Gas Class A Driving Experience - The F53/Workhorse Has Not Improved Much Since Inception

 Anybody who has driven the Ford or Chevy platform be it Class C or Class A knows how they drive. How bad they are over bumps, frost heaves, road transitions and how bad they sway or get nudged over when a Semi passes by. Our last Class A rig (traded in back in 2013), was a 36ft 1999 Holiday Rambler Endeavor. It's sheer size caused it to drive on flat roads very smoothly, except when bumps etc... came around then it felt like it wanted to tear itself apart. 

We only had that rig 3 years so I didn't get a chance to delve into improving it's ride, plus there weren't many options available at the time. Fast forward several years and FOMOCO/GM/MOPAR has done almost nothing to improve how they come from the factory as a chassis. RV manufacturers don't seem to care how they drive, they tout all the fancy features and options they offer but most offer nothing to make driving a gas rig more comfortable and if you ask the salesperson they blank stare at you.

Let's face it, comfort isn't the only reason to improve ride quality, saving the rest of the rig from vibrating itself to pieces over time can save service center time paying for things that happen due to a moving house being beaten to death on roads that never see maintenance despite politicians bragging about the billions spent on infrastructure improvements. Since 2008 almost a trillion dollars has made it into various administrations for infrastructure improvements only for 600 billion or so lost almost immediately before 2010 and only God knows how much has been lost since. All the while roads and bridges fall further into dis-repair. Even large State tax funded work is done to low standards or take so long they blow out the budget massively only to have the road opened and not improved (Illinois is the very worst).

So what does an RV owner do? Well, our new to us 2016 Flair 29T is lighter than our Endeavor was by A LOT and the cowl shake and front end shudder over transitions, frost heaves and bad roads is flat out frustrating but we deal with it because where we are going is worth the hassle. 

RV manufacturers could easily offer options when new to enhance the ride (heck even when used), I believe Tiffin does but I don't see any others offering it? Does that make sense to you? The most common complaint about gas rigs is ride and sway and in 2023 we are still stuck with it. I'm told the newest F53 based on the Godzilla 7.3 has some improvements but the ride still sucks and also this 7.3 doesn't offer significant power improvements over the 6.8 V10 but it does offer better MPG and better power in the lower RPM ranges. 

As far as suspension goes it is of course up to the RV company or the buyer to improve on the ride so a few companies have stepped up to help (for the right money of course). Steering can be improved for on center feel and return to center, you can remove the bump-stops and add Sumo spring (not springs), add better sway bars, shocks, air bags the works or the fancy Liquid Suspension that costs as much as 30+ thousand to install. 

Imagine throwing 30k of negative equity into your rig to make it ride closer to a stock DP? When you buy a rig, the dealer, who could make a decent amount of money doesn't even offer these as options. Perhaps because when financing, the bank won't allow an extra 30k to be put onto the loan? I'm sure they have reasons but none of them around me offer anything except for General RV at $250.00hr. That's the other thing, RV service has doubled over the last 10 years in my area, DOUBLED.

I have watched more videos, read more articles on the F53 suspension than you can believe. I of course want the liquid option but there is no way I'm paying that much for a rig that cost 68k used, it makes no financial sense. So what I think we will do is install the steering option, front and rear Sumo springs and new Koni shocks all around and perhaps one day newer sway bars and hopefully that is enough improvement so long trips don't feel like I'm going to rounds with Tyson.

What have you guys done?