Started the southern migration on dec 27 in light to serious rain in a 1999 35 foot long Winnebago coach with a ford V-10. Had no problems for 10 years. In the hills of Worchester Mass and then the CT hills the best I could do is 20 MPH with the ford sreaming at 4000 rpm. This continued till Torringto CT where I topped off the tank. Rain has stopped. Trannie fluid was ok. Got dry gas in PA where we camped for the night. The next 2 days ran fine and we made it to florida. Could it have been bad gas?
Sounds like you answered your own question. The next time you park the bago for awhile treat the gas with StaBil or another fuel stabilizer. Storing it with a full tank will reduce condensation and water getting into the gas.
Excess water in the gas, or old stale gas sounds like your problem.
Sorry, I store the Winnie outside and use stabile. Condensation cannot happen as the tank is sealed nowadays and is pressurized while running.
No CEL …and the problem self corrected. That’s a puzzle. I would have said a restricted exhaust, but that can’t correct itself.
what do you mean by CEL?..dan…As I did not say, it did not rain the next 2 days and stopped raining after Torrington CT at 2 PM on the 1st day…also, to me the engine would NEVER do 4000 rpm with bad gas…just not possible with my understanding of bad gas…been buying gas at that station for 40 years
CEL is short for check engine light. I doubt it is the gas but think 4k rpm seems high, like it was stuck in a lower gear?
My thinking is also that the transmission was staying in a lower gear but you did not state if the motor home was also doing this on the flat and downhill.
You might consider having a transmission shop (not AAMCO) scan the vehicle to see if any codes are present.
While I don’t think bad gas is the problem, I would point out that it is quite possible for a tank to accumulate moisture; sealed or not.
Now and then it is possible to pick up a bad load of gasoline which can cause an engine to run poorly with no bucking or jerking. I’ve seen a few very poor running vehicles come into a shop with gasoline that was either contaminated with kerosene, solvents, or something. We’ve even taken a few samples and dropped a match into it as a test. Gasoline should go up instantly but in these cases this “gas” required a match to be held against it for 4 or 5 seconds and even then it would ignite slowly.
It’s something to consider if the problem started not too long after a fillup.
I’ll stick with the gas as the problem. Yes, you added stabil, but when? Fuel should be stabilized at the time of purchase. If you put in the stabil before storing the vehicle which had gas in it a few months old it could have gone sour. Modern blends don’t hold up the way gas did years back. And, sealed or not you can still get condensation over time.
If it is running good now, just motor on and don’t worry.
The Winnie sat in the yard all summer with stabile. It ran fine to florida in october and back 1 december. Sat in the yard with 1/2 tank of PA gas till I topped off xmas week at my usual station. Ran fine on the flat and downhill. No cel. No power! No coughing, bucking, or hard starting. At a hill it would downshift and downshift and downshift to 20 mph and 4000 rpm. In the past while pulling a Civic at a hill it would routinely downshift once, hit 3000 rpm -3500rpm and when the load lessened would upshift fine coasting along at 2500 and 60 mph. Been using stabile for years and never drained the lawnmower for winter.
I get that you don’t think it is the gas, I do. Let it go. If you find something else fine and dandy. I don’t think you really want to tear the motor down looking for an answer.
If you haven’t done it already go to auto zone and get the computer checked for any codes. Sometimes you get codes without a check engine light. A V10 has a lot of cylinders so when one misses it isn’t as obvious as it would be on a V6 or V8. Maybe there are some misfire codes.
If you must do something, put in some new spark plugs and a new air filter. Can’t hurt and may help.
Check the air filter.