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taylor1224 · 03-10-2012, 10:11 AM

I have a 2000 holiday rambler 32' class A. It has a ford F-53 chasis with V10 engine. Love everything about it, but the ride is bad. When traveling on roads with large expansion joints, or cracks it jars severly back into the coach. I've installed new good year g149 245/75R 19.5 load range G steer tires-running at minimum air pressure for weight.(steer axel = 5,960 pounds). All new shocks, Firestone airbags on front at 7psi. If anyone has a cure I'd like any help I can get.
Thanks

gauto5150 · 03-10-2012, 10:20 AM

What kind of shocks?
Do you have air bags on the rear axle?

coffeeman · 03-10-2012, 10:38 AM

7# in the air bags seems low. I run around 22# and searching this forum believe that is the range others have set for this chassis. You may want to try that. My ride was fine prior to installing them but afterwards the road joints issue was very much improved.

Wizard · 03-10-2012, 06:16 PM

Another trick is to load as much as you can in the front compartments. The springs are really stiff and weight seems to help. I also sprayed a little tranny fluid on the springs so they would slide against each other easier, seemed to help some.

Wanabee FTer · 03-10-2012, 08:02 PM

Hello taylor1224, and welcome to irv2!

There are many threads concerning harsh ride on the F53 chassis. A guy could spend a lot of money trying to solve this, with limited results. The cheapest thing you can do is load heavy items as close to the front axle as possible, as Wizard suggested. I saw an improvement in ride quality when I added extra batteries in the front of the coach.

If you don't see much improvement after that you could try the Koni FSD's in front.
The internal valving allows for a good amount of movement for small bumps (such as expansion joints) and little movement over larger bumps. My F53 is older then yours but now with the front end loaded, proper tire pressure and the Koni's it rides like a Caddy compared to how it used to ride.

Smitty77 · 03-12-2012, 09:20 AM

All of the other responses are spot on. Suggest you also search on the F53 chassis section, and on other boards too, for items that improved handling.

Our F53 was on a 99 chassis (98 rig), the 18K unit (Bounder T28). It never got to a smooth rider, but big improvements along the way.

I'll repeat the question about 'what shocks', as I found that the best improvement to harsh rides on the front end, was with Koni FSD's.

I also found that by reducing the weight in the tail end, yes shifting as much forward as possible, this helped too. Unless knowing I'm going somewhere without water, I traveled with my rear end water tank at between 1/8 to a max of 1/4. If I knew I was going to a place with dumps for the next stop, I would sometimes travel with my grey tank not drained (on the Bounder, more mid ship, which then added some weight to the front end).

If you see this coach as your long term keeper, then checking into Halderman(SP?) system may be a good idea. Reports by others that this provides the best improvements to the F53 ride...

Best of luck, have fun, be safe,
Smitty