My RV is like riding a bucking bull at a rodeo.

[davidnanna]

I had a similar experience a couple of years ago. Long story short, when I retracted my auto levelers, the air suspension did not engage and therefore I was actually riding on the frame. Any bump we hit was unreal! I pulled over and parked. I engaged and disengaged the auto leveler system twice and it did the trick...the air suspension was back and so was my smooth ride. I always double check now when I pull the levelers up, to ensure the hanging rear mud/Rock flap behind the rear wheels is off the ground- meaning the air suspension is engaged.

[rske]

Your description matches a diesel pusher with a leaking or broken air line to the air bag suspension. Bad shocks will not lift you off your chair when you hit a bump, deflated air bags will
Robert S
02 Monaco Knight

[tomur2]

Our shocks are good, the tire pressure as it should be but we had a mechanic tell us that this is the norm for the Cevrolet based during the years around our MH was made, a 1997 Itasca. The coils springs and the shocks will not hold it and the bouncy is normal. We were the 2nd RV that he had that morning with the same complaint and we were both within this time frame. Talk to an old timer mechanic if you unit was made back then. Learn to account for it until you are ready to upgrade.

[Fro]

about a year ago, I had the same issue. My feet were actually slapping the floor I was bouncing so hard. I pulled into a cummins dealership and the mechanic knew exactly issue. There is some equalization switch under the coach, (don't know the name of it) but the suspension is held level by the position of the switch... anyway, the bracket broke so it was just dangling and bumps or wind would cause the switch to move and,.. well you know.. did the polka in the drivers chair... He charged just for the part, about 20 bucks..

[SuperGewl]

OP, would you be so kind as to fill out your Signature with your MH info so that we may help you better.
It nice to know exactly what we are dealing with, to give you better, more accurate information or even BS

[palkojj]

I just spent a little more $$ and put Bilsteins on my 96 class C 28' Four Winds.
The results were nothing short of amazing. I can't recommend them enough. You sound like you definitely need shocks

[tmw188]

I know most praise the Konis and maybe they are that good, but I would think any new properly rated shocks would feel great too?

[Michael Scott]

Originally Posted by Jim_HiTek

It's called porpoising and you need new shocks all around, not just the front.

UNLESS, of course, the PO just DID them last year.

Sounds like the FRONTS definitely have to go.......but have a reputable shop check the rears before just trashing them.

Good luck!

[Ron Dittmer]

Originally Posted by Ron Dittmer

If you have a floor or bottle jack that can, lift the entire front or front corner one at a time and inspect the top of your shock mounts. If you see a shiny metal rod on the top, your upper shock bushings are severely shot, in need of replacement.

I recently replaced all my Koni-RV shocks with heavy duty Bilstein shocks and am happy with them, This was on a 2007 E350 chassis with standard 158 inch wheel base.

Adding:

I had the same bouncing as you describe which caused me to do as I suggested to you. Our rig had 35,000 miles on the original Koni-RV shocks that were installed when the rig was new.

I lifted the front of our rig with my floor jack like this.

One test I did was quickly dropping the front end by quickly releasing the floor jack. With the old Koni-RV shocks, the front bounced up and down like it had no shocks at all. Doing the same with the new HD Bilstein shocks installed, the front dropped down smoothly, came up smoothly, and stopped just right!

Look closely at the bad front tire thread-wear in the picture of our front end lifted. You can see how badly damaged the tires got from the bouncing.

This is what I found with the front lifted. Both front shocks had the same problem.
See the shinny stem up top? They became exposed from top bushings being worn-away.


This is what happened to my front Koni-RV shocks from the play introduced from worn-away top bushings.


This is one of a few reasons why I switched to the heavy duty Bilstein shocks. Note the difference in size of bushings, washers, and shock stems.


They are the same physical size, but the Bilstein shocks are reverse-mounted, flipped-engineered. They clear the tight upper area of the E350 frame better. My original Koni-RV shocks had upper area abrasions from the tight fit.





My rear Koni-RV shocks were physically fine but thought it best to replace them too. After I was all done, I was glad I replaced the rears because one old rear shock was significantly weaker than the other when compressing and extending it by hand.

The Koni-RV shocks I had gotten installed back in the summer of 2007, had a short term warranty. The HD Bilsteins have a limited life-time warranty. If or when the bad wear happens again, I hope to exercise that warranty.

[Nicolaas]

Originally Posted by jrsr1

When I hit the smallest bump, (or worse) two in a row, the motor home starts to bounce in the front end. It seems like it bounces 5 feet, but Im sure its only about a foot or so, but it has to run its course before it settles down. Any idea what could cause that? It bounced my dog a foot into the air and onto the floor.

Sounds like you're driving I5 in CA worst road maintenance ever
Sorry for the dog

[dnrainey]

Hi, we owned a Gas Pusher Winn Destination and had the exact same problem. Replaced the shocks with the Koni's that are specifically made for the coach and completely eliminated the porpoising.

[Sitinin]

Sounds like new shocks are in order

[Sitinin]

Time for new shocks

[Klieva]

So along this same thread, twice this past summer I had a similar problem. Heading down to Texas I hit a really rough patch of road on US287 just as crossed the OK line out of Colorado. My front end started jumping up and down real bad. Steering wheel was shaking so bad I thought I was going to lose control. Lead me to believe I had blown a steering tire. Got it over to shoulder but couldn't see a problem. About 100 miles later I hit an unavoidable chuck hole and it happened again. No shoulder this time. Got to Amarillo RV park and had a RV mechanic look at it but he also couldn't see anything really wrong. Went on to San Antonio and all the way back to Salt Lake without a problem. Anybody have an idea.

1998 38' Bounder with tag axle.