Production on E450 chassis

[Hpymils]

I am looking to buy a 2016 Forest River Forester GTS 2431S and am being told by dealers that they have them on order but there has been a delay in production because a problem with the E450 drive train. Any comment?

[vjstangelo]

mlts22 wrote:
As far as what I was told, Forest River "C"s are not using Chevy chassis for the near term, because GM is cranking out Colorado/Canyons and not 4500 Express chassis. I could be wrong though.

The manufacturer's rep for FR confirmed this: no more 4500 express chassis available Class C use at this time. No orders for the 4500 are being taken by FR. See forestriverforums.

[mlts22]

As far as what I was told, Forest River "C"s are not using Chevy chassis for the near term, because GM is cranking out Colorado/Canyons and not 4500 Express chassis. I could be wrong though.

[IAMICHABOD]

vjstangelo wrote:
Yes, problems. I read on the forestriverforums for sunseeker/forester that there is a vibration problem at certain speeds. Look out if you buy a 2016 off of a lot.

The ones on a Chevy Chassis will not have that problem.

[vjstangelo]

WayneLee, Hopefully the fix will work for you.

We are headed to Hershey to check out (again!) the offerings, including the Sunseeker/Forester line. If I were given the go-ahead by the DW, we would have already bought a 3010/3011 with the theater seating. But the DW thinks they are too small.

[WayneLee]

According to the Forest River forums, Ford added a new 6 speed transmission to the e450. Also, the drive train angle from the end of the transmission to the differential changes when you stretch the wheelbase of the frame. With this drive train angle change, the coach started a vibration at 60 to 63 mph.

Ford sent a team of engineers to the Forest River assembly plant along with a team of Forest River engineers. It took a little while, but they were able to find the source of the vibration and came up with a fix. Meanwhile, the whole assembly line stopped waiting on the fix to be installed in all the e450's. Two weeks ago, the assembly lines started back up.

How do I know this? My new coach was in the middle of this mess, and will now be delivered a couple of weeks late. I do like having the vibration fixed before I take delivery!

[vjstangelo]

Yes, problems. I read on the forestriverforums for sunseeker/forester that there is a vibration problem at certain speeds. Look out if you buy a 2016 off of a lot.

[carringb]

Also the drivetrain changes (new bigger transmission paired with new driveshaft) might have affected other frame modifiers too. Ford surprised them, and sent out the new chassis before publishing the new driveline modification guidelines, and the modififiers likely built them using 2015 specs which would cause driveline vibrations

[carringb]

I don't believe that's true, from Ford at least. Many dealers have 2016s already.

There was a bad batch of MorRyde modified frames though, and they supply many Class C builders.