Anybody know what's new in the 2020.5 Georgetowns?

[NXR]

I think the .5 updates usually come out in the Fall. Unfortunately Forest River's web site is usually a year behind the current model.

The GT5 page still says they use Lippert's MyRV wireless instead of Precision Plex and lists a Pioneer dash stereo instead of the Jensen XRV10. Both were introduced with the 2019.5 model year. (sigh) At least the pictures are now current for the 2020 models.

Ray

[Dodge Guy]

The bigger news is the chassis and new 7.3 V-8 and 10 speed auto along with Other upgrades to include smart new driver-assist technologies such as automatic emergency braking as well as additional optional elements of Ford Co-Pilot360 technologies, which encompass adaptive cruise control, electronic stability control, lane departure warning, Driver Alert System and auto high-beam headlamps.

[NXR]

Originally Posted by Dodge Guy

The bigger news is the chassis and new 7.3 V-8 and 10 speed auto along with Other upgrades to include smart new driver-assist technologies such as automatic emergency braking as well as additional optional elements of Ford Co-Pilot360 technologies, which encompass adaptive cruise control, electronic stability control, lane departure warning, Driver Alert System and auto high-beam headlamps.

Hopefully. Later articles have said that the 10-speed will not be offered on the F53, at least initially. The driver assist stuff seems to be optional so let's hope it gets offered.

As I've aged I've noticed my reflexes slowing down and other things. My 2016 car has adaptive cruise control, lane departure warning and other assist devices. While I don't rely on those extra safety features as primary, the Blind Spot Detection system has warned me a few times appropriately.

Ray

[Dodge Guy]

I agree. I don't need them either but some are nice to have. My wife's Explorer has he blind spot monitor. And on a MH that will be an excellent feature as well as the adaptive CC. The auto high beams could be nice, but most of us travel during the day. Same for stability control. Most MH are driven in nice weather and at lower speeds, so for most that wouldn't be necessary either. We will see how it all works out.

[camaraderie]

Originally Posted by Dodge Guy

The bigger news is the chassis and new 7.3 V-8 and 10 speed auto along with Other upgrades,,,

So thats the end of the V-10? Why the need to move away from a time tested engine that everyone knows how to work on and performs well...especially after the 6 speed introduction?
Are there advantages to the new engine that they are talking about vs. the V10?

[EddieJ]

Originally Posted by Dodge Guy

The bigger news is the chassis and new 7.3 V-8 and 10 speed auto along with Other upgrades to include smart new driver-assist technologies such as automatic emergency braking as well as additional optional elements of Ford Co-Pilot360 technologies, which encompass adaptive cruise control, electronic stability control, lane departure warning, Driver Alert System and auto high-beam headlamps.

My guess is that we might see that chassis in the 2021 to 2021.5 lineup of gas motorhomes. Maybe longer. Guess that depends on stock and if Ford will produce the V10 and V8 version at the same time for a bit. As for all the new tech, that will be up to each house builder as to what they want to incorporate as that takes sensor/camera installs etc at various locations on the motorhome.

[NXR]

Originally Posted by EddieJ

As for all the new tech, that will be up to each house builder as to what they want to incorporate as that takes sensor/camera installs etc at various locations on the motorhome.

"as that takes figuring out what the market will pay".

Ray

[NXR]

I do, I do.

I saw them at the Tampa RV show.

• The Precision Plex touchscreen system now controls the front and rear HVAC systems and the thermostats were removed.
  
  
• The thermostat function on the Precision Plex said "Thermostat - NO SERVICE" so it's wireless-enabled somehow.
  
  
• But they removed the thermostats and put a little black rectangle temp sensor where the thermostats were. Looks ugly as sin and I can just see people pushing on it to make it do something. Plus I could no longer lie in bed and use the remote to adjust the temperature; I'd need to drag out my phone in the middle of the night and have the screen glare blind me.
  
  
• From what I saw, even though the touchscreen now controls the HVAC, the automatic generator start still will not trigger for a rise in the inside temperature.
  
  
• On the 34H5, that door above the living area TV is now hinged on the bottom instead of the top for who knows what reason. A strut to hold it open and keep the hinge on top would have been better IMHO.
  
  
• On the 34H5, that shelf that is to the left of the kitchen sink and 90 degrees to it, below the touchscreen, still does not have a light. WTH? Every other underside cabinet in this thing has a light but not that one yet. (I installed a battery-powered one.) We keep the coffee pot and blender on that shelf so lighting is important.
  
