Community Forums

onechaddude · 01-05-2016, 07:38 PM

Bill.

As sanford says the trw steering gear swap is a definite improvement for handling. I have completed the swap myself. I would suggest checking out the thread about the steering swap that's a stickie toward the top of the Monaco page. Some Sheppard gears have lots of play, others have lesser amounts, but I think it's been determined most all do have play. My gear had moderate play compared to others, and I noticed a huge difference afterwards. The thread explains how to measure the play and only you can decide if it's justifiable to change. After the swap on mine it really helped me determine the rear of my coach has wander. I can really feel seat of pants that the rear end wanders especially with a toad hooked up.

We are in the process of trying to help this wander by either a rear sway bar and/or bushing replacement. Stay tuned and hopefully together we can overcome. Safe travels.

Chad

Hurk · 01-06-2016, 08:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by garciawr

We're in negotiation to buy a 2002 HR Ambassador which has not had the trailing arm upgrade. We're close on price and the dealer has agreed to fix the problem before we take delivery. I want him to use Source Engineering's kit and he wants to use the kit from Monaco. We're only buying the coach if the SE kit is used and the dealer is exploring the impact on their bottom line. Besides the 4-Bag ride enhancement kit, what else should we look at installing?

barmcd

I bought a 2008 Cayman in August 2014 and have since installed the SE trailing arms and REK. They improved ride and improved the proposing. I still was not satisfied. based on Hurk's recommendation I upgraded from 255 tires to 275 tires enabling me to run 90 psi all the way around. This helped the ride a lot, I'm 90% satisfied with my 4 bagger ride. I'm looking forward to any other ride improvements the 4 bagger club comes up with.

Bill I have the same coach as yours and tire pressure charts showed 95psi front and 90 duals. My weight is 10,500 front and 17,400 rear. I run 100psi front and 95 rear giving a 5 psi safety bump. Are you sure 90psi is safe. What is your weight?

Hurk

garciawr · 01-06-2016, 04:00 PM

Sanford,

Good question, I don't really know. How would I find out?

Bill

garciawr · 01-06-2016, 04:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hurk

Bill I have the same coach as yours and tire pressure charts showed 95psi front and 90 duals. My weight is 10,500 front and 17,400 rear. I run 100psi front and 95 rear giving a 5 psi safety bump. Are you sure 90psi is safe. What is your weight?

Hurk

Hurk

Mine weight fully loaded is 10900 front and 17600 rear. The tire shop that put on my tires said it was safe. It handles fine, I put Michelin 275 tires on so there quite a bit bigger then the 255's

deSanford · 01-06-2016, 05:10 PM

Bill check the list of manufacturers etc. sometimes located in your clothes closet for various units such as air conditioners, microwave and engine serial #s etc, or call Monaco. Sanford PS there are blogs or threads here that could help you. One way is to look at your steering box and see if there is an adjustment "screw" (that would be a TRW).

garciawr · 01-06-2016, 05:25 PM

Sanford
I'll check it out, thanks for the tip.

Bill

flynnwalter · 01-07-2016, 11:20 AM

Hurk, et al
Don't forget the rr4r is famous for poor weight distribution (ours is 2700 lbs heavier passenger rear than driver's) so w/o a four corner weighing an axle weight could leave one side seriously under inflated.

Hurk · 01-07-2016, 12:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by flynnwalter

Hurk, et al
Don't forget the rr4r is famous for poor weight distribution (ours is 2700 lbs heavier passenger rear than driver's) so w/o a four corner weighing an axle weight could leave one side seriously under inflated.

Frank I remember reading you saying this.. So if dual is 17600 you would divide by 4 = 4,400 per tire then you would add 1,350 (2,700/2) for the two passenger tires = 5750 lbs for the dual tires that would be the weight for the duals vs 4,400 lbs. would this be correct?

Hurk

flynnwalter · 01-08-2016, 06:08 AM

Hurk
I just looked up the weight of the heavier side duals on the OEM Goodyear (and later Bridgestone) tire chart and used the same inflation psi for all four dual tires. Repeated the same for front axle (opposite side heavier but not by nearly as much). Changing tire sizes allowed me to drop psi from near max (had trouble getting onboard air compressor that high) to 95psi all around. Make sure when the 4 corner weighing is done that you are loaded as heavily as you will ever be for a trip--full tanks clothing, groceries, etc. Then it is most useful.

flynnwalter · 01-08-2016, 01:42 PM

Hurk--
All tires on the same axle must carry same psi. So the heavy side is what all tires on that axle must be aired up for according to your tires' chart. I probably could lower the air on the front axle just a bit, but like to keep things simple.

jerryjoe55 · 01-08-2016, 03:29 PM

What year Monaco with the r4r chassis do you have.

flynnwalter · 01-09-2016, 02:29 PM

jerryjoe55
Who are you asking?

Hurk · 01-09-2016, 03:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jerryjoe55

What year Monaco with the r4r chassis do you have.

I have a 2007 Cayman 38 ft

Hurk

onechaddude · 01-26-2016, 09:25 AM

Well I've been busy with life and the horrible weather I haven't had much time to check into things. I spoke with a nice guy at supersteer. I noticed on their site they listed as having a rear sway bar for the rr4r. He said it's a roadmaster made bar and the same bar that source engineering sells. He gave me a good price for it but I'm leery of the installation. As source told me, there are no instructions that come with the kit. I'm not even sure there's a good pic. There's a short YouTube video on their site where you can pause and see a decent pic but that's all I've found. He said you have to loosen the axle u bolts to slide a bracket under them. He also said you must remove one side set of tires to retorque the u bolt nuts. I'm not sure if the tires would HAVE to be removed or if there's a way around that. Without decent pics I'm afraid it would be difficult to install.

Does anyone have one of the sway bars so I could get some good pics? I would be willing to try if I had good pics.

Also the guy at supersteer said the sway bar made a HUGE difference in the slow speed hurking and jerking when entering and exiting rough places. Really makes me want one of these.

Chad