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I was recently invited to Winnebago to test their new Driver Confidence Package. This collection of features will soon be available on all Class A gas motorhomes from Winnebago. This package includes intelligent adaptive cruise, pre-collision with active braking support, lane-keeping assist, electronic stability control, traction control, hill start assist, auto high beams, and manual shift with range indication. All these systems combined make up the new Driver Confidence Package and are intended to make you feel more comfortable driving a large RV.
Learning about the Driver Confidence Package
The day began with me heading to the Winnebago facility and meeting John Millis, the Product Manager for all the Winnebago Class A gas motorhomes and diesel pushers. John went over the menus of the new package, which are all controlled by the keypad on the steering wheel. I was pleased to see that you could turn some systems on and off and adjust the sensitivity for some of them as well. I liked the amount of control over features to make them more or less sensitive. After all, not everyone likes new tech, and this confidence package will now be standard in all of Winnebago’s Class A gas RV’s.
New Engine, Chassis and Suspension Upgrades
Our test vehicle was a 2023 Winnebago Adventurer 36Z, so it has the new Ford F53 Chassis with a 7.3 Liter V8 Engine. This engine replaced the one I have in my Winnebago Vista, a 6.8 Liter V10. The advantage of the new engine is it can put out more torque at a low RPM. It also has more horsepower than the previous V10 engine. This was something that I could feel in the test drive right away during acceleration. It was quicker and quieter while getting up to speed. Our test vehicle also had Sumo Springs and a Safe T Plus bar, which can now all be added on from the Winnebago factory. We were in a 30th Anniversary Adventurer with the Safe T Plus bar and Sumo Springs standard.
The Test Drive
Mark Lafferty joined us during the test drive and drove a Winnebago Solis, a Class B van. The purpose of this vehicle was that Mark would drive in front of us and use the Solis to trigger some of the systems in the Adventurer. So, with walkie-talkies in hand to communicate with Mark, we were off! We set the intelligent adaptive cruise. With Mark in front of us, he would slow down to see if the Adventurer would recognize the speed change and match the speed of the Solis. It did. Then Mark sped up. The Adventurer again matched his speed until we reached the set speed of 60 mph. The system worked very well. I felt just this one addition would make the overall driving experience more pleasant and relaxing as now all I was doing was steering.
Pre-Collision Braking
We also wanted to test pre-collision with active braking support, so we had Mark slow down to 5 mph. The Adventurer quickly realized this, pre-charged the brakes, and started applying them, giving me plenty of time to step in and stop the RV before driving into the back of the Solis. Winnebago either had a lot of faith in me or the new system, maybe a little bit of both. One thing of note is that the Adventurer will not come to a complete stop on its own. You do need to step in and stop it. The system is designed to alert and start breaking, giving you time to react and stop the vehicle completely.
Hill Start Assist
Another feature that I thought was nice was the hill start assist. Most of my RV driving is done while flat-towing a vehicle. I thought this feature would be nice when starting on a hill since rolling backward with a flat tow is bad. It can bind up a tow bar. I found the manual shifting to be a nice feature as well. With this, you could put the RV in a lower gear before hitting an incline instead of waiting for the automatic transmission to figure out that it needed to downshift after you were already into a climb. I think this will significantly improve uphill climbs. I tested this, but the test was performed in Iowa, where there are no significant grade changes to fully get a feel for how the manual shift would work on a hill climb, but it did work great on flat ground.
Lane Assist
One of the systems that I would probably find myself turning off is the lane assist, but like I said earlier, that is the nice thing about this package, you can turn off what you don’t want to use. I adjusted the sensitivity of the lane assist to low. I still felt it alerted me of lane departures too early and often. Remember that the Class A RV is a large vehicle that takes up the entire lane. It doesn’t take much to drift a smidge outside your line, especially on a windy day. Maybe it’s something I would need more time using to see if I would like it. If it senses you often going out of the lane, it displays a coffee cup, suggesting it’s break time. This is a nice feature.
I could not test the auto high beams because the test was done during the day. My wife’s Ford has this feature in her car, and I like how it works. You can turn the high beams on, and when the car sees another set of lights, either headlights or taillights, it turns the high beams off until the vehicle passes. It is quick to react.
My Thoughts on the Driver Confidence Package
Overall, I enjoyed my test drive. I thought all these systems combined worked well and never felt intrusive. I think it made the overall driving experience very pleasant. As I drove, I felt very relaxed behind the wheel while conversing with John Millis. The best way to describe the system is that it is always paying attention and unable to be distracted.
I look forward to having these features in our next Winnebago. I’m not sure when that will be, but I just reached 120,000 miles on our Vista. It may be soon!
Take care all and safe travels!
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