is soooooo loud while accelerating. If you want 300hp you have to be up at 4000rpm, and at that point there's no hope of holding a conversation even in the cab (I know, I tried). Turns out I was spoiled by the Chevy 4500 in my rental Coachmen, which had none of these issues. Bottom line, E450 units look to be out of the running for us. Didn't expect that.

On the other hand, the Diesel 32SC was fantastic. The cab overhang was not visible from the cab, something that has always bugged me about Class C's. The engine felt calm and smooth even at its HP max, 2600rpm. The steering felt somewhat less stable at 60 mph versus the E450, and it bounced around a little like the truck that it is, but it still felt like less work to drive than either aforementioned units. Conversations with the kids in the back were possible at any level of acceleration. For us, the layout was palatial, coming from our experience with a 2 foot shorter slide-free unit. Still, everything was 100% usable with the slides in (important for us) except for some drawers in the bedroom. Overall we were very happy with the 32SC.

[pnichols]

ron.dittmer wrote:
I think the Chevy gets that extra space by making the cab that much longer.

Ron ... correct, as you know.

Another way of saying it is that the front nose of the Chevy "sticks out further" ... thus making the total Chevy-based Class C vehicle length longer for any given Class C coach internal size. Ford probably wanted their van to be as absolutely compact as possible for delivery use in cities.

My E450 V10 cruises along at about 2200 RPM quiet as a mouse. Part of the V10's engine noise at high RPM is the whirling sound from it's cooling fan coming on if you hold that high RPM a long time up a long grade. This whirling sound is music to my ears - as it helps mean that our V10 will never overheat at any altitude, at any speed, at any outside temperature, and at any air conditioning setting. The V10 also idles super quiet and smooth - due to it's 10 cylinders - for cool parking lot lunches in extreme heat ... or emergency high-power coach battery charging with no generator noise such as when camped in drycamp tenting sites.

I'm about 6'2" and fit the Ford driver's seat just fine, but ... our dinette seat back tilts so as to allow the driver's seat to be put all the way back, as well as the back of the driver's seat be tilted back at a comfortable angle. All Class C coaches on the Ford chassis may not allow full extension of the driver's seat.

[tpi]

For sure engine braking will send RPM up real high. Very useful at times. Other times I'll shut off tow-haul with it's tendency toward high RPM drama on downshifts. On short downhill sections where a harmless tap of the brake pedal won't lead to any overheated brakes.

[ron_dittmer]

I find that our E350-V10 engine noise is often caused from engine braking down long steep grades where I have down-shifted and the engine is spinning 500rpm below red-line.

[tpi]

I had to push it beyond what was required in order to get a feel for what it will be like in real use

The time I have the most engine revving is when I'm traveling with friends who have cars or diesel rigs and I'm maintaining pace. But most of the time I'm moving on my own and I have a ton of control over engine RPM. In hilly or mountainous areas I kick out the cruise control and maintain the speed with RPM in mind. Maybe a back off nearing crest of hill to hold the gear. Maybe run up a hill in the mid 50 MPH range vs. 65 MPH at a nice easy RPM. Thing is, fuel economy is best when the engine races the least. It is easy to control the V10 and keep RPM down in most instances.

[ron_dittmer]

ericsmith32 wrote:
.....we just started looking at floor plans then the chassis second.

This little tid-bit piece of a comment says a lot to me. I would not shop for a chassis first, then the house sits on it's back. But rather shop for the house first, then determine your options with the chassis. If you have multiple house contenders, then the chassis would help make the final choice.

Place most focus into the house. In the end, if you get stuck with a Ford that you didn't think much of, you'll get used to it. But if the house isn't working for you and your family, you'll be kicking yourself over that one on every trip you take.

[Desert_Captain]

If you end up with a street side slide out your ability to slide the drivers seat back will be impaired in both the Chevy and the Ford. As noted the time spent at 4,000+rpm is so minimal that for us, it is simply not an issue. We cruise our E-350 at 2,000 - 2,200 rpm 95% of the time with occasional runs up to 3,200 (max torque), on the hills which still leaves the cockpit conversational. It takes a lot of hill to require more rpm than that.

If you are 6' tall (or more), or if the first number when you get on the scale is larger than "one" the extra leg room found in the Chevy will probably work better for you than an E-350/450. But before you write off the Ford spend some time playing with the 6 way power drivers seat, there are so many ways to adjust it is hard not to be very comfortable. The mileage on the Chevy may be a "little" better but only because it is a "little" bit smaller engine (6.0 vs 6.8).

Another "space" consideration is headroom throughout the coach. Some rigs have a fairly low ceiling and others gain outside storage volume by sacrificing headroom in the rear. While I could use a little more storage I would not give up our 7' of headroom throughout as it contributes greatly to the huge, open feel of the coach.

:C

[j-d]

We rarely travel far for an RVing (camping if you will) trip to some State Park. A recent trip was the exception, 315 miles each way. Older (early 2000's) E450, older (2003) very entry level coach. We were commenting to each other How Quiet It IS! Our V10/4R100 power train keeps the torque converter locked virtually full time. And its cruise control is very "strict." The upshot of that is it drops down into full-on passing gear to climb a relatively mild grade. Same as it would for a relatively steep grade. That's More Noise More Often than the V10 produces when I drive with my Personal Foot. The newer E450's with TorqShift seem better about that.
The problem I see with Chevy isn't that it's Chevy. It's that it won't carry the very biggest (read "Longest") Class C's. Back when we bought a Class C, Chevy was either underpowered (5.7L/350) or the relatively rare 454. In Ford the powerful 460 was the common engine and the smaller 351 was uncommon. At the time I WANTED a Chevy and thought Ford and 460 were overkill. Even it a 24-ft, a 350 would have let me down.
Nowadays, that 4500 with the 6.0 is plenty adequate, particularly with six-speed automatic. But you just can't get past it's chassis STRETCH limitation. If the RV you want fits the Chevy chassis and that builder offers it, by all means go ahead.
There's a detailed review of the Nexus 32-ft Super C, be sure to look it over. There are apparently different diesel chassis available so you need to bone up on the manufacturer's offerings AND the models within manufacturer.
The one on the "heavy" chassis sounded awesome to me.

