NXR
Senior Member
Sit down and take a deep breath 
The prices are for parts and labor plus 6.75% sales taxes.
2019 F53 V10 22,000 GVWR chassis with 19,900 miles and bought new.
Short version: $7,300 or $1,500 a year average BUT $900 of that was "product improvements" I wanted (Centramatics, Borg Dually Valves, straightening the steering wheel).
$2,625 was unexpected. Without improvements and without unexpected costs the bill would have been cut in half.
--------------------------------
Replace all six Michelin XRV 235/80R22.5 tires with the Toyo M154 in 245/75R22.5
We have a 2020 Georgetown on a 2019 V10 chassis, the last year for the V10. We have 19,900 miles on it and we bought new. While the tires looked great, they would be six years old as we head out for our winter trip and close to seven years old when we got back.
I've been watching tire prices and since January 2024 the installed price for our size went up $300 for six tires. Could I have gotten another year out of them? Most likely yes, but in a year I'd probably be paying for seven or more tires at today's prices but only getting six, and incurring a higher level of risk for my family. Compared to January, I paid for 6 and 2/3rds of a tire this week. Labor rates are not going down either.
As an aside, tell the shop you want recent tire date codes even though the warranty starts when they are installed. For these types of tires, to me, 6 months old would be great, 9 months old acceptable, and one year old is not acceptable. Remember, when you sell, the tire date codes will be a potential negotiating point for a knowledgeable buyer. Tire warranties usually do not transfer to a new owner. Tire warranties generally suck but it's still a negotiating point.
I tried to get the shop to order the tires way in advance, even offering to pay for them before the appointment but that did not happen. The first set arrived the day of the appointment and all six were over two years old. The short story is that the shop sent back 18 tires, yes, eighteen, before they finally got a set that were 11 months old, which I reluctantly agreed to. I rationalized that our old tires were 9 months old when we took delivery and had been inflated for 5 months. These are 2 months older but were inflated last week. Sigh.
The shop went to three distributors and all refused to look at the dates prior to shipping "because the warranty starts when installed". That is a valid point, if motorhomes actually wore tires out in five years but they do not. Oh, well.
DO NOT SKIP THE LUG NUT RETORQUING!
This shop takes the motorhome for a 10-mile drive down the interstate and then retorques things they worked on: lug nuts, U-bolts, bolts, etc.
These 22.5" wheels take 450 ft lbs of torque on the lug nuts. They said to bring it back at 50 miles for a free re-torquing, the same as car tire shops do and car tire shops almost never find loose lug nuts...
When we picked up the motorhome we took it to a CAT Scale for its yearly weighing and then drove a bit more to put on the 50 miles. Several of the rear lug nuts took up to 1/4 turn to retorque while a few lug nuts moved less. I was very surprised. The tech said that was not uncommon with the larger aluminum wheels. A few of the front lug nuts moved slightly but most did not budge. Maybe the difference is due to the rears being the drive wheels. I don't know but I sure was surprised to see that 1/4 turn on some of the rear lug nuts.
$2,760 or $460 each installed.
--------------------------------
Replace the rear inner tire valve stems and extensions with Borg Dually Valves
Valve stem extensions are just problematic. They are convenient but have been responsible for many flats because they leak or damage the actual valve stem. They also noticeably slow down adding air. Hanging a TPMS sensor on the end of an extension worsens the potential problem. I had added rubber valve stem extension stabilizers to the outer wheels but still...
The Borg Dually Valve kit is a solid, long metal valve stem bent at the correct angle. They also have a rubber valve stem stabilizer in the outer wheel hole. That inner tire TPMS sensor is now rock-solid and well away from the edges of the hole in the outside wheel.
One potential disadvantage of a Dually Valve is that a tire with a really long valve stem may not be able to be spin-balanced because the valve stem protruding so much can interfere with the balancing machine's cover or mechanism. But two Dually Valves installed costs less than one tire that went flat due to a failed valve stem extension and you still would need extensions with the new tire. There are other ways to balance these large tires than spinning them on a machine.
