That dreaded Tire pressure issue again - directional issues

[RV 4 2]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by rondi:
Mike, PLEASE post back with the with what the shop did/did not do to fix the problem.
ron </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Ron, I will update as I find out things. My coach is 36'5" end to end on a 228"WB so mine is a little different than yours. I also aird down to 95PSI all around. That helped with the rie a little bit but no change in steering. From what the service guy said, he feels I have the front to back weight balance a little off and the front should have more weight for the suspension to work better. My front weight percentage is 49.7% of the rear. He felt that they prefer the front at about 55% of the rear for better weight distribution. Personally I have no clue but I am not about to add weight to the front of the coach to make it better. I wonder what would be the ideal range of weight distribution for a gas coach?

[Fred and Bonnie]

Mike, I think you will have a hard time moving more weight to the front. We have owned three Dolphins and they all have been heavy on the rear axle. Your unit has the refrig and pantry located close to the rear axle, add the weight of food and the clothes in the closet and I suspect you will be even heavier in the rear. When you get the unit aligned the wandering should be better, but to keep from making constant corrections, a steering stablizer will be needed. When you tow, the tail-end wag will be quite noticable, a rear sway bar will correct this.

I know lots of folks will say if the coach is aligned properly and the weight is even, the coach will be fine. I guess it all boils down to what is acceptable. I want my unit to drive like a large car, not a truck.

Fred

[RV 4 2]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Fred and Bonnie:
Mike, I think you will have a hard time moving more weight to the front. We have owned three Dolphins and they all have been heavy on the rear axle. Your unit has the refrig and pantry located close to the rear axle, add the weight of food and the clothes in the closet and I suspect you will be even heavier in the rear. When you get the unit aligned the wandering should be better, but to keep from making constant corrections, a steering stablizer will be needed. When you tow, the tail-end wag will be quite noticable, a rear sway bar will correct this.

I know lots of folks will say if the coach is aligned properly and the weight is even, the coach will be fine. I guess it all boils down to what is acceptable. I want my unit to drive like a large car, not a truck.

Fred </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Fred, thank you for the insight. I know I will have almost no weight to move forward. Oh, BTW, I am sure the basement air does not help. I do plan on the Safe T Steer so that would help for constant corrections. As for the tail wag. everything I have heard is a track bar, not a sway bar. But that may have to wait. As for now, I am just waiting to hear from McBrides in Chino where my coach is.
Thanks again

[Fred and Bonnie]

Mike, you are right, Trac Bar, just my senior moment

Fred

[RV 4 2]

Well, I recieved the call today. Front end alignment was good, no problems from teh chassis inspection.
They weighed my coach again, their weights were worse than mine.
Front axle = 6960lb
Rear axle = 14180lb
They are saying I don't have enough weight on the front axle to allow the suspension to do it's job and unless I can figure out how to load the front end more, I will always have some of the light steering. BUMMER
Unfortunately, there are few things I can do. I plan on carrying less fresh water and I will look at what I can possibly move forward but almost all the heavy stuff is mid-coach or farther forward.
I am going to have them put the Safe-T-Steer on anyway. I asked about Trac bars and and they recommended a front one over a rear one. I will wait on that for now.
Anyone have any other suggestions.
This now makes me wonder if this might be one of the reasons (besides cost) why National stopped basement putting basement air in the Dolphins. Too much junk in the trunk....

[FreshAir]

I wouldn't get down to the"OH BUMMER " state yet. That Dolphin LX on the W24 should be one fine machine. National, in MHO make's a top line coach. You'll get it dialed in but I don;t feel running light on water and moving everything to the front is the answer.

I'm 600 lb, including me,200lb, heavier than you on the front axel. I occasionly pull a 7,200lb boat with 700lb toungh weight, I know, I'm way over on towing. With the 700lb hitch weight added way back there, I don't notice Any difference in handeling. Handels great, other than a little loss of get up & go. I am impressed how well that 8.1 hauls that 7000lb boat.

Anyway, there's a fix out there for your problem and you just need to find it. If you havent already done so, do some searching on iRV2 WH as there's a lot of posts about handeling problems. Good luck, it ain't BUMMER time yet.

[RV 4 2]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by FreshAir:
Anyway, there's a fix out there for your problem and you just need to find it. If you havent already done so, do some searching on iRV2 WH as there's a lot of posts about handeling problems. Good luck, it ain't BUMMER time yet. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Thanks for the encouragement. I have read a lot on here and have gotten many responses as to how things have worked for others. I was just hoping to get it solved this time. I know for many, it took several steps to get there. I read about it a lot but until I actually experienced it, I didn't think it was that much of an issue. Now I know better.

[Fred and Bonnie]

Mike you weights aren't that much different from mine.

The Safe-T-Plus will give you a better front end "Feel".

Fred

[eandy]

RV 4 2, I'm with Fred. My weights are also near the same. Once ran 105# in all tires, working a % off max. It's the only time steering was overly sensitive. May get flamed a bit on this but think having more air in front than rear may be adding to your problem. I normally travel w/full water just to not run out for showers before getting to destination. Adding front steering stabilizer definitely kept mine going straight. Now run all tires @ 95#. Towed has also always tracked straight as well. The only real difference I see in our coaches is mine has the Firestone ride-rites. I know they are supposedly for leveling while parked but have always felt they add greatly to ride comfort and control, keep them at recommended 80#.