[ericsmith32]

Oh there is major differences in the 2, but as you said it's just what flavor you want. Between our 05 Chevy 3500 and my grandparents 02 E450 I'd rather have the E450. Our 28ft is the same length as their 31ft Itsaca, the nose is defiantly longer on the Chevy. The E450 seems to handle the climbs better and easier to maintain a given speed. Comparing the 2 the noise is about the same. Handling the Chevy does win but there's alot of factors there. Ours is wearing off the inside of the tire so Chevy's isn't immune to tire issue's either. The brakes seem better on the E450 also. Granted there are chassis differences 3500 vs E450.

You can try others but I'll bet they'll all be very similar. With ours we just started looking at floor plans then the chassis second. I'll look at the 4500 with our next upgrade but most likely go with the E450.

[Vacay_Wheels]

Heh, no, 4000 rpm definitely not needed in Elkhart. But since there doesn't seem to be anything resembling the Bitterroot Mountains out there, I had to push it beyond what was required in order to get a feel for what it will be like in real use. Even at 3000 we started to talk about the noise. As the old threads on this topic seem to note, it may be louder for the copilot. For me, the noise was the least impactful issue, it was the arm room that really did it for me. For the Mrs, it was leg room #1 and engine noise #2.

And just to be clear, I'm definitely not saying the E450 would be unsuitable for anyone else. Just my own experience. For us, the extra inches of exterior length in the 4500 would be worth it. We probably should try one or two other E450 based models before entirely removing it from consideration. My main point is that as a newb, I didn't even realize there was such a difference.

[Snowman9000]

We are on our second 6.0L C, and have never owned the Ford. I have sat in several Fords though. I agree on the cockpit room. I'm surprised you needed 300HP/4000 RPM around Elkhart?? I don't know why it is, but the Chevy does not have to scream like that in most conditions. Even driving in mountains, at least on the interstates, we spend very little time at that kind of RPMs. If we have to snake up & down some secondary highway, then I'm usually in a lower gear and the revs are up.

Another point often mentioned in comparisons is that the Chevys tend to get better gas mileage. There are also handling differences reported. For all of the reasons put together, we made sure to buy a Chevy and are satisfied with it. But ours is only a baby C. 🙂

All of the Nexus owner reports I can recall have been quite positive. Especially about dealing with the company.

[ron_dittmer]

tpi wrote:
I generally don't come on here and crow too much about the E450 past the point that it is a durable workhorse. I'll agree it gets noisy at 4K+ RPM. Your post did get me thinking about the percentage of time it actually operates at 4000 or more RPM. At least in my case maybe a percent or two of the total run time. I don't even know if that is close but it isn't much. At least for me generally it is cruising along at 2500 RPM, and running into the low-mid 3000s under acceleration. For me the 4K RPM+ has come on grades, sometimes sustained, but frequently climbs grades in the 3000s. In general engine noise has not been a concern.

Enjoyed the review just the same.

tpi above said it exactly as I would have said it. The engine is very noisy at high RPM, but the amount of time it is noisy is very little.

I agree that it would be nice to get around inside the E-series without lifting a leg to pass the center console. I think the Chevy gets that extra space by making the cab that much longer. If counting every inch for a particular storage condition like us HERE, every inch counts. If our rig was built on the Chevy chassis instead of the E350, our rig would not fit.

I do wonder if Juan's lack of adequate cock-pit positioning is related to the motor home, not the chassis. Our rig and me at 5'-11", it is very comfortable once in position for driving with more front-back travel than I need. The 6-way seat is key for my comfort. If you have a slide-out wall or other house feature too close to the driver seat, you won't be able to adjust back far enough.

I do want to conclude that Juan's comparison between the Ford & Chevy is well stated. The Ford E350/E450 foot wells are smaller, the gas & brake pedals skewed, but surprising to me and my wife, we tolerate that goofy condition well. The GM/Chevy chassis is much more comfortable over-all for the driver and passenger, and the noise at acceleration is very real. If the house does not need the extra payload of an E450, and the length can tolerate an extra 6 to 9 inches, then the Chevy 4500 is the better choice to me.

One final point between these two is related to quality. The E350/E450 does have better ratings compared to the GM/Chevy. But that does not mean the GM/Chevy is bad.....just not as good.

Regarding a Super-C, that is a very personal thing. For me, a real diesel truck is just too much to wrap my brains around. I appreciate the domestic feel of a gasoline powered van.

[tpi]

I generally don't come on here and crow too much about the E450 past the point that it is a durable workhorse. I'll agree it gets noisy at 4K+ RPM. Your post did get me thinking about the percentage of time it actually operates at 4000 or more RPM. At least in my case maybe a percent or two of the total run time. I don't even know if that is close but it isn't much. At least for me generally it is cruising along at 2500 RPM, and running into the low-mid 3000s under acceleration. For me the 4K RPM+ has come on grades, sometimes sustained, but frequently climbs grades in the 3000s. In general engine noise has not been a concern.

Enjoyed the review just the same.

[GENECOP]

Thanks for some good, honest impressions...