$270
--------------------------------
Tire balancing
The shop said our factory front tires had no weights and no balancing beads. The rear tires had just weights.
There are multiple ways to balance large tires and these weigh about 80 lbs each. A common method is balancing beads. A certain amount of specialized beads are poured into each tire. As the tire starts to spin the beads begin to distribute inside and perform a self-balancing each time you drive, above roughly 20 MPH. (Out-of-balance conditions are not noticeable at lower speeds anyways.)
Beads, while inexpensive, can plug up the valve stem. Some bead manufacturers supply a special valve stem core with a filter to stop that. Others say their beads are too large to enter a valve stem. When a tire is dismounted the beads need to be caught or just replaced because they will pour out. They are fairly inexpensive so that's not really a big deal.
A much more expensive one-time dynamic balancer is from a company called Centramatics. For a front tire, the tire is removed, the bowl-shaped Centramatics ring is slipped over the studs and the caliper, and the tire reinstalled. For a rear tire, the outer tire is removed, the flat Centramatics ring slipped over the lug nuts between the two tires, and the outer tire reinstalled. The tire never needs dismounted from the wheel and the Centramatics balancers can be reused if you buy a different motorhome (if they'll fit).
A Centramatics balancer works the same way as balancing beads but they use solid balls in a viscous fluid that is completely sealed in the ring. Many people claim that the Centramatics balancers feel a lot better than beads. Why? Who knows? It may be that the correct amount of beads needs to be weighed out for that tire and that was not have been done correctly; I dunno.
$460
--------------------------------
Flush and replace the brake fluid
This task is usually recommended at 3 years, even on cars, but our Ford F53 Owners Manual is silent on it. Brake fluid can absorb water from the air and water in the brake fluid not only can rust the brake lines, the water can boil under heavy braking and reduce the braking effectiveness. And every stop in these things is heavy braking.
$215
--------------------------------
Straighten steering wheel
Our steering wheel has been cocked off to about 10:30 PM since new. Ford denied warranty coverage to straighten the steering wheel because it was not a "manufacturing defect" so we just drove it that way.
The steering wheel shaft is attached to the steering box using a splined yoke. It is possible to loosen and remove the yoke, move the shaft over a spline or two, and reinstall the yoke. This is a coarse adjustment but we did not want our alignment or Safe-T-Plus touched. It's not a technically difficult change but I do not mess with critical components like steering. I simply do not have that kind of experience.
The steering wheel is now cocked to about 11:45 PM which is close enough for me.
$166
--------------------------------
Drain and replace the rear differential fluid
This was recommended by the shop. We were at the very end of our 5-year engine and drivetrain warranty and they do a lot of motorhome and F59 delivery truck work. The tech said they have replaced a lot of rear differentials because they were failing but no one knew because no one checked the fluid for metal particles. No problems were found on ours.
The differential fluid level was rechecked after their test drive and topped off.
$214
--------------------------------
Front wheel bearing regreasing
We had 19,900 miles in five years and this is a 30,000 mile scheduled maintenance interval if towing or 60,000 miles if not. Technically, we were two years away from needing this work.
But multiple people have recently reported premature front wheel bearing failures on F53 motorhomes with way less than 30,000 miles. When the bearing fails there is a loud BANG and the vehicle almost instantly is close to uncontrollable. When a tow truck lifts the front, one tire is very loose and very wobbly. If that happens at 65 MPH just imagine the "possibilities".
One person, whose chassis was built in 2018 and four months before ours, had a front wheel bearing fail at 21,001 miles.
They were left stranded on a trip and needed a tow. There were parts availability issues that left them stuck for a week. He had the other side checked and that bearing was on its way to failing. The failed bearing had spun and damaged the spindle. The tire with the failed bearing was damaged so he replaced both front tires. His total repair bill was several thousand dollars.
