We have started our 4th year traveling the country (plus Mexico and Canada) in our Pleasure Way Excel. I continue to be extremely satisfied with the outstanding quality of our van motorhome. The problems we have had can be counted on one hand and have all been minor. I am very grateful to the "persnickety" Canadians who designed and build these RV's. For comparison, take a look at the Class A forum and read about all the breakdowns and trouble their owners have.
I am well aware of the handling problems with the E-350 van, which of course is a Ford, not a Pleasure Way issue. I am determined now to do something about it and plan to upgrade the tires, install Super Track spacers and check the front end alignment. If the caster is not set right, it can cause the van to wander on the road (which it does). I am also considering an upgrade to Bilstein shocks. Has anybody noticed better handling with Bilsteins?
you should talk to craig at salem kroger in northern cal. he does 4x4 conversions and has "stabilized" many pleasureway excels. he does so thru proper tires, shocks, spacers etc. contact them at salemkroger.com
Jim,
If you contact Salem Kroger, would you please post their answer since we both have '06 PWs? Driving the interstate was a bit tricky with the wind and big rigs.
thanks,
carol
We have an 04 PW Excel v10 which I have always loved. As long as we keep the pressures up properly, we have had no handling problems. We did put new Bilsteins on last summer prior to a trip to Utah but I could not tell much difference. Even though the tires have only 25,000 miles on them, I am thinking that, due to their age, we ought to consider changing them this summer. I agree that Pleasure Way builds a nice rig.
I had a brand new RV based on a 2005 F350 w/V10. There was absolutely no feel of the road when driving it. Felt like driving a video game. Unfortunately (or fortunately) it was totally destroyed by an 18-wheeler with a sound asleep driver - it only had 1700 miles on the odometer! His insurance company replaced it with another brand new unit again based on a 2005 F350 chassis w/V10. This one has great road feel, no wandering, etc. At about 25,000 miles I noticed some front-end tire wear typical of mis-alignment. I had the font-end aligned at a Ford truck dealership. Still have great road feel and no more unusual tire wear. An ex-Ford engineer he told me the system is basically a fly-by-wire system and the road feel and such are programmed into the system. My first one obviously had some incorrect parameters, or so he tells me.
I have an 07 Excel which came standard with the rear wheel spacers. I also had a 2004 Excel that I ordered and as an option had the spacers put on at the factory. I run my tires at 80 psi rear and 75 psi front. I have put on about 60,000 miles between the two of them and they both handled well with the spacers. In comparison, my first Pleasureway was a 2001 Lexor on the Dodge Chassis without spacers. That unit was a nightmare to drive but after joining this forum and learning of the spacers, I put them on, increased the tire pressure and it handled just fine. If you don't have the spacers, do that first, then if your not happy try the new shocks, etc. One last thing, as with you, the quality is/was great and I really can't remember having anything really wrong with them.
Although our LTV is on a '97 Dodge chassis, our handling difficulties were virtually solved by; front end alignment; new Bilstien shocks; spacers; and new Michelin XPS Rib tires.
All of the changes made an improvement, however to say which one ???
The shocks and tires were probably the most, however they were all a help.
So was adjusting the "slack" in the steering box. The "B" now has 160,000 kms on it and is a joy to drive except in high cross or quarter winds; however my Rav 4 isn't much better in cross winds either.
Good luck
Barry
I have a 2004 Excel TD, and have applied Safe-T-Steer, rear wheel spacers, two front end alignments, steering box adjusted properly, Blistien shocks, Roadmaster Active Suspension, and various tire and airbag pressure experiments, and all-steel belted tires.
Of that group the tires with the steel sidewalls - Michelin XPS RIBS - helped the most, with the Roadmaster Active suspension coming in second. The rest of the group did not impress me as doing much if any good.
Both ghor and Mtn Hiker reinforce the advice I got from Discount Tire in Tucson AZ and that is to switch to Michelin XPS rib tires. We had a failure of the side wall on one OEM Hankook tire which sounded like a gunshot when it blew out. However, I did not lose control and the inner plies of the tire held up until we reached the next town. It was a close call! I understand that Hankook makes good tires and this kind of failure is unusual. I have 30,000 miles on the Hankooks and will replace them with the Michelins, along with adding the Super Track spacers and getting the alignment checked, I really suspect that the caster is not set correctly. Thanks to all for the feedback.
Just in case people have not noticed there is a TSB out now for those who own 2008-2010 Ford Vans which wander. I had mine done and it made a super difference. I think Ford should look into this problem more as I beleive it is wide spread and people spending money to try and fix on there own.
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