Rough Ride

[Wizard]

I'm posted this on another forum but thought I would get another thread started here.Let me tell me story and problems with rough ride.

The MH rode good, considering its a truck chassis, when we bought it and did up until last spring.

That's when we had new Goodyears installed prior to a trip from Georgia to Wyoming. The tire dealers balancer broke when he tried to balance the new tires so he suggested using Equal in the tires as we was leaving the next week. On the way to Nashville we noticed that on some roads the ride was fine but others it seemed like everything was about to shake apart.

We made it on to St. Louis and couldn't stand it any more. Had a Goodyear dealer check the front tires and he found one that could not be balanced and he replaced it, removed the equal from both front tires and balanced them. This made a big improvement, but was still a terrable ride compaired to before the new tires, and we made it back home.

Took it to a Goodyear truck tire dealed here at home, he removed the Equal from the other tires and balanced all 6 tires. Still not much improvement.

The only thing I can think is that when installing the new tires, we used the onboard jacks to raise the MH tires off the ground. This may be the only time the suspension has been stretched to its max. Could this have had something to cause the problem.

I have been thinking about the spring shackle bushings and could one be stuck, but on a 5K trip, I would think that it would shake loose. I did, after all this install new Koni's but they didn't seen to help any.

I have been thinking that when I get a little more money saved, that I may try to find a good chassis shop but for now I am going to try lubricating the bushings just to see what happens. Anybody know of a good rubber lube.

I guess the next thing would be to have the Kelderman system installed.

Love the MH but hate the ride and wift is starting to not want to ride in it. Sorry to be so long winded.

[bellsharbor]

Hi Jerry---Have you weighed the coach and adjusted the air in the tires according to the Goodyear chart? Too much air can sure make for a rough ride. John

[frankdamp]

When we got our 02 Georgetown 32, it had its original Goodyears on. We did one short trip, under the assumption it was a shakedown and that the tires would be replaced the following week.

The ride was particularly bad on concrete roads with transverse fillers between the panels. The thump-bang was enough to rattle the fillings in your teeth.

As planned, we went to our local Les Schwab store to get new tires. They're Toyo, 16-ply rated, which gives us more load carrying ability than the max loads for the chassis.

Second trip this weekend and we notice a big difference. That short, sharp jolt is gone, on the same roads as it was so bad before. Before the next trip, detailed weighing is planned and adjustment of pressures to match the actuals.

One thing I still plan to do is to spray the leaf srpings with a graphite or moly lubricant. We get a clonk from the right front suspension on some bumps and sometimes if there's a rolling motion. As leaf springs deflect, the leaves slide relative to each other due to the flattenig of the elliptical shape. When a rig is not used for some time, as ours was, rust between the leaves can make them stick. Shackle bushes can also dry out and stick.

I'd seen a product calle "Ru-Glide" recommended. It's used to lubricate tire beads for ease of installation. NAPA is a source. I went to get a spray can and found that the smalles container of the stuff is one gallon! NAPA guy recommended silcone lubricant on the rubber suspension bits.

The truck ancestry of the F53 is pretty obvious when you're driving it, but I hope some of the non-linearities of the handling will be helped by a good DIY lube job.

[LVJ58]

Hi Jerry, before you spend a lot of $$$ on the Kelderman system, try what bellsharbor suggested weigh coach and perhaps you can safely run lower air pressure in tires. If you have load range F or G, I wouldn't go below 80psi.

I would then recommend installing Koni FSD shocks on the front suspension. they're around $150 each, but well worth the $$$. I installed them on ours and it made a world of difference in softening the ride without compromising tracking and handling. Later you may want to install them on the rear suspension.

Also the next time you replace your tires I would highly recommend Bridgestone R250F series tires or Continental HSR's.

Good luck & safe travels

[RVhauler]

Kris it is a bit difficult to bounce the rear of a motor home to check the shocks. If the guy is big enough to do that then i sure don't want him mad at me

[96 Wideglide]

Is Equal, the same as Dyna beads ?

[Wizard]

Quote:

Originally Posted by 96 Wideglide Is Equal, the same as Dyna beads ?

Same principle but different product and they both work the same way.

Equal is a powder and Dynabeads is more like pebbles.