Based on other people's sharing, I had the shop re-pack the front wheel bearings early, or so I thought. They called me to come in and take a look. There was minimal grease and the grease was dried up (not solid but not "greasy"). Fortunately, there was no evidence a bearing had spun and the bearings and spindles were still good.
Some mechanics in forums have said they found minimal grease from the factory on the F53 and that may be what happened to ours. But not no more.
After thirty miles on our post-repair interstate test drive we stopped and I used an IR temperature "gun" on all the wheel hubs. All were about 100 to 110 degrees F. We knew we were going back for the lug nut retorque so the front hub cover was already off and the rear wheel simulators were also off. That let me "shoot" the hubs directly so I'm confident of the results.
BTW, that small, circular front wheel hub cover just pries off.
$600
--------------------------------
Brakes
Yeah, this was the big, unexpected expense.
The shop said they would look at the brakes when the tires were off but would not do anything such as greasing the caliper slide pins (to assure the brakes moved easily) unless we paid for it. I told them I would pay for the slide pins to be regreased. As it turned out, the Ford factory never greased the slide pins at all so that was a good decision.
And now for the rest of the story...
While the pads had about 3/8" thickness left, some brake pads were glazed and had evidence of overheating, front and rear. The rotors were wavy to the touch. The rotors were not yet warped but they were on their way. Their surface was not smooth, had slight circumferential lines and also were glazed. Some rotors showed evidence of overheating with small bluish areas at the edges.
A neighbor was a mechanic at a local car/truck dealership so I asked for his guidance. From what he read and the pictures he agreed with the shop's conclusions. So it was brake pads and rotors all the way around. At 20,000 miles. Quadruple sigh.
Unfortunately, Ford appears to use the same braking system on the 16,000 GVWR chassis all the way through the 22,000 GVWR chassis. I'm fairly certain they do not have a lot of margin at our weight because this thing sometimes feels like it's not going to stop. The 24K and 26K chassis got new brakes that are about 50% larger. Yet another reason to hate on the 22K chassis.
$2,625
The prices are for parts and labor plus 6.75% sales taxes.
2019 F53 V10 22,000 GVWR chassis with 19,900 miles and bought new.
Short version: $7,300 or $1,500 a year average BUT $900 of that was "product improvements" I wanted (Centramatics, Borg Dually Valves, straightening the steering wheel).
$2,625 was unexpected. Without improvements and without unexpected costs the bill would have been cut in half.
--------------------------------
Replace all six Michelin XRV 235/80R22.5 tires with the Toyo M154 in 245/75R22.5
We have a 2020 Georgetown on a 2019 V10 chassis, the last year for the V10. We have 19,900 miles on it and we bought new. While the tires looked great, they would be six years old as we head out for our winter trip and close to seven years old when we got back.
I've been watching tire prices and since January 2024 the installed price for our size went up $300 for six tires. Could I have gotten another year out of them? Most likely yes, but in a year I'd probably be paying for seven or more tires at today's prices but only getting six, and incurring a higher level of risk for my family. Compared to January, I paid for 6 and 2/3rds of a tire this week. Labor rates are not going down either.
As an aside, tell the shop you want recent tire date codes even though the warranty starts when they are installed. For these types of tires, to me, 6 months old would be great, 9 months old acceptable, and one year old is not acceptable. Remember, when you sell, the tire date codes will be a potential negotiating point for a knowledgeable buyer. Tire warranties usually do not transfer to a new owner. Tire warranties generally suck but it's still a negotiating point.
I tried to get the shop to order the tires way in advance, even offering to pay for them before the appointment but that did not happen. The first set arrived the day of the appointment and all six were over two years old. The short story is that the shop sent back 18 tires, yes, eighteen, before they finally got a set that were 11 months old, which I reluctantly agreed to. I rationalized that our old tires were 9 months old when we took delivery and had been inflated for 5 months. These are 2 months older but were inflated last week. Sigh.
