Swaying Winnebago

my Cabin · 07-12-2009, 06:26 AM

Has anyone ever addressed the problem of rolling or swaying while driving down the freeway?
I have a 2002 Winnebago Journey DL on a Freightliner chassis.
Love it but it seams to be effected a lot by the wind and turning.
Would stabilizer bars help?

mrschwarz · 07-12-2009, 08:03 AM

There is an extensive discussion about that here: http://www.irv2.com/forums/f26/super...-wow-6688.html.

wa8yxm · 07-12-2009, 08:58 AM

There are 3 products that seem to help (Truly do help in some cases) with control of your RV

Sway bars control side to side sway \|/ type sway. Very nice, Workhorse blessed me with a good one

"Wagging" (Where the tail or nose moves side to side) is a Trac Bar or Pan-hard bar. This locks the body in position over the axle so the righ is moving in the direciton it's pointed.

The last is wander of the steering .. SteeringStablizers help here,

I have the Factory Sway bar, as I said, Workhorse blessed me with a good one. A Davis-Tru Trac on the front, and I'll likely put an Ultra-Power trac bar on the rear later

I also have a Blue-Ox True-center steering stablizer. this unit can be adjsuted or re-adjusted to compensate for strange roads or side winds.. FROM THE DRIVER's SEAT.. other makes and models need a wrency, hammer and creeper to crawl under the coach.

Spring of 2006, after 2,000 mile cross country trek, it was a pleasure to drive the towed.. Then I put on the trac bar and stablizer, in December of 2006,,, That same towed was mighty squirlly

dugit999 · 07-12-2009, 10:30 AM

I just put new shocks on my 2003 winnie 35u adventurer and it took a lot of the swaying out.
2003 adventurer w22 35u
97 tracker toad

RCtime · 07-12-2009, 11:02 AM

I have the same chassis as you. You should not experience poor driving,handling from your Journey.
1st. Take it to a reputable alignment shop and get a laser alignment.
You may have some toe out (mine did) which will contribute to poor handling.
That is where I would start, rather than throwing money at it buying aftermarket devices. get it set up correctly, ride height and alignment.
If it still is not right, the previous owner of my coach installed a Safety plus steering control. I have never driven mine without it, so cannot comment, but a lot of people like them and my coach I feel handles very well.

Now, when we drive these big boxes in the wind, you will feel it no matter what, its just to the extent you feel it it compared to similar others, heck I see those big 18 wheelers getting pushed around at times.

2nd. getting rock and rolled going in and out of driveways. Boy I sure do, I just do it very slowly. This is where the Super Steer Motion Control devices come in. It gets excellent reviews for helping out here and is on my wish list.
They also help in lean when rounding curves.

GG1 · 07-12-2009, 04:19 PM

I agree with RCtime, we have an 02 39QD DL, it handles like a dream. If your tires are good and inflated properly, and alignmnet and ride height is set to factory specs all should be good. You should not need any extra add ons. The wind is the only problem, slow down, its a big wind catcher. Also check to se if your storage boxes may be overloaded.

smlranger · 07-13-2009, 10:00 AM

I have same rig. In this order, I added some things and each improved the handling and ride (this was after a wheel alignment and adding new tires, properly inflated based on actual weight loaded for travel):

1. front steering stablizer...the Safe-T-Steer.

2. Koni FSD shocks front and rear

3. Supersteer Motion Control Units, front and rear. The MCU's made the most dramatic difference in handling, especially in turns and in and out of driveways or parking lots.

If I had to choose one of the above that I would do to make the most improvement, it would be the motion control units. The difference was significant....much more improvement that I expected.