[RV 4 2]

Fred, eandy, thanks for the encouragement.
I should be picking up the coach Thurdsay(hopefully). I will see how the Safe t Plus does. I will have the opportunity to see how things work since it will be a 30+ minute drive home and 2 trips coming up soon.
Since I am so light on the front, I may drop the pressure to 90 and keep the rears at the 93-95. Again it will just have to be further tweaking to see what happens. now if I can just find time between trips to get the generator oil leak worked on. Less than 8 hours on it and it has a oil leak somewhere on the crankcase.

[RV 4 2]

Well, drove the coach home today. It is better with the Safe T Steer. It doesn't wander near as much. ALthough, once in a while it still seems to have a mind of it's own, it is not all the time now. I think it could still be better but I still have things to do before I spend any more money. Gotta give McBride's in Chino kudos. They were very professional, Ben was extremely helpful, I was very comfortable with their service, the shop and everything else about them.

[Jeff H]

We have a 2006 Dolphin LX/6320 W22 "34 foot". Our friends have the 2006 Dolphin LX /6340? W22 "35 1/2"? foot.
We have driven theirs and they have driven ours. Definitely a different handling experience. They are still sorting out how to get it to where they like it. We don't have any handling issues at all.
In fact this coach is a dream to drive compared to our last one.
I think John-D's post about handling (on your fluid leak post) is right on.
Hang in there...it really does take about a year to get the "bugs out". Don't forget, it's a box on 6 wheels built by some people with glue, screwguns and staples...they all are.

[RV 4 2]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Jeff Haltom:
We have driven theirs and they have driven ours. Definitely a different handling experience. They are still sorting out how to get it to where they like it. We don't have any handling issues at all.
In fact this coach is a dream to drive compared to our last one.
I think John-D's post about handling (on your fluid leak post) is right on.
Hang in there...it really does take about a year to get the "bugs out". Don't forget, it's a box on 6 wheels built by some people with glue, screwguns and staples...they all are. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>
Jeff, thanks for the encouragement. I know the 2007 6367LX with 3 slides drove differently than my coach and I though it would be worse. Go-figure. And your comment about the 6 wheeled box built with glue... made me laugh. That comment is just so true.

[azloafer]

Originally Posted by RV 4 2

OK, I am still trying to sort out my new MH and the squirrely steering. This is my first MH but the two previous test drives I did were not this bad.
I have read many of the tire pressure threads and I am still a little cornfuzed.

I had it weighed like we would travel minus refrigerator food and a copilot. I have an appointment tomorrow to have a chassis inspection done to see if anything is out of wack(including alignment). And if anything needs to be corrected, I will go from there. My main goal is to avoid spending $$ on aftermarket stuff until I have all the basics checked. This has been the recommendation by this forum and friends.

My coach is in my sig. It has a W-24 with 235/80R22.5 Michelin XRV tires. And the tires were all inflated to 105psi at delivery which I know is too much for the weight of the coach(possibly handling and ride also). They are still up there until I know what I should do.
My coach sticker states inflation pressures should be 105psi for the fronts and 95psi for the rears.

After weighing the coach, the front axle weighs 7040lb and rear axle weighs 14240lb for a 21280lb coach weight.
I did separate corner weights by pulling each corner on the scale to get weights but they do not add up to the axle weights(or total coach weight) and I don't know why. But from what I remember, the fronts are less than 30 lbs and the rears are less than 200lb difference corner to corner. I don't have the weight sheet in front of me.
By dividing the axle weights in half, and then looking at the Michelin inflation chart, my fronts should be between 70-75psi(3520lb each corner) and the rears at 80-85psi(7120lb each corner).
Both seem low from what I have read on the forum from what people seem to air up to. Also, two separate friends have said that they were told by truck and heavy duty tire shops to never run less than 80-85psi in any tires.

So the quandry is now, what do I keep the tires at. Based on above, I was going to run the fronts at 85 and the rears at 85. I know a little experimentation may be involved but my main concern is not to underinflate them.

I know there are lots of opinions on this but I would appreciate any further feedback.

Thanks in advance.

I used this method to get the tire pressure just right: Optimizing Tire Pressure

I do have to add some tips that made this method even better. They used a thin chalk line. I found a way to make the result much more readable. I bought children's sidewalk chalk. It comes in fat pieces of chalk. I broke one so that I had a piece about an inch and a half long and I turned it to the side to make my chalk line. I made several lines on the tires so that when I stopped to take a reading there was a better chance of seeing a chalk line without having to move the coach. The thin line they use in the article is hard to read. It is so simple. If the chalk is worn off on the edges of the tires the PSI is too low. If it is only worn off in the center, the PSI is too high. You are looking for even wear, as simple as that. Other than the fat chalk, their directions are right on. I ended up with a PSI of 105 all the way around. The chalk line wears evenly at this pressure. Try it and you might be surprised when you see the results. Just my guess, but I'll bet you will find that your present PSI will be too low. I hope this helps make a decision.

Yes, I know I am resurrecting an old post, but I think this is good info for anyone and worth a couple of test runs no matter what you do with the results. Joe