Speaking of discussion, I often wander myself (usually the wife hops in the car and finds me, so I don't go far, LOL) Anyway, I have a bit over 50K miles of driving my used 2006 34' F53 rig. It's got over 80K on it, and I just had the rear sway bushing replaced (they were mush, and falling out in pieces) and new Monroe shocks installed. The new bushings were first and did nothing that I could feel. The OEM shocks were toast, and the new ones made a very slight difference in eliminating steering vibration, and the pounding the back of the coach experienced over potholes.
This brings me to my question. The F53 is obviously a leading edge chassis design, assuming it's still 1950. So, when I read all the horror stories about the uncontrolled sway, and generally undriveable reputation of these things, what is a valid concern, and what is a result of operators expecting it to handle like a pick-up or a diesel pusher on a modern suspension? I never feel that my coach is unruly in the least, while going down the road, even when some suspension parts were totally worn out. I also come from a work background where driving medium duty trucks was part of the job on occasion, and the coach is just as behaved as some brand new class six rigs I've driven. Even though it's obviously possible to greatly improve the F53, how much of the problem is the reality of how a lower cost motorhome actually handles on a simple, dated chassis, VS unrealistic customer expectations? I'm not knocking anyone, especially those folks in really short rigs, as I can see that they could be a nightmare, but I do think it's an interesting question.
