XCS Chassis Ride and Handling

[chasfm11]

I've fixed several other problems that I inherited when we bought our coach last year and now feel it is time to look at the ride. Overall, I'm not displeased with the ride and handling but admit that, under the right road conditions, we get more than a bit of porposing. On one highly crowned road from our house, the coach is a handful if I let my speed get up near the posted limited. Normally, however, it drives easily and in the 12,000 miles that I've driven it, I'd say it handles a better than regular passenger vehicles that I've had. I haven't driven anything else in this size but trucks to compare it to and don't consider them a valid comparison.

I've done some research and Freightliner offered a Service Bulletin to cover XCS ride problems under warranty but only if the owner complained. I not longer have warranty on the chassis and could only buy the parts individually (they were never packaged together). Bilstein does not make a shock for this chassis so my choices are the Monroes that came with it (and would have been replaced in the Freighliner SB) or Konis.

I've considered a)trying to find a good truck front end guy to look at my situation before doing anything, b)replacing the front shocks with Konis (@ $166 each) and working the adjustments as needed, c)replacing all 4 shocks with Konis (there may be some problems on the availability of the rears) d)replacing the shocks and adding the $580 sway bar from the Freightliner SB and e) doing nothing and believing that I wasn't going to make a substancial difference anyway.

Any suggestions? BTW, the coach has 37K miles and is 5 years old.

[chasfm11]

I've fixed several other problems that I inherited when we bought our coach last year and now feel it is time to look at the ride. Overall, I'm not displeased with the ride and handling but admit that, under the right road conditions, we get more than a bit of porposing. On one highly crowned road from our house, the coach is a handful if I let my speed get up near the posted limited. Normally, however, it drives easily and in the 12,000 miles that I've driven it, I'd say it handles a better than regular passenger vehicles that I've had. I haven't driven anything else in this size but trucks to compare it to and don't consider them a valid comparison.

I've done some research and Freightliner offered a Service Bulletin to cover XCS ride problems under warranty but only if the owner complained. I not longer have warranty on the chassis and could only buy the parts individually (they were never packaged together). Bilstein does not make a shock for this chassis so my choices are the Monroes that came with it (and would have been replaced in the Freighliner SB) or Konis.

I've considered a)trying to find a good truck front end guy to look at my situation before doing anything, b)replacing the front shocks with Konis (@ $166 each) and working the adjustments as needed, c)replacing all 4 shocks with Konis (there may be some problems on the availability of the rears) d)replacing the shocks and adding the $580 sway bar from the Freightliner SB and e) doing nothing and believing that I wasn't going to make a substancial difference anyway.

Any suggestions? BTW, the coach has 37K miles and is 5 years old.

[Hooligan]

Chasfm, I had the chassis update 32/04 installed under warranty and it did reduce the "excessive rebound". The upgrade consisted of new sway bars front and rear, seem to be larger diameter and longer arms, and included re-valved Monroe shocks as well as a noise reduction package for the springs. FTL allowed 9.1 hours labor for the upgrade. The SB did say the shocks were replaced to reduce the rebound. I can't make out the part # on the shocks but they have a Freightliner label.
The last year the XCS was in production it came with air suspension in the front but I don't know the manufacturer. I think at that point the XCS and the XC chassis were so similar the XCS was discontinued..
Hope this helps,

[Diplomat Don]

Chasfm..Look to see if you can add a set of double shocks to the rear. I've done this on a couple of gas chassis and it did wonders for very little $$$.

[Hooligan]

Chasfm, FTL Part Numbers for the shocks in the upgrade: (much easier to read in daylight)
Front 16-16043-000 Model CE19T2D
Rear 16-15592-000 Model CH20S2A

Hopefully these are different than the original shocks you have now, are still available from Freightliner-- and will improve the ride.

Monroe shows the new part number for crossover but has the same Monroe number as the originals.
http://www.monroeheavyduty.com/documents/catalog2005/MH...ational_vehicles.pdf

[chasfm11]

Thanks Don and especially Hooligan.

I just tried to contact two different Freightliner Oasis dealers. After 1/2 hour on the phone, could not reach either parts dept. to check availability and pricing of shocks. Found an on-line parts request form on the Web for one dealer and made the request. Turnaround is supposed to be within 2 days. We'll see.

