Is putting on a lot of daily miles okay?

[Ted Fyden]

i have a Winnebago Vista 27N. it has a F 53 chassis V10. was curious to know if driving 5-600 miles a day every day puts a burden on my rig? me and my wife are new to this and really want to travel. i love driving and she loves the view. Retiring in about four years so we are now practicing which is awesome by itself.

[Eagle5]

Hi Ted,
Driving 500 or more miles per day will put a burden on you as well as your rig. I try to drive no more than about half of that in a single day.
I would recommend that you change the oil every 5,000 miles using 0W-40 and keep your engine speed below 4,000 rpm.
Oil Viscosity and the Ford V-10
Thanks, Eagle5

[Ted Fyden]

we plan on oil changes as we travel. the seats are so comfy that i can sit for 4 or 5 hours at a wack. when i finally retire i wont have too. i have been trying to avoid going over the RPMs you mention but living in New England even with tow/haul mode activated i cant avoid it. i am getting better at not worrying about the line of cars behind me but going down hill is when it spikes to over 4 thousand

[Ted Fyden]

PS. we currtently have a Ford dealer next door that is doing chasis Maint. they dont neccesaril;y advertise that as they are Commercial trucks

[Morich]

There are lots of ways to look at this as we all have different needs and wants. But for the engine and such, I see it as not a factor.
If we look at wear and tear on engine tranny, etc. the hardest part for them is starting from cold and warming. That will get done in less than an hour in most cases.
Going from a cold engine to warm is where the most wear happens until the oil gets fully moved around to all the parts, like in the first fifteen minutes, maybe?

So the way I see it is that 1000 miles put on in one stretch is better for wear than doing that 1000 miles over five days! This is always based on things working as planned to avoid over heating,etc. but the whole idea is that the cooling and oil should work as designed.
But if that is not working, the damage from driving 100 miles in five days versus 1000 in one day is going to be less if driven all in one day!

But that only works for the RV! The folks riding in it are much less damaged if they only ride 500 a day!
I recommend starting slower and finding what you both feel right as you move further out on trip planning.
We started out wanting to move long distances each day but after a while we started looking at all the things we had driven by simply because we had set a goal way too far out.
One of the bigger bennies of being retired is not having to plan so much.

Once you finally figure out that you will never get another day off, the brain changes!

[powercat_ras]

Originally Posted by Ted Fyden

i have a Winnebago Vista 27N. it has a F 53 chassis V10. was curious to know if driving 5-600 miles a day every day puts a burden on my rig? me and my wife are new to this and really want to travel. i love driving and she loves the view. Retiring in about four years so we are now practicing which is awesome by itself.

I also have a 27N (2015) with about 60,000 miles driven. I have done 500-600 miles days about 10 times since it was new. Never any issues. Just make sure you follow the recommended oil / filter change interval of 5,000 miles, and use the the recommended grade and weight of full synthetic oil. I always use the Motocraft FL-820S filter and generally use Mobil 1.

[l1v3fr33ord1]

Ted Fyden-

As others have said, follow the Ford-recommended maintenance schedule, or your own, if it means more-frequent maintenance. I found it more convenient to change oil at 3,000 mile intervals at one point, as that represented about a single-season's use.

You may find it difficult to get maintenance services on the road, in unfamiliar locales.

The Ford V-10 is known as a high-revving engine, so don't worry if the computer takes you above 4,000 rpm. I found it useful not to run with Tow-Haul on all the time; "your mileage may vary."

In my 30,000 miles of driving with Class C/Class A and toad, I only once drove 600 miles in a day. Twice, maybe 400 miles. The rest of the time, 250 to 300 miles per day. My portal-to-portal average speed was 45 miles per hour, so a six-hour day was 270 miles. Be careful that you don't wear yourselves out before retiring.

[Wayne M]

Semper Fi!

I'm on the same frequency as Richard. Wear and tear is cumulative in my opinion. Not the same RV but my body says 250 plus or minus 50 a day.

I think the manufacturers would have a disclaimer of some sort if it were to be run at lesser miles per day.

[Ted Fyden]

thank you all. I used to drive from Mass to Naples FL in two days as a young man, so I understand what you say about how far to drive in a day. the vehicles I drove were not meant for that as far as the seats go. the chairs in this RV are so comfy that I sit better than I stand and walk so I like the drive. we do plan on shorter legs and longer hauls when we don't have to be somewhere on a schedule thanks again and happy traveling.

[Morich]

You will likely find there is a lot of difference in small points when driving an Rv that will slow you down. Small things like choosing where to eat and gas? Seems they would be the same but there are lots of difference and those will slow the overall progress.

Whipping the RV in across the drainage at the curb will be a point to consider in a lot of ways!

You may find you flinch a bit more when gas is higher at one place than another if it takes more than fifty gallons to fill!
Just moving through the gas station will slow you down! There will be no stretching the hose across the trunk if you have an open lane with the pump on the wrong side!

There will not often be a drive through at a quickie burger, so you often get out and walk to get the quick burger! Takes more time!

