W24 Tail Wag

[AKIQPilot]

I finally got to spend a little more time with the Adventurer. We last saw the coach on May 30. It's been well taken care of at my Brother in Laws in southern Illinois. It's been -8 or colder every morning for the last 10 days. Of course I would pick the coldest week of the year to jump in the motorhome.

Anyway. This coach had some serious tail wag when being overtaken by a Semi. The rear would move to the right a foot or more. It was a bit challenging at speed or in corners. Nothing really upset the chassis as bad as being overtaken by a semi with a big box van. I decided to tackle it one mod at a time so I installed the Ultra RV Performance rear track bar as the first measure to fight the wag.

Install was very easy. Took me about 30 min to sort through every item and get end wrenches and sockets all in hand for the task. I spent a little time making sure every bolt threaded into the brackets perfectly. I waited till the heat of the day to start the install, turns out that was about +10f. Threw down a piece of cardboard and climbed under. The center section bolts came right loose with a 1/2" breaker bar. My axle took the larger baracket and
bolts. I reused the factory washers under the URVP bracket. Everything fit perfect and it was easy to clear the brake and ABS lines on the frame. I used basic hand tools, no air or electric and it took me an hour to install. I spent a little extra time aligning the frame side bracket, just so there was plenty of clearance but not to much to introduce bump steer.

Results. Ok so without a doubt a 100% improvement over stock. No more Tail Wag from Semi's overtaking me. I left Effingham IL on 01/02. I'm on the West side of Albuquerque now. 1160 miles. I typically drive around 60-62. I experimented with every speed from 55 to 75 and for sure the wall of wind that hits my driver side rear is completely negated by the track bar. As the rig continues past you feel the wall on the front axle and there is a slight correction needed but the rear is completely tamed down with the track bar. Definitely a huge handling improvement over stock.

Next I'm thinking front track bars followed by sway bars. There is no doubt the rig is way better with the rear track bar alone. Definitely worth the price even if you had to pay someone $200 to install it.

Props to the guys at Ultra RV Prod for building a simple, easy to install solution to the Tail Wag blues.

[Brazel's RV Performance]

Thanks for the great write up, we appreciate it!!!

[MoCoTom]

Tom,
The front track bar should solve most of the remaining push felt by passing trucks, at least it did on mine. However as a long time driver of OTR trucks, I can assure you during certain highway wind conditions nothing will stop that push feeling created by a large vehicle overtaking you.

[GeeWillakers]

AKIQpilot, I have the rear track bar and don’t get tail wag but do experience a small push requiring a little steering correction at times. Do you have a front track bar on your W22 and does it correct for this? Also, are antisway bars worthwhile?

[vettenuts]

I have the front track bar, no rear, and feel a push but no extreme tail wag. On my W24 Newmarket. Wondering how much the rear track bar would improve things.

[George Schweikle]

I'm a big fan of track bars and suggest the leverage of the longer, slab-sided, rear overhang will emphasize any tendency for push or wag more than in the front. That's a long winded way of offering my opinion that a rear track bar should "improve things" (A rear track bar made a big difference on our Trek).

Originally Posted by vettenuts

I have the front track bar, no rear, and feel a push but no extreme tail wag. On my W24 Newmarket. Wondering how much the rear track bar would improve things.

[RamblinFever]

Ditto on the rear track bar. I installed one after 2 years on the road and was amazed at the difference. Leaf springs don't have good lateral rigidity and I believe this should have been factory equipment. There is still a push when being passed by a semi but it steers me slightly to the right so does not bother me much. I do not feel the need to add anything else, but would try the front track bar if I wanted more.

[AKIQPilot]

Thanks for the replies guys, pretty much confirms exactly what I have experienced. We drove 1700 miles over 4 days.

The real proof of whether the tail wag was tamed down came when we pushed well into the evening and drove at night. At night I didn't spend a lot of time looking in the mirror to see what was passing me. Semi's would be 10-15' ahead of me before I knew what they were. No question the rear tail wag is eliminated. My DW was even impressed with how much the whole coach seemed to settle down with the rear track bar.

I still have a little twitch in the front when a semi goes by or when there are several drafting each other and they pass me. I know the front track bar will eliminate this. That said the front end twitch is very minor compared to what was going on before the rear track bar.

Over 4 days and 1700 miles I got to experience just about every condition that would typically make driving one of these huge bread vans a hand full. Head wind, side wind, semis of every size and configuration. Being passed while going 55mph and being passed while going 75mph. There is no doubt the rear track bar was a huge improvement and there is no doubt that the Ultra RV Products track bar was very well made and very easy to install.

My W22 Itasca has every suspension mod made for that chassis. Front and rear track bars, front and rear sway bars, Koni's, Safe T steer, etc. I installed them all at once when the motorhome had about 5000 miles on it. That thing is a beast. It rides and handles like a dream for what it is. I'm going to get the Adventurer there too but one mod at a time so I can tell what improvements were actually realized.

[annisguy]

I have a 2005 Winnebago Adventurer 35U with the workhorse chassis. Would like to install a rear trac bar. All available trac bars I can find install from the differential to the passenger side frame. My Adventurer has a dual exhaust to just in front of the Diff which combines into a single pipe over the rear axle on the passenger side and then exits on the drivers side. This a stock from factory configuration.
The exhaust pipe is in the way on all the trac bars I can find as they all mount to the passenger side frame rail.

Anybody have a solution or a trac bar that addresses this problem. One supplier told me to redo the exhaust so it exits on each side ahead of the rear wheels. That's not an inexpensive fix and I prefer to have the exhaust as supplied by the manufacturer.

Thanks

[tmw188]

Originally Posted by annisguy

I have a 2005 Winnebago Adventurer 35U with the workhorse chassis. Would like to install a rear trac bar. All available trac bars I can find install from the differential to the passenger side frame. My Adventurer has a dual exhaust to just in front of the Diff which combines into a single pipe over the rear axle on the passenger side and then exits on the drivers side. This a stock from factory configuration.

The exhaust pipe is in the way on all the trac bars I can find as they all mount to the passenger side frame rail.



Anybody have a solution or a trac bar that addresses this problem. One supplier told me to redo the exhaust so it exits on each side ahead of the rear wheels. That's not an inexpensive fix and I prefer to have the exhaust as supplied by the manufacturer.



Thanks

Did you check with the two most popular venders listed in this thread?

[AKIQPilot]

Originally Posted by tmw188

Did you check with the two most popular venders listed in this thread?

He did. He started another thread and got some good advice. One of those vendors even replied and may have a solution.

Cheers