The shop went to three distributors and all refused to look at the dates prior to shipping "because the warranty starts when installed". That is a valid point, if motorhomes actually wore tires out in five years but they do not. Oh, well.
DO NOT SKIP THE LUG NUT RETORQUING!
This shop takes the motorhome for a 10-mile drive down the interstate and then retorques things they worked on: lug nuts, U-bolts, bolts, etc.
These 22.5" wheels take 450 ft lbs of torque on the lug nuts. They said to bring it back at 50 miles for a free re-torquing, the same as car tire shops do and car tire shops almost never find loose lug nuts...
When we picked up the motorhome we took it to a CAT Scale for its yearly weighing and then drove a bit more to put on the 50 miles. Several of the rear lug nuts took up to 1/4 turn to retorque while a few lug nuts moved less. I was very surprised. The tech said that was not uncommon with the larger aluminum wheels. A few of the front lug nuts moved slightly but most did not budge. Maybe the difference is due to the rears being the drive wheels. I don't know but I sure was surprised to see that 1/4 turn on some of the rear lug nuts.
$2,760 or $460 each installed.
--------------------------------
Replace the rear inner tire valve stems and extensions with Borg Dually Valves
Valve stem extensions are just problematic. They are convenient but have been responsible for many flats because they leak or damage the actual valve stem. They also noticeably slow down adding air. Hanging a TPMS sensor on the end of an extension worsens the potential problem. I had added rubber valve stem extension stabilizers to the outer wheels but still...
The Borg Dually Valve kit is a solid, long metal valve stem bent at the correct angle. They also have a rubber valve stem stabilizer in the outer wheel hole. That inner tire TPMS sensor is now rock-solid and well away from the edges of the hole in the outside wheel.
One potential disadvantage of a Dually Valve is that a tire with a really long valve stem may not be able to be spin-balanced because the valve stem protruding so much can interfere with the balancing machine's cover or mechanism. But two Dually Valves installed costs less than one tire that went flat due to a failed valve stem extension and you still would need extensions with the new tire. There are other ways to balance these large tires than spinning them on a machine.
$270
--------------------------------
Tire balancing
The shop said our factory front tires had no weights and no balancing beads. The rear tires had just weights.
There are multiple ways to balance large tires and these weigh about 80 lbs each. A common method is balancing beads. A certain amount of specialized beads are poured into each tire. As the tire starts to spin the beads begin to distribute inside and perform a self-balancing each time you drive, above roughly 20 MPH. (Out-of-balance conditions are not noticeable at lower speeds anyways.)
Beads, while inexpensive, can plug up the valve stem. Some bead manufacturers supply a special valve stem core with a filter to stop that. Others say their beads are too large to enter a valve stem. When a tire is dismounted the beads need to be caught or just replaced because they will pour out. They are fairly inexpensive so that's not really a big deal.
A much more expensive one-time dynamic balancer is from a company called Centramatics. For a front tire, the tire is removed, the bowl-shaped Centramatics ring is slipped over the studs and the caliper, and the tire reinstalled. For a rear tire, the outer tire is removed, the flat Centramatics ring slipped over the lug nuts between the two tires, and the outer tire reinstalled. The tire never needs dismounted from the wheel and the Centramatics balancers can be reused if you buy a different motorhome (if they'll fit).
A Centramatics balancer works the same way as balancing beads but they use solid balls in a viscous fluid that is completely sealed in the ring. Many people claim that the Centramatics balancers feel a lot better than beads. Why? Who knows? It may be that the correct amount of beads needs to be weighed out for that tire and that was not have been done correctly; I dunno.
$460
--------------------------------
Flush and replace the brake fluid
This task is usually recommended at 3 years, even on cars, but our Ford F53 Owners Manual is silent on it. Brake fluid can absorb water from the air and water in the brake fluid not only can rust the brake lines, the water can boil under heavy braking and reduce the braking effectiveness. And every stop in these things is heavy braking.