Based on your input, Hooligan, I'm going to do something. My first thought is to replace all 4 shocks and see what happens from there. I'm not a big fan of Monroe shocks so I'm not positive that I'm going to go that way. Some of that will depend on the pricing FTL comes back with. I wonder how much of the your Service Bulletin solution was from the shocks and how much was from the anti-sway bars, Hooligan. I've looked at the anti-squeek part of the SB and that looks easy enough to do. Even the anti-sway bar only requires drillng 4 holes in the frame to mount it. It would definitely be a "measure multiple times, drill once" activity for me LOL.

Thanks again for taking the time to look up those part numbers. I'll be sure to post the answer I get from FTL and let you know where I'm going from here. At least I'm pretty sure that my original option E (do nothing) isn't the way that I'm going.

[chasfm11]

After a week of trying every day to reach both of the Freightliner dealer's parts department, I've been unsuccessful. In addition, the promised e-mail response is now a number of days past due. I seriously doubt that I'll get any response until I physically drive to one of the places. Even then, there is no guarntee that I would leave with the parts. I really dislike dealing with Freightliner.......

[Hooligan]

Chasfm: I've had good luck with Empire Trucking, I sent a PM with phone numbers if you want to try them.

[eghershey]

I have an 01 XCS Freightliner chassis, no air suspension at all. I replaced the front shocks with Monroes about 2000 miles ago and it completely stopped the porposing and the ride is great. You can get them from Stengler Bros for 76.26 including freight. Three day shipment. They are the Monroe Gas Magnum RV, Part No M557028 for the front. They are on the web and the phone # is 610-433-3149

[chasfm11]

Thanks, Hershey. We just came back from a 500 mile round trip where everything was smooth until we hit I-20 around Tyler, TX. We had a couple of places where the rebound was "interesting".

I should have time to make some calls today and am probably going to go ahead with the Monroes rather than the Koni brand. I'm much prefer to do something that others with the same chassis have already done and are pleased with.

Thanks again for your feedback.

Charlie

[RedT]

Chasfm, call 3T's RV Products, Inc

Talk to Paul Smith or John Visser - Paul is an expert in Freightliner suspension systems and has designed a set of shocks to eliminate your problem.

3T's can be contacted at:
1055 Empire Drive
Lake Havasu City, AZ 86404
928-453-3040
800-223-1779
jvisser@3tsrv.com
http://www.3tsrv.com

No interest in this company - just a satisfied customer.

[Radarr]

chasfm,

check your private messages, I left you some information there.

Radarr

[chasfm11]

Update: I've decided to order the Freightliner part numbered shocks. I spoke with Empire as suggested by Hooligan and finally got through to the Dallas Freightliner parts line. They both told me the same thing - Freightliner has both of the front shocks in their parts depot and only one of the rear ones. The very helpful parts manager at Empire suggested that that I get the specs. for the shocks and cross them to a Gabriel alternative. I had already spoken with Freightliner Custom Chassis (they FAXed me the written specs.)who told me that the original shocks were Gabriels and that FCC had done extensive test track work on MHs with Monroe and had developed the replacement part number carried in their parts system as a result of that testing. Those shocks are specifically designed to control re-bound - exactly what I want them to do.

FCC assured me that when my order was placed and couldn't be fulfilled by their parts depot, the vendor (in this case Monroe) would be contacted to either fill my order from their stock or make a new part for me. Because of the potential for multiple freight charges from Empire, I elected to order through Dallas Freightliner. The parts rep. there wanted me to make my order "critical" because of the potential backorder situation but that would have automatically generated another $30 shipping charge without the guarantee of an expedited order. I can bump my order to "critical" later if necessary.

I realize that there aren't a lot of XCS chassis around so I guess I'll just have to wait to see how this plays out. In the mean time, I'm reviewing the service bulletin and trying to decide whether to do the anti-sway bar part, too. I'm still inclined to get the new shocks, install them and then see how the MH responds.

Thanks again for all of your inputs.

Charlie

[chasfm11]

The latest is that I'm in possession of the front shocks and one of the rear shocks. The other is coming from the vendor (Monroe) and the arrival date in Dallas is the end of January.

I'm glad that I'm not in a great hurry. I'm still debating whether to go ahead and install the front shocks by themselves or wait to install all 4 at the same time.