Scary driving coach!

[phatdaddy]

I have a 2004 Meridian 39' coach on freight liner chasis with 20,000 miles that we just bought. Its scary to drive, especially when windy. It wanders and darts to the right. And it seems like the front right corner is dipping down when this happens. The coach has been aligned and has 6 new tires. Is this normal for a coach? I am used to driving Peterbilt semi tractors that dont wander. Anyone have any ideas?? Look forward to feedback.

Thanks
Brad

[Clonetrooper]

I have a 2000 Discovery 38' on a freightliner chassis. Has new tires and been well taken care. Did have some play in the steering wheel. Made it a little tricky at times to keep from wandering. Adjusted steering box to remove play. There's a hole in framerail that box is mounted to you can access adjustment screw and locknut on side of steering box thru. Really made a lot of difference. You can turn shaft going into box while under coach. Might try this and see if there is play in steering linkage.

[FleetMan]

Investigate installing Motion Control Units on the air lines to your air bags. These are restrictor devices which limit the speed/volume of air exiting the air bags when put under pressure like that caused by strong cross winds or passing trucks. Do a search on them, volumes of information has been reported on them. I have them and they make a very noticeable difference in handling in cross wind situations.

[wa8yxm]

There are a few modifications many make to motor homes

Sway bars: Sway is side to side rocking LIke this \|/ (Viewed from rear) that can make you "Adjust" the steering when you should not.

Pan-Hard or Track bars LIke this /|\ viewed from the top Your "house" shifts slightly to the right over the axle. though the wheels are still going straight down the road, you see the rig pointed right or left and compensate. The Pan-hard bar also known as a Trac-Bar such as the Ultra-Power Trac bar or the Davis Tru-Trac, keeps the house properly centered over the axles and eliminates this problem. This is a common part on cars with Strut suspension by the way, not common on vehicles with other kinds of suspension.

Finally a steering stabilizer such as the Blue Ox True Center

This helps keep the wheel centered.. that's all it does.

How much difference can they make?

Well.. On my workhorse I don't have a sway issue that I can detect so I did not put a sway bar on (Workhorse comes with them already installed)

I did, however, put on one Trac-Bar and the Blue-Ox True Center

Now.. Driving home from the install I did not notice much difference.. Till I pushed hte button on the True Center at low speed to re-center (They say to stop by the way) and I was reminded of the airplane movies where the novice pilot takes the airliner off auto-pilot and almost looses it... Yup, the key word, thankfully, is ALMOST in that sentence.

In 2006 I made the same trip twice 2,000 miles.. In jan when I got there it was a releif to drop the towed and drive it

In December... The when I dropped the very same towed, off the very same Motor home.. Man was that sucker hard to drive (The towed that is)

What happened summer 2006? Davis True-Trac + Blue-Ox True Center.

[smlranger]

You might want to get your ride height checked. If it is off, handling can be very difficult.

While I have the 36', mine handles very well. I have the Safe-T-Steer on the front, Koni FSD shocks, and the motion control units.

[Gary RVRoamer]

Definitely not normal. I would be looking at possible suspension problems, such as incorrect ride height or a major air leak on one side.

If you are on the east coast, I'd head to Gafney, SC and the Freightliner factory service center to see what they can find.

Track bars (panhard rods) are not used on air suspensions, which I believe the Meridian has.

[phatdaddy]

Thanks everyone. YThe coach is at a frieghtliner shop as we speak. They are going through the coach suspension and stering box and every thing eles you all have mentioned. will post what they find!
Thanks Brad

[Beabop]

Glad you are having it serviced. Our coach is one hand steering even with winds. Good luck.

[RickO]

Had a very similar feeling about my Itasca 40' DP when we first got it. If you find yourself going north, Henderson's Line Up in Grants Pass, Or really helped me. They perform a Road Test Assessment where they drive your coach along about a 10 mile route they've outlined while you are in the copilot seat. You describe what you experience and they try to duplicate it, assess the coach performance and then propose to you changes which will help the handling.

In my case, that involved the motion control units, Safe-T-Steer stablizer, check alignment, and (although not related to handling) a new bellcrank.

What a difference! At the time, the Safe-T-Steer didn't have a trim kit available to adjust steering trim from the cockpit. It is now available and on my wish list.

Great folks to work with. Good luck. Hope you find a cure because driving your coach should be enjoyable.

[MaverickBBD]

I used to have similar problems. Adjusted tire pressure, had alignment checked, installed Koni FSD's all around, ultra track bell crack and Safe-T-Plus steering control. Now I have to look for trees and flags to see if it is even windy. Absolutely no wind push from other vehicles.

I don't know if I would recommend everyone do this BUT it allowed me to increase travel days by a couple of hours without any increased fatigue.

[phatdaddy]

My Frieghtliner shop found the alingment was off, and the steering box out of specs. They said that will help. I called Jon at Brazel's and talk with him a while, and he recomened Koni shocks,ultratrac bell crank,and motion control. I orderd it all from him, thanks Jon. Should all be at shop Thursday,installed Friday. I will post my findings!!

[MaverickBBD]

That is the exact set up I had installed. You might as well get the Safe-T-Plus installed for piece of mind and control in wind. Please report back and let us know if you notice any difference. Not that I have any doubts.

[Craig P.]

I replaced my OEM Sachs shocks with Koni FSD's, installed Super Steer MCU's and finally, the Steer Safe. What a difference!

I see a lot of people replace their bell crank as well. My coach handles fine as is. What type of handling issue causes people upgrade their bell crank?

Craig

[RickO]

Good question Craig. Speaking only for myself, I think the answer is "the new bell crank didn't improve the handling of my coach." However, I didn't replace it for that reason. When I saw that I couldn't even come close to moving the stock bell crank by hand and the Henderson's BC turned nicely and smoothly on ball bearings... I replaced it so my power steering pump didn't have to grind against that pressure on every turn. From what I know, it could easily be considered a bad investment. It just seemed to me it would make my machine operate more smoothly. If budget trade offs are being considered I sure wouldn't give it a high priority on a relatively new coach.