Ride Control

[R1Kirby]

I'm not sure if I should post this here on under Vintage. Here goes. Concerned about steering control, I looked under my 1986 ford Class C Motorhome. There are no sway bars to be found. I did replace the old steering stabilizer with a safe-t-plus not long ago. It seemed to help some. I thought part of my problem might be sway bars. Since there are no sway bars under the coach, I am thinking about adding a roadmaster rear sway bar. I do tow a vehicle that weighs 2600 lbs. Any ideas???? Thanks

[Luv2go]

Our last motor home was a on a 1993 E-350. It came stock with a front stabilizer bar but no rear. We replaced the steering stabilizer and added airbags, Monroe shocks, replaced ball joints (your vintage probably has kingpins) and lined it up with only modest increase in handling. It still wanted to wander with some tail wagging the dog.

The new coach (in sig) has both front and rear sway bars and a front track bar, it had some wander and really bad tail wagging the dog. Putting in a rear track bar improved the wander and the tail wagging the dog immensely.

Now that I know better, I would try the rear track bar before the steering stabilizer, but after getting the worn parts (king pins/ball joints, shocks) replaced and the alignment. Then I'd try steering stabilizer, stabilizer bars and airbags.

BTW, we towed a 2800lb car 4-down, the handling was worse with the toad.

Good Luck!
Stewart

[Joe-K]

Our very first motorhome was a 1997 Coachmen 31' long Class C. I learned alot about rigs with that one, expecially what poor handling was like. The motorhome was very top heavy, and swayed terribly. Even at slow speeds I had to be careful pulling turning into a driveway type entrance dip that would be entered diagonally as the side to side whipping action was pretty bad.

That RV was on a E-450 chassis which did have a 7/8 rear sway factory bar (the same year E-350 had none). While the factory sway bar helped some, I could tell the rubber bushings on the bar itself as well as those in the endlinks were worn out. Rather than just replace the bushings, I installed an IPDUSA 1-1/2 inch rear sway bar in place of the OEM bar. The difference was like night and day. Driving the rig became effortless, steering was precise without the bump steer. The only negative was I still needed to be careful going over a speedbump or entering a driveway dip diagonally as the stiffer bar tended to rock the motorhome as each rear wheel went over the bump. On road performance though was where the huge improvement was.

I'm not sure if IPD still makes sway bars for motorhomes or if they only concentrate on the sport bars for Volvo's now, but there are other aftermarket bars available.