2014 Winnebago Vista 35F Handling

michael j · 12-20-2022, 01:27 PM

good afternoon to all and merry christmas
we have a 2014 Winnebago vista 35f , and its a f53 chassis , my issue is this and maybe im wrong , we had to add a rear track bar and a front steering dampener to get rid if the white knuckle effect of driving the motorhome over 50 mph , it definitely felt UN SAFE , now it wow, momma mia we can take it up to 70 and its awesome , but we never drive it that fast but we had to to check it out , my issue is this ford makes the chassis and its a cookie cutter chassis , one size fits all, how does ford actually check the handling of their product with no body on it , ?? when they test it , it will not handle the same as if it a body is on it , what im stating is a common complaint of many class a owners and driving their coach , what would the NHTSA think and feel if they were to drive it and experience the issue which we and many others experinced ??? to me ford does as little as possible , , why is not a rear track bar not added by ford or a front steering dampener , its not winnebagos issue, they build the coach , ford provides the chassis , to me , it should have to be necessary to have them added , as a retired bmw tech , i question everything , and not being a ford fam fan at all, i question this as i am asking you for your thoughts , am i off base or expecting to much , but to experience what we did and many others , how is that gotten away with
than you in advance
merry Christmas /happy holidays to all

**creativepart** · 12-20-2022, 03:37 PM

Ford sells a bare incomplete chassis to be finished by many different upfitters and for many different purposes.

You can rest assured that it meets all Federal Safety Requirements for an incomplete chassis used in furniture delivery vans, dump trucks, gravel trucks, etc. RV manufacturers buy these from Ford and completes the vehicle. They follow every highway safety rule governing RVs.

There are no rules for drivability or comfort... especially for incomplete vehicles. Just safety requirements for lights, emissions, brakes and many other safety regs.

wyocamper · 12-20-2022, 08:52 PM

I would suggest looking into the Cheap Handling Fix (CHF), there's a huge thread on IRv2 in the Ford chassis forum. Costs zero and takes less than an hour to do yourself, but makes a pretty huge difference. That's a starting point I think, once you've done that and still not happy then start buying additional suspension parts. But for me that's all that was needed.