Ford Motorhome Chassis Warranty Repair

[cbell3]

I have a 2021 Forest River GT5 34H5. I took a 855 mile trip to Florida last week and when I was within 50 miles of my destination, the ABS light came on and stayed. As stated in an older thread, the road was very bumpy and I also think it caused this. When I left to return home, the light was on for the first 350 miles and it finaly went out. My coach is still under warranys, so i want to take it in to have it checked. I am having problems finding a Ford dealer that works on Ford chasis. I am in central Virginia and would like to know if anyone has any suggestions on who might work on this under warranty. I am on hold with Ford now and they are expercing dificulty in findning a dealership. Any help would be appreciated.

[1000 sportsman]

Sheehy Ford of Ashland will work on it as long as it is less than 12 feet high.

[cbell3]

Thanks, I will call them tormoorw and see. I am 12' 9" high so we will see. Thanks!

[NXR]

There is a TSB on tone ring problems with the V8 chassis. They also seem to be on perpetual backorder: https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/tsbs/20...94650-0001.pdf

Do you have an OBDII reader to read the codes? If not, they are not terribly expensive. With a car I'd just drive it to Autozone. With the motorhome I keep a ScanGauge II plugged in all the time because it can act as a set of digital gauges in addition to reading and resetting fault codes.

https://www.scangauge.com/products/scangauge-ii/

If you can read the codes that will narrow down the issue. Telling the Ford dealer what the codes are when you call them can give them a head's up.

Ray

[NXR]

How to find a Ford dealer that may be able to work on your motorhome:

Go here: https://fordcommercialvehiclecenter.com/

Enter the zip code or city name where you are looking. A list will begin to display. Select the correct one by clicking on it.

Click on Advanced Filters + at the top center.

Click on MOTORHOME - CLASS A at the top right and click Apply at the bottom.

Several dealers will display (hopefully).

Click on More Information next to one and scroll down.

Near the bottom left you will see DEALERSHIP SERVICE BAY DIMENSIONS. Example:

DEALERSHIP SERVICE BAY DIMENSIONS
➤ OPENING HEIGHT: 14'
➤ INTERIOR BAY HEIGHT: 28'
➤ BAY LENGTH: 90'
➤ LIFT CAPABILITY (IN TONS): 20 TONS

This may help you narrow places down to ones that can lift your motorhome.

Note that multiple people have said that some dealers listed with Ford as working on Class A's told them they do not.

Good luck,

Ray

[cbell3]

This is great information. I will get on it ASAP. I will give you some feedback after I make contact with the dealers.

[cbell3]

The ScanGauge II look very good and the price is not bad. Thanks again.

[NXR]

I bought mine at a local auto parts store for the same price as Amazon.

Ray

[Cdefrees]

Just a heads up.... IF your "tone rings" are bad it could take months for them to come in, unfortunately. We have had some here at the factory go out and units where sitting at our local Ford store for over 3 months before we could ship them out. What Ray has posted on how to find a Ford dealer is spot on! Keep us updated.

[cbell3]

I called all of the Ford dealers in my area and none of them will work on my Motorhome. I am going to call some dealers outside my area. I will keep everyone posted.

[RVwino]

1-800-444-3311 is the Ford Motorhome Chassis support number. They may be able to save you time in determining which Ford dealer has a service bay that can fit a motorhome.

[cbell3]

I did call Ford and their database is outdated. They gave me several dealers and all of them stated that they did not service Motorhomes. I will keep searching. Thanks for the follow up.

[AbdRahim]

Originally Posted by cbell3

I did call Ford and their database is outdated. They gave me several dealers and all of them stated that they did not service Motorhomes. I will keep searching. Thanks for the follow up.

Ford redesigned a lot of dealerships, so many that used to work on larger vehicles can no longer get them in.

[Herowe]

Look for a Ford store with a heavy truck shop. Most will be backed up.

BTW we had intermittent ABS/ Trac Ctrl light on our 21 Coachmen Encore. Tone rings were the problem. Bozard Ford in St Augustine, Florida took care of it. Great people in that store, family owned since 1949.

Good luck. Check out your mounting brackets for the rear sway bar. Many are loose, one of ours came out.

[cbell3]

Thank you very much for the info. I will check things out in the morning.

[NXR]

As Chad Defrees alluded to, there seem to be a lot of people driving around with failed tone rings.

[cbell3]

Yes, my plan is to get this done.

[cbell3]

I think I might have found a dealer. I will call tomorrow to confirm. I will keep everyone posted.

[daveinthekeys]

I am a slow learner. I had the same problem with my Ford F550 based motorhome. Heck, I couldn't even get the oil changed without calling multiple dealers. One who finally just sent a kid under it with a drain pan after I begged.

So, I bought a drain pan and changed my own oil the next time.

Then I bought a RAM 5500. I needed some warranty work. But I could not get warranty work done as it was too large a vehicle. Chrysler also made some calls. Weeks went buy. They finally offered to pay if I could find any larger truck service center that would do the work. I needed a new lift pump in the fuel tank. I begged a dealer to do it in the parking lot. It took dozens of calls.

I decided I needed to upgrade my toad to one that had a trailer hitch. So that I could rent a Uhaul to off load my stuff from the motorhome to my land based home. While I waited for a solution to a problem that could realistically happen and take some time to fix. And most likely ruin whatever adventure I was on.

As obviously any breakdown on the road could potentially be a long search for a place to have it towed. Actually probably towed multiple times... first to a temporary spot. And then to where ever would agree to take my oversized vehicle. My warranty was not getting me much benefit.

Then one day I called a freightliner dealer and pretended to have an issue. I was told just bring it in for same day service. Then I googled Freightliner Dealer locations and saw that they are everywhere. Then I bought a Freightliner based motorhome. I think the S2RV chassis drives better than either of my other Super C's. And I know that service centers are all over the place. I suspect the M2 chassis drives great also. I previously had a Class A on a Freightliner and never had an issue with repairs. Freightliner, Spartan and other manufacturers are set up for our vehicle repairs. Ford and RAM class C and super C motorhomes are not being properly supported by the manufactures. I am surprised it is not a bigger issue or more well known.

[loyda]

Can’t most truck repair shops do warranty work for ford chassis