Anyone else Hot Rod their motorhome?

[Dune-Track-N]

I've got an 04-05 WH 8.1l Moho dual exhaust from the factory and really wanna put some mufflers on it. I crack up every time I start it and it burbles like a old big block should!
The only hot rod item I've tried is the EDGE CTS3 and it would not work other then some basic gauges.

Banks & Raylar do make some items but they are $$$ for the tiny gains

 

[Sandthing56]

I had a 93 Fleetwood pacearrow with the 454 in it, I put a set of doug thorley long  headers on it and what a difference it made going up hills. 33' RV with 16' enclosed trailer. I would do it again 

 

[ElCaminoManT]

I'm pretty confident the exhaust upgrade did help with fuel mileage and power a bit on our Thanksgiving trip to Lone Pine and back. Have done that trip 3 times now with Big Winnie and it looks to have gained nearly .5 mpg. Time will tell how it does in the long run. It also seemed more eager to get up the hills than before. I'm a bit surprised on the sound as it is almost comically loud, especially around 1700rpms, it has an almost 2-stroke Detroit shriek to it. It's not quite straight-pipe loud, but not far off. The Jake's sound great now tho

 

[Jtmoney714]

I'm pretty confident the exhaust upgrade did help with fuel mileage and power a bit on our Thanksgiving trip to Lone Pine and back. Have done that trip 3 times now with Big Winnie and it looks to have gained nearly .5 mpg. Time will tell how it does in the long run. It also seemed more eager to get up the hills than before. I'm a bit surprised on the sound as it is almost comically loud, especially around 1700rpms, it has an almost 2-stroke Detroit shriek to it. It's not quite straight-pipe loud, but not far off. The Jake's sound great now tho

Been waiting for your review. How loud is it for you in the drivers seat?

 

[Rockwood]

I have a burner on my C15, 625HP and 40 pounds of boost, I don’t need a cute little muffler.

You guys may want to try a tuner, a buddy of mine did from Banks on his diesel and he loves the power. 

Just make sure it's CARB approved now.  Sigh.

Been waiting for your review. How loud is it for you in the drivers seat?

And in the bedroom, since I'm sure I'm not the only one who decides to drive to Glamis at 11pm...

PO put a Magnaflow setup on my V10 Class C.  Since it's super short gearing and the same cylinders/firing order as a Lambo V10, I get a lot of confused looks from people hearing the exhaust, thinking it's some exotic, then turning to see a 32' white box drive by.  It's got quite the shriek at 5000rpm. Wish it had a volume knob... :biggrin:

 

[Jtmoney714]

Just make sure it's CARB approved now.  Sigh.

And in the bedroom, since I'm sure I'm not the only one who decides to drive to Glamis at 11pm...

PO put a Magnaflow setup on my V10 Class C.  Since it's super short gearing and the same cylinders/firing order as a Lambo V10, I get a lot of confused looks from people hearing the exhaust, thinking it's some exotic, then turning to see a 32' white box drive by.  It's got quite the shriek at 5000rpm. Wish it had a volume knob... :biggrin:

I have a baby and 2 kids. The back bed is storage while traveling lol. 

 

[ElCaminoManT]

Been waiting for your review. How loud is it for you in the drivers seat?

You can hear it, mostly when accelerating from a stop and more so when under bridges or up against walls. Once into 6th gear it settles way down. I set the cruise at 58mph as that puts the engine smack at 1500rpms with the tire size and axle gears that Winnie has.

Just make sure it's CARB approved now.  Sigh.

And in the bedroom, since I'm sure I'm not the only one who decides to drive to Glamis at 11pm...

PO put a Magnaflow setup on my V10 Class C.  Since it's super short gearing and the same cylinders/firing order as a Lambo V10, I get a lot of confused looks from people hearing the exhaust, thinking it's some exotic, then turning to see a 32' white box drive by.  It's got quite the shriek at 5000rpm. Wish it had a volume knob... :biggrin:

There currently is no emissions testing on these heavy vehicles, although I'm sure CA will come up with something soon enough

Contrary to popular belief, it's basically impossible to sleep in the back of most of these things even without exhaust modifications simply because of the resonance the engines make that are RIGHT UNDER THE BED. I'm sure if one was drunk enough tho, anything is possible.

 

[Rockwood]

You can hear it, mostly when accelerating from a stop and more so when under bridges or up against walls. Once into 6th gear it settles way down. I set the cruise at 58mph as that puts the engine smack at 1500rpms with the tire size and axle gears that Winnie has.