  Plus the USB jacks in that area were changed to a sightly different type. Probably still 1 amp instead of 2 amp so they likely still will not charge my phone.
  
  
• The Xantrex inverter panel is gone and replaced by some little circular display. It's labeled OnBoard Solutions and has lights for AC In, DC In, and Fault plus an On/Off button. I liked seeing the DC bus voltage on the Xantrex panel all the time myself.
  
  
• The slots above the aft bedroom cabinet that are used for the washer/dryer vent are gone. They put a black screen above the cabinet doors instead.
  
  
• The tan window blinds have been replaced with black ones so both the blind and the sunscreen are black now.

So nothing major that I saw.

The new GT7 has a nice gray cockpit, including the doghouse, instead of the tan and it appears the flooring is a bit darker as well.

Ray

[NXR]

Oh, and the GT7 had those cheapo vent fans replaced with MaxxAir units. They look like the MaxxAir 7000K's I had retrofitted in with the same remote control.

Ray

[Dodge Guy]

The most recent news is the 10speed isn't in the f53....yet. And it seems as though manuf have the old F53 chassis sitting around. So those will be used up before hey go to the new chassis. That would probably put it around 2021 for the new 7.3's
As far as inside I'm not sure, but I think NXR has it covered!

[Mr. October]

Originally Posted by NXR

I do, I do.

I saw them at the Tampa RV show.

• The Precision Plex touchscreen system now controls the front and rear HVAC systems and the thermostats were removed.
  
  
• The thermostat function on the Precision Plex said "Thermostat - NO SERVICE" so it's wireless-enabled somehow.
  
  
• But they removed the thermostats and put a little black rectangle temp sensor where the thermostats were. Looks ugly as sin and I can just see people pushing on it to make it do something. Plus I could no longer lie in bed and use the remote to adjust the temperature; I'd need to drag out my phone in the middle of the night and have the screen glare blind me.
  
  
• From what I saw, even though the touchscreen now controls the HVAC, the automatic generator start still will not trigger for a rise in the inside temperature.
  
  
• On the 34H5, that door above the living area TV is now hinged on the bottom instead of the top for who knows what reason. A strut to hold it open and keep the hinge on top would have been better IMHO.
  
  
• On the 34H5, that shelf that is to the left of the kitchen sink and 90 degrees to it, below the touchscreen, still does not have a light. WTH? Every other underside cabinet in this thing has a light but not that one yet. (I installed a battery-powered one.) We keep the coffee pot and blender on that shelf so lighting is important.
  
  Plus the USB jacks in that area were changed to a sightly different type. Probably still 1 amp instead of 2 amp so they likely still will not charge my phone.
  
  
• The Xantrex inverter panel is gone and replaced by some little circular display. It's labeled OnBoard Solutions and has lights for AC In, DC In, and Fault plus an On/Off button. I liked seeing the DC bus voltage on the Xantrex panel all the time myself.
  
  
• The slots above the aft bedroom cabinet that are used for the washer/dryer vent are gone. They put a black screen above the cabinet doors instead.
  
  
• The tan window blinds have been replaced with black ones so both the blind and the sunscreen are black now.

So nothing major that I saw.

The new GT7 has a nice gray cockpit, including the doghouse, instead of the tan and it appears the flooring is a bit darker as well.

Ray

Interesting. Some thoughts here:

[*]The Precision Plex touchscreen system now controls the front and rear HVAC systems and the thermostats were removed.

[*]But they removed the thermostats and put a little black rectangle temp sensor where the thermostats were. Looks ugly as sin and I can just see people pushing on it to make it do something. Plus I could no longer lie in bed and use the remote to adjust the temperature; I'd need to drag out my phone in the middle of the night and have the screen glare blind me.

Interesting. I haven't seen the temp sensor thingies but the other changes don't seem bad. The thermostats they used were cheapish and used on even their most entry level coaches. I would think the Precision Plex control would be better. It seems like a good idea to be able to have my wife adjust the temp of the forward A/C from the phone or iPad while we are driving. On the remote, I had to memorize the position of the "off" button before I went to bed because I was never really sure what button I was hitting so would otherwise have to put my glasses on and dig my flashlight out. I'd need my glasses for the phone to so no harm no foul there for me.