You'll find it is safer to keep more space in front of the RV than you might in a car? That means there will be the dopey sorts who cut into the "empty " space, so you have to back off again ---or you may choose to just run the guy down? But running them down will certainly slow the trip, so I don't recommend that!

Used to just blowing through those concrete tunnels for construction? You may have noticed that a lot of RV are doing it slower when the clearance is so much less!

Most of us slow it down rather than break it down!

[creativepart]

I will add that the very best RV travel days are the under 100 mile days. You can leave as late in the morning as you wish. Stop and see as many interesting places as you want. Arrive early enough to have lunch in your new location. And, even take a nap if you want.

Plus, you have plenty of time to look around and explore your new area if you wish. There is something of interest to experience in just about every place.

In retirement, which you are still looking forward to, you'll find yourself not knowing the day of the week, the time of anything but meals and finding joy in all the little things that normally you don't pay any attention to.

A 500-600 mile trip may be fine in a nice car, but it's horrid in a 40' motorhome pulling a toad behind. Fuel stops and lunch stops and just plain wear and tear on your body and mind are a thing of the past when you learn to minimize the bad parts of RVing (the drive) and maximize the fun parts (the camping).

[Ray,IN]

That is a medium-duty truck chassis, meant to last for at least 300,000 miles with the proper preventative maintenance.
The engine and/or tranny might require a rebuild, but that would be normal maintenance for that many miles on the clock.
As to driving miles each day; 35 years ago i was driving 700 miles a day when I was still working. I hit the road at daylight and stop after dusk.


Enjoy the road!

[Brooks]

The main problem newly retired RVers have (including me)is wanting to see it all right now but after a few years (and my wife telling me to slow down) we've learned to drive maybe 3 hours and then find a place to stop and see things it is much more relaxing.
Drive safe!

[Hermes2]

Typically I don't drive more than six hours on the road -- five hours is even better. The few times I've driven more than that it begins to feel too much like work and is unenjoyable and wearing on me. I plan a gas stop before getting to the campground I've booked before dark (I HATE to set-up in the dark!). That works out to about 400 miles a day at the most.

Your rig will be fine. It's a truck.

[sundog964]

This chassis is a workhorse truck chassis. More designed for lots of shorter stop and go deliveries, not necessarily long haul. That being said, the use of 8-10 hours per day isn't going to have a significant negative effect as long as you do the routine services and don't overdo the load. I've done 12 hour days in mine in 100+ degree heat in the SW. It does just fine, and I keep an eye on the gauges.

I usually have the Dog along, so she needs to stop every couple of hours for a walk, and that helps it "rest" for a few minutes.

[ACB]

We’ve owned three motorhomes with the V10 engine. One in particular we pushed hard, put neatly 100,000 miles, and often drove 400 to 500 miles a day. Proper maintenance is essential. We never hurt the rig but it is was tough on me. Now I prefer to drive in the 300 mile or less range but occasionally have pushed to 500 strictly due to the western states we cross . If you do all the prop maintenance you should be fine.

[lawnarjax]

Bought our 2017 Vista on June 5th with 19k on the ODO, by the end of the 2nd week of Aug we had 26K on it. Drove from north central FL to South Rim of the Grand canyon in 36 hours, stayed 5 nights and back in 36 hours. Drove about 12 hours a day alternating with the wife. The coach never appeared to notice, ran very well, took it out of cruise for any hill climbing to keep the rpm as close to 2k as possible. Burned just about $3k in fuel for the entire trip. Got back, did an oil change, drove it to southern Indiana and back a week later. The only thing that I experienced was uncommanded generator shut down when we were in the heat of TX overnight. I did some research and apparently the onan is very sensitive to overfill and the dipstick cant be trusted. I pulled out a little oil and have not had an issue since.

Overall I would agree that that pace of driving is much tougher on you than the coach.

[Eagle5]

On my Minnie Winnie version of the Onan generator, it is not possible to over-fill it with oil.
Eagle5

[lawnarjax]

I would tend to agree, the dipstick hole is the fill hole and when you put the amount of oil call for in the hole it does not overflow the fill hole, but apparently, according to some guy on the net, the dip stick marks are inaccurate and if you fill the genny with oil to the full mark on the stick it will cause the behavior I and others experienced in high ambient temperature situations. Removing enough oil to just be on the first 1/4 of the hatch marks makes all the difference. I was skeptical, but the youtube channel he posted his findings on had hundreds of comments from Onan owners that were struggling with the same symptoms and they all found that this fixed the uncommanded shut down where hundreds and thousand of dollars at their dealer could not fix it. I tried it and pulled out a turkey baster's worth of oil and have had no issues since and I ran that genny 4 days straight after the hurricane went by a few weeks ago and it never shut off on its own. Could be coincidence, but given the comments and my experience I doubt it.

[Eagle5]

I would not have expected that. Thanks for letting me know.
I have heard that it will also shut-down if too low on oil.
Thanks, Eagle5