There currently is no emissions testing on these heavy vehicles, although I'm sure CA will come up with something soon enough

Contrary to popular belief, it's basically impossible to sleep in the back of most of these things even without exhaust modifications simply because of the resonance the engines make that are RIGHT UNDER THE BED. I'm sure if one was drunk enough tho, anything is possible.

Ah, NM then.  Proceed. :biggrin:

 

[Realbadlarry]

OK,  maybe I'm doing this wrong... how fast do you drive your pushers?  My 04 meridian 34h with the C7 cat got 6.2mpg coming back from Ocotillo on thanksgiving.  Driving mostly 60-65?  towing a 24ft flatbed with 2 rzrs?  Am I going too fast? 

 

[Jtmoney714]

OK,  maybe I'm doing this wrong... how fast do you drive your pushers?  My 04 meridian 34h with the C7 cat got 6.2mpg coming back from Ocotillo on thanksgiving.  Driving mostly 60-65?  towing a 24ft flatbed with 2 rzrs?  Am I going too fast? 

I do 65-70 with a 22’ enclosed with a buggy and 2 quads. Maybe touch 75 a few times. 

 

[ElCaminoManT]

OK,  maybe I'm doing this wrong... how fast do you drive your pushers?  My 04 meridian 34h with the C7 cat got 6.2mpg coming back from Ocotillo on thanksgiving.  Driving mostly 60-65?  towing a 24ft flatbed with 2 rzrs?  Am I going too fast? 

When towing, which is 99% of the time for me, I generally set the cruise at 58mph and enjoy the ride. It puts my ISL Cummins at 1500rpms which it seems most happy with when towing, either the WK2 4-down or the ZJ on the flatbed. Lower rpms it seems to dog it down, more rpms it starts really drinking fuel. The random times not towing, 60-65mph usually. The overall average seems to hover around 7mpg although it went up to just shy of 7.5mpg after this last trip to Lone Pine.

 

[tjZ06]

OK,  maybe I'm doing this wrong... how fast do you drive your pushers?  My 04 meridian 34h with the C7 cat got 6.2mpg coming back from Ocotillo on thanksgiving.  Driving mostly 60-65?  towing a 24ft flatbed with 2 rzrs?  Am I going too fast? 

I actually haven't towed with my Mountain Aire yet (just got it last Oct, only made a couple G-trips last year and had my pickup with me to take trailers too/from Dune's Edge... or LRS was delivering them from wherever they had been for repairs 'n stuff).  However, with my Dutch Star in CA I'd try to set CC around 62-63 towing the stacker, but on I5 I found I needed to do more like 68 to not be getting constantly run-down by angry truckers.  Going to Idaho Dunes with it through the long stretches in Nevada I'd set CC at 75+.  That thing more or less got 7 MPG.  Towing, not towing, hills, flat, wind, etc. etc. it was always 6.8-7.2 which I call "7" MPG. 

I've actually seen a c-hair more with the MA so far despite the bigger motor (450/1250 8.9 ISL in DS, 500/1695 11.9 ISX in MA) but I'm talking maybe .3-.5 and that could just be the conditions on a given day or whatever.  I guess that's not too surprising since they're the same length, height, mostly same tire size (DS was 8x 315s but MA is 6x 315s and 365s on front) and within a couple thousand lbs of each other.  I'm guessing the bigger motor can avoid kicking down to a lower gear slightly more so that's the slight edge in MPG. 

-TJ

 

[ElCaminoManT]

So, an update: I've ordered a different muffler to replace the Aero unit. The mpg and power bump are nice but the shriek that the Aero muffler has created has gotten VERY annoying. I have been told by numerous people now that it is REALLY LOUD and unpleasant sounding and while it was amusing at first, it's no longer as such. I'm not willing to give up the power and mpg gain yet so am going to try a larger diameter traditional packing style straight-thru AFE/MBRP unit to see if that shriek goes away. I looked into getting a section of straight pipe to test but wtf, 5" tubing is stupid expensive! I have access to a wholesale distributer and can get the muffler for not much more than just a section of tubing so going to give that a shot first.

 

[ElCaminoManT]

Took a month but finally got the muffler. aFe MachForce XP. Nice unit that’s bigger diameter and much more heft than the Aero muffler. Sounds much different too. Haven’t taken it for a drive yet to know if the shriek is gone but much less “fart” type exhaust note and a whole lot more turbo whistle than before. Btw, those band clamps sure beat the pants off the old style pinch clamps.

 

[ElCaminoManT]