New here and really hope this is the place because what I just bought is not officially a van - it's a motorhome. The questions I have today and will have in the future relate to the Ford chassis and not the RV portion. RV forums are fine but I'd rather go to the Ford area for Ford questions.

OK, please bear with me because this might be rather long.

The RV is on the Ford E350 (1993) with the 460 and 3 speed auto w/OD. The unit has 56K miles on it and hasn't been driven in the past 2`/2 years, though it has been started and moved in and out of a garage several times a year. The tires, physically, looked good and the engine runs extremely smooth. Brakes have less than 10k miles on them.

After leaving the former owners home and driving about 4-5 miles everything seemed fine, though I had not gone over 35 mph. Once I got some space and started to open it up a bit I got some serious shimmy/wobble/vibration from the front end. In fact I had just gotten on the freeway and at about 45/50 mph it was shaking bad enough that I was going to get off and take surface streets at the next exit. Now, the next exit was 10 miles away so I figured this would take awhile. Shortly the shake seemed to subside so I started to speed up. I eventually got up to 65 and it was smooth - and it stayed that way so I skipped the exit and kept driving. No noticeable pull either way or shake/shimmy and I drove 30 plus miles this way. I expected the shimmy to start up again when I exited and slowed down but it did not. I drove another 15 miles at speeds from 30 to 55 mph and didn't notice anything. I stopped for gas and walked around the vehicle touching each tire and all of them were pretty warm - close to hot. Got back in to drive the remaining 4-5 miles and it was shaking the entire way along with what felt like maybe the calipers hanging up because it seemed to be laboring a bit but not engine or tranny, just seemed to be a bit slow - along with that crazy wobble. Once I got home I backed it in to the spot I wanted and as soon as I shut off the engine I heard a very loud and long whooshing sound. Thought I had blown something in the cooling system but it was the front passenger tire going flat.

Now I wonder - was the wobble due to a bad tire (maybe a large bubble) or was it front end or brake issues that caused excessive heat and then blew the tire? I know this will all be conjecture and I will eventually find out but I'm hoping that with the little that I described someone will have some background with this.

Any help is appreciated.

Thanks.
Mike

 

Hi Mike, welcome to the forum.

I'm going to guess rusted rotors and possibly water in the brake fluid. Brake fluid absorbs moisture and parked that long without being driven, the moisture content could be a lot. Pull the front brakes, flush the fluid, look for scoring on the pads and disks. jim

 

I'm banking on flat spotted tires
Not a mechanical issue

 

Had a similar first trip in my E350 Motorhome. Except I blew out 2x tyres within the first 3 hours of driving! Replaced all 5 tyres and a lot of the problems disappeared. Find out how old your tyres are, and inspect tread for cracks, out of roundness etc. if it has sat for a long time they tend to get flat spots which cause vibration. I am with Vettex on this, sounds like tyres rather than mechanical

 

This brings back memories of nylon belted tires----they'd take a good 2-3 miles of driving after extended parked times to smooth out.

Tires have a life of about 5 years after date of manufacture, RV's generally somewhat ignored when they're not in use so maintenance steps can be missed. Being somewhat expensive no one is anxious to replace tires due age alone but sometimes its a necessary evil if safe and reliable motoring is the goal.

 

Any progress to report, Mike?
Whatever you find could help the next guy.
Thanks. jim

 

So far I have not gotten this completely resolved but hope to have some answers by this weekend. I did find out that the tires are 12 years old and I am feeling fairly confident that the wobble issue goes away when the new tires are put on - hopefully by tomorrow or Saturday. I ordered a full set and they will be in later today or tomorrow.

It also appears that this MH sat around longer than the last owner let on. It is more like 4-5 years so I was darn lucky that it made the trip to my place, at all. I will be quite busy checking out all sorts of potential problems that can be brought about by sitting idle.

Though I got this for a decent price I did not do enough digging into things. Being that it was garaged almost all of the time it looked pretty good and I got lazy with some things.

 

12 years, yikes. My brother took our van out the last time with tires that old, never a hint of anything wrong until one blew at 70 on the interstate. Pretty exciting for a bit and that was just an empty van.

Thanks for the update, lots of what we learn here is golden for the next victim, er, owner.
jim

 

I have the same chassis except mine is a 1990. Got it last year. First thing I did was replace the tires before they blew, date code stated they were 10 yrs old. Just replaced a radiator, starter, solenoid, cables, fuel pump. Reminds me of my old Harley, spent more time wrenching than enjoying it lol.

 

Just an update.

Put on six new tires and took it out for a short 50 mile trip this morning. I think we solved the original issue. No wobble, shimmy, shake. Tires and wheels were cool immediately after the trip with no excessive heat from any wheel. Brakes work fine - engine and trans are extremely smooth. There is a small concern or two but I always temper that with the fact that I overthink things any time I purchase a different (new or used) vehicle. For example I bought a 2004 pickup last year (1 ton diesel though not a Ford) and I thought I heard or felt something funny the first 5-10 times I drove it. Turns out the truck is darn near perfect and I hauled a 35 foot travel trailer from Michigan to Florida and back - drive the truck everyday - and no problems at all.

Now for the motorhome and today's short trip. Ten miles of the 50 were freeway at 65 mph, a few miles were gravel country roads and the rest was two lane blacktop at usually 55-60 mph. As I said, it ran quite well but I did notice a hum, I guess it might be called, at around 55 mph. It might have gotten slightly louder (very hard to tell) between 55-65 but not sure. No noticeable vibration or shake and the vehicle did not pull left or right. It could just be the new tires and the tread pattern but it seemed, at least to me, to be coming from the passenger side front. I have had bearings go out (just replaced one two weeks ago on a different vehicle), brakes seize, front end parts go bad but this does not seem like any of them. It is minor (at least for now) and as I said might just be normal for new tires but there is one other thing that might enter into it.

The guy that put the tire on checked the front end and the brakes and said all seemed good. He did say that there was a very light u-joint squeak that, in his opinion, grease would cure. He is a very good mechanic, particularly big rigs, and I trust him. I noticed the squeak (barely audible but rotational) when backing in last night. I did not hear it at all this morning on the ride or when I got back home.

Wouldn't a u-joint effect the ride (vibration or something)? As I said, the vehicle rides quite nicely but the hum does have me, just a bit, concerned.

Thoughts?

 

The hum might be the tires themselves, depending on the tread pattern.


Or maybe they just don't know the words?

I had a similar issue when running a cheaparse set of Firestone LT tires---honestly louder than some of the off-roading tires I've had occasion to drive.