Quote:
Originally Posted by Unicorn Driver
Hi,
After driving a Ford Expedition for past 4 months with every drivers safety air available I would like to have the same features on a RV. Currently driving a 38 ft class A.
I am looking at models in the 25-28ft range.
Does anyone have any experience with these aids in a RV?
I especially like the lane departure wanting, adaptive cruise and it will bring a vehicle to a stop.
Thanks,
Stephen
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Hello Stephen,
This is my first post here. I just joined this forum a few days ago so I apologize to the rest of you that went through the entire, "hello, I'm new here" thing and went looking for my first post (spoiler alert - this is it
). I took delivery of my brand new 2021 Minnie Winnie 22R off the lot this past April 29th. One of the reasons I bought this unit was that the advanced safety features were included in the 2021 E350 portion of the RV. I won't bore you with the specs - you can find them here ->
https://www.generalrv.com/product/ne...22r-1276204-16 and for those of you only interested in advanced safety, here's what came with the RV:
- Electronic stability control
- Hill start assist
- Traction control
- Adaptive cruise control
- Automatic emergency braking
- Auto high beam control
- Distance alert
- Driver monitoring
- Forward collision warning
- Lane departure warning
- Post-collision warning
So far, I have been very happy with the unit, having taken it on one overnight practice run in early June. I then took my family on a full up two week run late in June through early July from here in Michigan through Ohio and West Virginia to Virginia and then Kitty Hawk in North Carolina for a near beach experience of almost a week. I might suggest to anyone that considers buying a unit like this (based on the Ford E350 Super Duty chassis) that you have the RV dealer or someone upgrade the suspension and add heavy duty sway bars / stabilizers front and rear. My drive each way through Ohio on I-80 was an eye opener as it was very windy and the cross winds were enough to keep me fully awake the entire time.
I have at least 750 thousand miles of safe highway driving under my belt so I know when one can "relax" a bit and when one needs to stay on top of their game. Even with the electronic stabilization, in a sudden cross wind the E350 felt like it would be going into another lane if I didn't actively counter the push, and the wind changes were intermittently present at highway speeds on the open road in Ohio. West Virginia, Virginia and North Carolina were all fine, even the mountain roads (my other car is a 19' long RAM 1500 - which gave me a lot of practice over the three years I have had that). In any case, I still recommend the 22R, just a word to those reading this that if they can get the dealer to do an upgrade before delivery I highly recommend it.
And in the interests of full disclosure, I have been working with this technology for the past 15 years and I am fully comfortable with it. Anything that provides an extra set of eyes (or more) on the road for those moments that we all have trying not to spill our coffees is worth having on board.
Having said the above it is worthwhile for me to note here that I did add a few aftermarket items of techonology to the Minnie before we hit the road. A Garman GPS and a rear view mirror with dash cam built in with remote rear view camera. Yes, that's right, the 22R does NOT have a rear window, and I am old school. I have to have a rear view mirror to know when I can safely return to the right lane (or move to the left lane). These and more can be the subject of future discussions here.
Bill
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