[*]From what I saw, even though the touchscreen now controls the HVAC, the automatic generator start still will not trigger for a rise in the inside temperature.

Really? I haven't set our autostart up at all but I thought that would be the whole purpose.

[*]On the 34H5, that door above the living area TV is now hinged on the bottom instead of the top for who knows what reason. A strut to hold it open and keep the hinge on top would have been better IMHO.

They've done this on nearly every door. Prior to ours, all the doors were hinged at the top with a strut. Struts costs money. Same reason they don't put shelves in half the cabinets. On the other hand, there is an argument that having the door on the bottom prevents stuff from falling out and on top of you after a load shift.

[*]On the 34H5, that shelf that is to the left of the kitchen sink and 90 degrees to it, below the touchscreen, still does not have a light. WTH? Every other underside cabinet in this thing has a light but not that one yet. (I installed a battery-powered one.) We keep the coffee pot and blender on that shelf so lighting is important.

Same complaint for us on the cabinet over the sink on the 31R5. I need to add a battery one there this year.

[*]The Xantrex inverter panel is gone and replaced by some little circular display. It's labeled OnBoard Solutions and has lights for AC In, DC In, and Fault plus an On/Off button. I liked seeing the DC bus voltage on the Xantrex panel all the time myself.

This is coming from someone's whose inverter never worked from day one but I think the Xantrex remote panel is problematic at best. (Not just for Georgetown). In my troubleshooting with both Georgetown and Xantrex it became clear the remote panel causes a lot of issues. While I would theoretically agree it is nice to see the actual voltage, mine wasn't accurate and as I mentioned, never worked. It would be interesting to know if the new panel is Xantrex or a 3rd party.

[*]The tan window blinds have been replaced with black ones so both the blind and the sunscreen are black now.

Oh . . my spouse would NOT have liked that.

One other big change . . . our floorplan - 31R5 is no longer made. I'm glad we got it when we did.

[NXR]

The door over the TV is the only one hinged on the top that does not have a strut. I'm not in that one that much, though. The cabinet doors over the entry door, driver, and kitchen sink are hinged on the top with struts.

The automatic generator start only triggers on low house battery voltage. It feels problematic because the house batteries are needed to start the generator so where do you set the trigger voltage? I set mine to 11.8 VDC but have never actually tested it.

I bought these LED lights: https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

If not used much they hold a charge for months. I have one in each bedroom closet, one in the compartment behind the bedroom TV and one over that kitchen shelf. On the kitchen one, I just keep it plugged into the USB port nearby to keep it charged. A black USB cord would look less hokey but I got used to it.

The double-backed sticky pad holds them solidly in place. To remove one to charge it is just a twist.

I removed the touchscreen to see how hard it would be to actually add the same type of under-cabinet light but I'd need to drill some holes in 1x1 framing to take a peek in that area with an endoscope and I didn't want to snag any wires on the other side.

Ray

[Iggy]

Originally Posted by NXR

Hopefully. Later articles have said that the 10-speed will not be offered on the F53, at least initially. The driver assist stuff seems to be optional so let's hope it gets offered.

As I've aged I've noticed my reflexes slowing down and other things. My 2016 car has adaptive cruise control, lane departure warning and other assist devices. While I don't rely on those extra safety features as primary, the Blind Spot Detection system has warned me a few times appropriately.

Ray

-----------------
The 2020 Ford F-53 bare motorhome chassis has the new F-53 gas V8 engine but still has the 6 speed transmission.
Only the trucks will get the 10 speed transmission.

https://www.ford.com/commercial-truc...f53-motorhome/

One interesting fact on the new engine is that the HP and Torque are maxed at the same RPMs
HP is 350 hp at 3,900 RPM and the torque is 468 lbs at 3,900 RPMs

[Mr. October]

Originally Posted by Iggy

-----------------
The 2020 Ford F-53 bare motorhome chassis has the new F-53 gas V8 engine but still has the 6 speed transmission.
Only the trucks will get the 10 speed transmission.

https://www.ford.com/commercial-truc...f53-motorhome/

One interesting fact on the new engine is that the HP and Torque are maxed at the same RPMs
HP is 350 hp at 3,900 RPM and the torque is 468 lbs at 3,900 RPMs

I wonder how soon they’ll start showing up in motorhomes? Probably not until most of the way through the year I assume. The new power plant should be a beast but I’m glad we aren’t in on the first model year given the early growing pains of the V10.

