Excessive wandering

[Papa_Jim]

Originally Posted by moisheh

Jim: There is one MH aligment expert in Manitoba. Penner Performance in Steinbach ( actually Blumenort). Not that far from you. I used to drag race with Len Penner. There is not a day that goes by without one or two units being on his lot. Many RV'rs bring their units from Winnipeg to have them aligned. They do a true 4 wheel alignment. It is worth the trip. The only good MH alignment shop in Winnipeg was sold and the staff is not the same. I don't even know if they still do MH's. Bring your unit out this way and we will have coffee or a beer somewhere. We are not too far away. There is a great shop in Minneapolis if you ever get to MN.

Thank you for the referral. I will give Penner Performance a call.

You're right. There's no decent alignment shop left in Winnipeg. I had the 4 wheel alignment checked with front end alignment three years ago at a truck alignment shop in Brandon. I had alignment checked with front end alignment work at Freightliner in Winnipeg. Both shops said everything was in perfect like new condition, and front end alignment was actually good in specs. But they both had a real nice hefty bill for me to pay. Neither shop affected any change in the way the coach handled.

[crah]

Originally Posted by jimkate

Thank you for the referral. I will give Penner Performance a call.

You're right. There's no decent alignment shop left in Winnipeg. I had the 4 wheel alignment checked with front end alignment three years ago at a truck alignment shop in Brandon. I had alignment checked with front end alignment work at Freightliner in Winnipeg. Both shops said everything was in perfect like new condition, and front end alignment was actually good in specs. But they both had a real nice hefty bill for me to pay. Neither shop affected any change in the way the coach handled.

Jim

What steer tires are you running? Just curious.

[NITEHAWK]

I was informed by the alignment specialist at Foretravel in Nacogdoches, Texas that a Motorhome is not a truck and should not be aligned like one. This comment was made after he did an alignment on our coach. Steering went from wonder (as in: I wonder where this rig will go now) to wonderful!! The DW had watched me fight the handling all the way from Wisconsin to Texas and said there was no way she would ever drive it. After the alignment she drove about 200 miles and enjoyed driving.

[nodine]

As others have pointed out, if your problem has a solution, it is next door to you in Orlando. Josams! Besides alignment, wander can be caused by sloppy linkage, a bad steer box, poor steer tires, and believe it or not, improper torque on the front wheel bearings. I know that Lazydays has taken coaches to Josams in the past and would work that angle presistently.


Bob

[Papa_Jim]

Originally Posted by crah

Jim

What steer tires are you running? Just curious.

Changed tires a couple of years ago to find out if the problem was the tires. Switched from a Goodyear brand tire to Dunlop tires. Made absolutely no difference.

[crah]

Originally Posted by jimkate

Changed tires a couple of years ago to find out if the problem was the tires. Switched from a Goodyear brand tire to Dunlop tires. Made absolutely no difference.

Thank you. Good to know.

[Dutch Star Don]

Alan......No doubt you have an issue that needs to be corrected. My handling on a short coach has always been pretty good, but great when I got it properly 4 wheel aligned and the mechanic changed up the specs to a little more toe-in.

Something I will throw out to you to try on your next drive. It may sound silly, but tilt the steering wheel farther back toward your body. The more the wheel is in the upright position, the more you tend to oversteer.

Since you've owned a Calss A before, you've probably already adjusted your driving, but make sure your steering for a point about 150' - 200' down the road. If you look directly in front of the coach and try to steer to stay exactly in your lane, you'll be all over the road.

[moisheh]

I have been taking an 8 week class one driving course. CDL to all of the Yankees. Most of the driving schools use real POC's as the students rip those trucks apart. Last week we were out on the highway @ 60 MPH. This Peterbilt is about 9 years old and although it only shows 500,000 km the instructor says it is in the many millions. Even so @ 60 mph with a reefer trailer ( heavier) it still tracks like a Silverado. Very little correction is required. So Jim does have a point. If an 18 wheeler can hold the road why not a MH? Our Dynasty handles well but it is not like driving a small truck. Nor has any MH I have driven handle like a PU . Nothing we can do about the high COG but maybe the chassis mfrs. have to think out of the box and improve the handling. BTW: I have driven a late model Wanderlodge and even though that is probably the best handling coach ever produced it still was not as good as the 18 wheeler.

[deSanford]

You can buy "Peterbuilt" motor homes. deSanford

[Zanthus]

Attended Good Sam's Rally in Phoenix. Went to a work shop on this subject. Acording to the lecturer the primary culpert is front end alignment, specifically the "caster". For some reason the lecturer indicated many front end shops do not do the "caster". He said find a shop that does it all and check them out as to reputation. Have a front end alignment done before looking elsewhere.

[Papa_Jim]

My rambling about the easy to handle Van Hoole and the bad handling Van Hoole coach was primarily to help Alan really realize how important it is to force the manufacturer to deal properly with this issue.

When I talked about the handling problems with our own coach, once again I was trying to make the point that unless the problem gets solved by the manufacturer now, there's a strong possibility that it will never get solved.

I was not trying to sabotage the thread and turn it into a discussion about my own problems with my own coach. If that is the impression I gave, I apologize.

[Coma]

Originally Posted by moisheh

Even so @ 60 mph with a reefer trailer ( heavier) it still tracks like a Silverado. Very little correction is required. So Jim does have a point. If an 18 wheeler can hold the road why not a MH? Our Dynasty handles well but it is not like driving a small truck. Nor has any MH I have driven handle like a PU . Nothing we can do about the high COG but maybe the chassis mfrs. have to think out of the box and improve the handling.

The DP has much of its Mass behind the rear wheels. It is kind of like like an arrow flying backwards. The truck OTOH has its mass between the front and rear axles with trailers pin weight on the rear so as to stabilize.

The DP is dynamically unstable and must have different steering alignment as was mentioned earlier. One of the other factors is tires and sidewall stiffness. One aspect of our good rides is the softer sidewall, but Iv'e been thinking that it contributes to some of the wandering, too. We have slip angle of the tread on the road but a softer sidewall tire is going to have the rim at a larger angle in the tire. So the two angles would be additive. Additionally, as the rim turns the soft sidewall tire has a bit more lag before the tire turns, which we see as a dead spot. If properly aligned the all this is minimized. However, if all this stuff is additive toward instability, then we have a wandering MH. This is another reason to have a MH with a tag axle, preferably one that steers, too. $$$$

FWIW IMHO

[Mooseguy]

I too have this issue. 2007 Fleetwood Bounder. I'm thinking of adding steer safe and Koni shocks????

[rpasetto]

Originally Posted by Zanthus

Attended Good Sam's Rally in Phoenix. Went to a work shop on this subject. Acording to the lecturer the primary culpert is front end alignment, specifically the "caster". For some reason the lecturer indicated many front end shops do not do the "caster". He said find a shop that does it all and check them out as to reputation. Have a front end alignment done before looking elsewhere.

Yes, many shops that call what they do "alignment" set only the toe-in, not caster or camber. One needs to watch out for that.