Community Forums

navychaps · 08-28-2014, 09:29 AM

On my second MH with a v-10, sold first one with 98,000 and my present has about 45,000. Only thing I had to do with either coach was change the oil.

JohnGillott · 08-28-2014, 11:31 AM

V10 is great but well worth the 5 Star tune, makes it a different coach to drive, auto gearbox actually changes up and down thru' the gears and my experience is that it is slightly more economical.

jamesrxx951 · 08-28-2014, 01:52 PM

Other than the V10 can be a little louder than other engines I think really you would be hard pressed to find many bad post here about the V10. Other than some really minor issues they are a really rock solid engine. Take care of it and you have really good chances that it will take care of you.

Mike and Cha · 08-28-2014, 02:15 PM

We love ours, so far only have 7500 miles on it but runs great, plenty of power (once I really learned how to drive it). Gets anywhere from 6-10 mpg depending on the terrain and speed I drive. Our engine is well insulated so we don't get the bad engine noise. I'm pretty sure Ford owns the market on the MH gas chassis right now so for new ones there is no other choice, unless you go to a DP.

After we purchased it, I was at Camping World buying some stuff and all excited about the new MH. Another shopper overheard me talking to a salesman about the Mh and then started telling me the V-10 was bad news as they blow spark plugs and have a bad history with the pistons and rods. The clerk came up and told me there was a spark plug issue years ago, but that had been fixed and he never heard about the psiton or rods issues. I spoke to the mechanics at Ford and they also stated the plug issue had been fixed several years ago, and the best thing I could do was to change the oil every 5,000 miles and the V-10 will last forever.

jamesrxx951 · 08-28-2014, 07:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LVJ58

To give a fair report on the v10 must admit a good friend of mine had a major failure with the v10 in his 2012 coach. I suspect it resulted from faulty engine assembly at the Ford plant.

Here's a link to his post: http://www.irv2.com/forums/f258/engi...ce-163354.html

Best regards & safe travels to all...

I assume you were talking about the OP. He said it was a 2000. If I remember that thread correctly he locked out OD for his trips because he was towing. So that engine was singing along to the tune of 3800 Rpms most of its life. But in any case it is unfortunate that yes sometimes an engine will fail. And in a motorhome it is costly.

NeilV · 08-28-2014, 09:19 PM

My 2001 has been trouble free for 13 years which is more than I can say for my previous GM 454 based coach. I really did not want a Ford but have to admit the F53 with the V10 has been one of the most reliable vehicles I have owned.

GunnyClark · 08-28-2014, 09:34 PM

We have a 2012 Thor Freedom Elite (2011 Ford E-450 Chassis with the V-10) that was a Camping world rental unit that we purchased last November with 40,000 miles - we have put over 15,000 on it since and have never had a problem and the first thing I noticed and was impressed with was the performance - the only down side was the MPG, towing a 860 lb Harley and flat towing a Jeep Wrangler behind it we avg 7.5 mpg but I also drive between 65 - 70 MPH (and have had it up to 80 mph when passing) so if you are lighter on the gas you will get better mileage.

LVJ58 · 08-28-2014, 11:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jamesrxx951

I assume you were talking about the OP. He said it was a 2000. If I remember that thread correctly he locked out OD for his trips because he was towing. So that engine was singing along to the tune of 3800 Rpms most of its life. But in any case it is unfortunate that yes sometimes an engine will fail. And in a motorhome it is costly.

Hi James

I posted the wrong link, the post I tried linking to was my friend Neumann with I believe a 2013 coach where the rod let go and he had to replace engine. However I believe Ford covered it under warranty, but not sure.

Sorry about that... Jim

winnie32v · 08-29-2014, 06:03 AM

2001 V-10 in my Winnie Adventurer.
Had a BIG problem on the way back from Fla. last year.
Loss of power, drivetrain 'shudder', etc.
So, when we got back to Pa., I began the investigation. Five (5) cylinders had multiple misfires!!!!
Went through a lot of scenarios but the short story was:
BAD GAS.
So, my tank was about 1/4 full. I filled up with 93 at my local station, hooked up my toad and went for a ride....up two of the steepest hills around here ... wanted to put the unit to the best stress test that I could.
Had my code reader hooked up.
Result: NO misfire codes and the unit ran like new.
I suspect that a Flying J fill-up in Va. was the culprit.