[IowaGuy]

Are the 2020.5 models being built now? When will the 2021 models start being built?

[NXR]

Originally Posted by IowaGuy

Are the 2020.5 models being built now? When will the 2021 models start being built?

Yes, they are.

FWIW, when we began talking to the dealer about ordering our unit in March 2019 they told us that we might be getting a 2020 instead of a 2019.5 and we did.

I'd guess an unit ordered this month or next month might actually be a 2021 instead of a 2020.5. For us, there was very little actual difference between the 2019.5 unit we looked at and the 2020. Other than the model year, which obviously helps a bit at resale time, I only recall two differences on our model

Underneath the shelf without a light in the kitchen the 2019.5's have a panel. On the 2020's that area was turned into a second shelf of the same size. That makes a very nice difference in available storage.

The strut on the main door uses a small triangle with three screws bolted to the floor to secure one end. On the 2019.5 units the "point" of the triangle points inward. So if the wind catches the door or someone lets the door bounce that plate bends and rips that screw out. On the 2020's they flipped that triangle around so the inside-most part has two screws. Now the triangle just bends without ripping the two screws out.

Our ordered unit was delivered to the dealer at the end of May so it took about two months. That was an ideal time to take delivery because we could use it on and off all summer while getting defects fixed in between trips. By the time our long winter trip arrived we were confident we had no major problems. So far that's still true. We chose to leave it for a month after our three-day PDI so everything got fixed. So we did not pay for it nor did our warranty start until we actually took delivery and drove away.

If you store yours for the winter you can "lose" several months of warranty due to non-use. If your warranty expires while your unit is in storage and you find significant problems when you start to use it again, it's out of your pocket.

The big question, of course, is whether an ordered 2021 model year will have the brand new F53 chassis with the new V8 engine, dashboard and upgraded sway bars and whatever else FR decides to include. Adaptive Cruise Control, Lane Departure Warning, Collision warning, whatever.

Ordering definitely was the best choice for us because stuff like the washer/dryer, the sliding storage tray and dual pane windows were all factory-installed. We also opted for the convection microwave and the electric powered overhead bunk because we saw them on a dealer stock unit.

HTH,

Ray

[Mr. October]

So we ordered our "2018" GT3 about mid-summer. Supposedly if it hit the assembly line before October 1 it would still be a 2018. It got into assembly before that and was a 2019 and had significant changes that we despised. It had a bigger refrigerator and we lost cabinet and counter space. The kitchen drawers were almost unusable. They put a bigger TV in the bedroom and sacrificed wardrobe space. They took away the 4 big drawers in the bedroom that we loved and replaced them with 3 small ones and a nearly useless vertical cabinet. Fortunately they also put in a loft bed . . we had specifically ordered one because we didn't want that so we were able to get out of the deal.

Other changes on the GT3 involved 50 amp power and 2 air conditioners becoming standard, and the outside TV was now standard. They also did away with the outside kitchen as an option.

Because of the drastic changes and the build being done wrong we were able to back out of the deal and order the GT5 instead. By then, we knew what we were getting.

[Dodge Guy]

I was not impressed with the 2 2020 Georgetown’s I walked through. I think they were 20.5’s actually. They had the precision plex system. However the quality was below the standard I have come to expect from the Georgetown line. The TV placement I’ve the kitchen counter is ridiculous. And the dash layout has been around longer than I can remember at least back to 08 or so!

If it stays this way I’ll will be looking at other brands in the future.

BTW, I was t impressed with the Berkshires either.

[NXR]

The Precision Plex system was added with the 2019.5 version. We have it in our 2020 as well.

The bunk bed floorplan has the TV above the kitchen counter. Its soundbar is below on the cabinet. But the IR signals interfere with each other. On our GT5 34H5, the TV is above the soundbar which is above the fireplace, The TV is next to the AC and furnace thermostat. Running some fireplace functions resets the soundbar from TV to DVD. I've gotten in the habit of shielding the IR with my hand to block it from hitting everything on the wall. We use a Roku, which has a Bluetooth remote, so I don't know if the various remotes interfere with the TV as well. My buddy with the 36B5 says it does interfere.

I was very disappointed in the Berkshires as well. I was expecting something like we'd seen in other DP's at a similar price because of the price bump-up. I could not tell much difference from the GT5's. The Berkshire line needs a serious interior differentiation from the GT5's.

Ray