Dear Eric,

I have a 1987, 460-powered 36-foot Foretravel Grandvilla pusher with an Allison 643 four speed. It’s low on power. It has big headers, 2.5. inch exhaust on each side and an Edelbrock four barrel at least 750 cfm or more. Has anyone turbo charged a Ford 460 with good results? I’m thinking about adding small twin turbos at the far end of each header just before the muffler. The reason is there would be a little less heat. There is no room for an intercooler. What do you think? – Tars Campbell

Dear Tars,
You have a great idea for getting some serious power with your 460 Ford, but it’s not very practical. To make it really be dependable would take a lot of time and money. I would suggest, instead, that you take that money and install a 5.9l Cummins diesel engine. It will adapt up to your Allison transmission and can make 300 hp. With a Banks Twin Ram power PAC, it would run forever and get better mileage. I think that with a little effort you could find room for a inter cooler, too. If you like this idea I can suggest someone who is qualified to do the job correctly.

Dear Eric, I pull a 19 foot Airstream “Bambi” with a long bed Dodge 4X4 diesel truck. Storage is very limited in the trailer and I wanted to make some extra room. So I put a 60″X20″ cargo carrier on the back of the trailer. On my RV last trip I had my generator and some firewood on the back carrier, estimated weight of all at less than 150 pounds. I had no problems with the trailer performance for the first 250 miles but when we got to the summit on Interstate 80 and started downhill toward Reno I experienced a hair raising ordeal. I was traveling at 60 mph and just activated my exhaust brake to get back to the speed limit when the trailer began a violent sway from side to side. I knew that normally you should accelerate to pull out of this condition, however I was going downhill and that would have complicated the situation. I knew if I hit the brakes it would have made the situation worse. I thought about using the manual electric trailer brake but wasn’t sure it that was wise, either. I had to move into the center of the two lane highway and ride out the swaying as I let the unit slow down gradually. It took about 3-5 miles and was very scary. I think the problem is that I must have changed the tongue weight on the trailer with the carrier on the back. If so, is there a way I can make the trailer operate safely again without removing the back carrier? Or am I wrong and have a more serious problem and must remove the carrier? – Jeff Locke

Dear Jeff, Adding the weight of the storage box to the rear of your trailer must have been enought to unload the tongue weight on the trailer. I see this a lot on trailers and motorhomes when additional weight is added to the rear of the unit. The additional weight will unload the front and make it handle poorly. You did not say if you were using a sway control unit with the hitch. If not, that would have helped a lot. But you should probably give up the storage unit on the rear. As for getting out of the situation that you were in with the out-of-control swaying, you might have been able to stop it by manually applying the trailer brakes without the truck brakes. That would have put all the braking in the rear on and would have straightend out the tail waging the dog. Doing so, it would not take too long for the trailer brakes to get hot, but it most likely would have done the trick.

Hi Eric,
Will a 39 ft Itasca with the GM and Workhorse chassis have enough power pulling my 4,200-pound Jeep on Oregon and California mountain passes? If not, what size diesel should I look at in lieu of the gas coach?

The carrying capacity is 2,700 pounds and I know not to exceed the weight of 24,000 pounds The coach we’re interested in is the 38T gas Itasca. What about putting a Banks system on the gas coach? Will this make a difference? We don’t want to make a mistake of not having enough power to handle this setup. I would much rather spend the extra money to be happy than try to save money and be dissatisfied. –Henry Genzale

Henry,
It sounds like you have a Workhorse W-22/24 chassis with a GM 8.1 L gas engine and Allison transmission. This is a good set up and does a pretty good job in stock form. But to ensure that you do not lack for power, install in the Banks Power Pac, which really does the trick.

Banks did a fantastic job improving the stock air intake system (I think it advertises an 80 percent improvement in air flow). Next, the Banks torque tubes and monster exhaust really improve the exhaust flow out. Other net benefits besides “more power” are much improved acceleration when passing or merging into traffic, a cooler running engine and hopefully better mileage. In simple terms, the Banks power will give you much less down-shifting on slight hills and a more comforting feeling when pulling a heavier towed rig.

Hi Eric,
I’m looking for information on a fuel pump for my 2002 Dodge Cummins. I’ve had the lift pump replaced and the pump is now in the fuel tank. The pressure is lower than it was with the old lift pump but the dealer says it’s now a high volume low pressure pump and they don’t worry about pressure anymore. Can you tell me which pump you would recommend and what the price would be? Oh yes, it is a H.O. engine. — Ron

Dear Ron,
The Fass unit is the best thing I have seen to solve
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