$215
--------------------------------
Straighten steering wheel
Our steering wheel has been cocked off to about 10:30 PM since new. Ford denied warranty coverage to straighten the steering wheel because it was not a "manufacturing defect" so we just drove it that way.
The steering wheel shaft is attached to the steering box using a splined yoke. It is possible to loosen and remove the yoke, move the shaft over a spline or two, and reinstall the yoke. This is a coarse adjustment but we did not want our alignment or Safe-T-Plus touched. It's not a technically difficult change but I do not mess with critical components like steering. I simply do not have that kind of experience.
The steering wheel is now cocked to about 11:45 PM which is close enough for me.
$166
--------------------------------
Drain and replace the rear differential fluid
This was recommended by the shop. We were at the very end of our 5-year engine and drivetrain warranty and they do a lot of motorhome and F59 delivery truck work. The tech said they have replaced a lot of rear differentials because they were failing but no one knew because no one checked the fluid for metal particles. No problems were found on ours.
The differential fluid level was rechecked after their test drive and topped off.
$214
--------------------------------
Front wheel bearing regreasing
We had 19,900 miles in five years and this is a 30,000 mile scheduled maintenance interval if towing or 60,000 miles if not. Technically, we were two years away from needing this work.
But multiple people have recently reported premature front wheel bearing failures on F53 motorhomes with way less than 30,000 miles. When the bearing fails there is a loud BANG and the vehicle almost instantly is close to uncontrollable. When a tow truck lifts the front, one tire is very loose and very wobbly. If that happens at 65 MPH just imagine the "possibilities".
One person, whose chassis was built in 2018 and four months before ours, had a front wheel bearing fail at 21,001 miles.
They were left stranded on a trip and needed a tow. There were parts availability issues that left them stuck for a week. He had the other side checked and that bearing was on its way to failing. The failed bearing had spun and damaged the spindle. The tire with the failed bearing was damaged so he replaced both front tires. His total repair bill was several thousand dollars.
Based on other people's sharing, I had the shop re-pack the front wheel bearings early, or so I thought. They called me to come in and take a look. There was minimal grease and the grease was dried up (not solid but not "greasy"). Fortunately, there was no evidence a bearing had spun and the bearings and spindles were still good.
Some mechanics in forums have said they found minimal grease from the factory on the F53 and that may be what happened to ours. But not no more.
After thirty miles on our post-repair interstate test drive we stopped and I used an IR temperature "gun" on all the wheel hubs. All were about 100 to 110 degrees F. We knew we were going back for the lug nut retorque so the front hub cover was already off and the rear wheel simulators were also off. That let me "shoot" the hubs directly so I'm confident of the results.
BTW, that small, circular front wheel hub cover just pries off.
$600
--------------------------------
Brakes
Yeah, this was the big, unexpected expense.
The shop said they would look at the brakes when the tires were off but would not do anything such as greasing the caliper slide pins (to assure the brakes moved easily) unless we paid for it. I told them I would pay for the slide pins to be regreased. As it turned out, the Ford factory never greased the slide pins at all so that was a good decision.
And now for the rest of the story...
While the pads had about 3/8" thickness left, some brake pads were glazed and had evidence of overheating, front and rear. The rotors were wavy to the touch. The rotors were not yet warped but they were on their way. Their surface was not smooth, had slight circumferential lines and also were glazed. Some rotors showed evidence of overheating with small bluish areas at the edges.
A neighbor was a mechanic at a local car/truck dealership so I asked for his guidance. From what he read and the pictures he agreed with the shop's conclusions. So it was brake pads and rotors all the way around. At 20,000 miles. Quadruple sigh.
Unfortunately, Ford appears to use the same braking system on the 16,000 GVWR chassis all the way through the 22,000 GVWR chassis. I'm fairly certain they do not have a lot of margin at our weight because this thing sometimes feels like it's not going to stop. The 24K and 26K chassis got new brakes that are about 50% larger. Yet another reason to hate on the 22K chassis.
$2,625