So, I am now confident that we are ready for another trip south in a couple of months.
Also put in some 'ethanol additive' to compensate for the ethanol problem. Thanks EPA.
I have found an ethanol-free gas station about 3 miles from my Fla. campsite. Yes, I will fill-up there.

jamesrxx951 · 08-29-2014, 06:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LVJ58

Hi James

I posted the wrong link, the post I tried linking to was my friend Neumann with I believe a 2013 coach where the rod let go and he had to replace engine. However I believe Ford covered it under warranty, but not sure.

Sorry about that... Jim

all good.it does suck when that happens and no manufacture is except of an engine failure for sure. I'm sure it was covered under the 5/60 power train warranty unless they were way over on mileage.

NeilV · 08-29-2014, 10:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NeilV

My 2001 has been trouble free for 13 years which is more than I can say for my previous GM 454 based coach. I really did not want a Ford but have to admit the F53 with the V10 has been one of the most reliable vehicles I have owned.

Have to recant as I did have a problem with terrible bucking and such that was so bad I thought I was going to drop the drive shaft last November every time I tried to go over 10 mph. Pulled over and everything seemed fine until I turned the engine off and tried to restart it finding that the engine battery had shorted on two cells after I started it when I pulled out of the camp site and would shut down the engine computer every time I got over 10 mph. I swapped the leads from the Walmart Never Start battery to one of the house batteries to make it home. Charging system checked out fine and no problems since putting in a better quality starting battery. Thought I had lost the ECU at first however it was just a very poor quality battery.

jamesrxx951 · 08-30-2014, 10:17 AM

Maybe a classic old Ford problem is sticking idle air control valves. Mine has been sticking at startup since last year and I have been putting it off since. This weekend the engine would not idle so I installed a new valve that I bought a while ago. Just got lazy and didn't install it. 7 min later the engine fired up and would idle just fine. Between that and exhaust manifold studs I have been very happy with this coach.

nothermark · 08-30-2014, 10:45 AM

distilled from 10 years or so of reading up on them as we owned a 2001 and now a 2012. The heads do not have a lot of thread on the spark plugs down in deep wells on the heads. The spark plugs are changed every 100,000 miles whether they need it or not. ;-) Early trucks had the same engine. Ham handed truck maintenance mechanics changing the plugs without reading the service bulletins often stripped heads over torquing the plugs. That set off a flurry of complaints and the fixes that became available. Few motor homes reached 100,000 before the problem was solved. I can't say about the folks who changed plugs at 6000 miles or every year despite what Ford recommended. Some probably came up that way. By now there is little excuse for popping plug threads and there is a fix without removing the head.

The 3 valve heads exist and get more HP. They only seem to be used in some A gassers. You can figure out what is in there by checking rated torque and HP. Not sure but expect it is an EPA related reason for not using them in the C's and why the engine is no longer in the P/U line. It really is a nice engine. We are sort of looking at one more cycle of upgrading and only looking at Ford.

hicksie · 08-30-2014, 02:52 PM

I am very pleased with our 2000 Damon intruder (24000 miles) V-10 Triton I had some apprehension regarding the spark plug issues last year before heading across the country for the winter but after reading thee threads on the "blown S-plug issues" my confidence was restored and I went on the trip no issues at all were encounters, this summer we drove it to NFLD and again it ran like a top with no issues. The only issue I encountered was several broken exhaust manifold bolts. To avoid any issues on the road when I was "3 days from anywhere" I had all the manifold bolts replaced with stainless steel. It wasn't cheap but piece of mind was well worth it, I treat this as preventative maintenance. The engine has sufficient power for me to maintain a comfortable 65- 70 MPH and very few hills slow me down to less than 55mpg.
Average MPG 8.5 and on one occasion I was getting 10.5 between fill-up