Follow up on Alignment Issue

[Mr_D]

Originally Posted by Coached

I am assuming that the OP knows enough, based on his personal experience and common sense, to not go below recommended pressures? After that pressure adjustments do make a difference and no one will dissuade me from that awareness. I don't "know better" than the folks who design the tires but, come to think of it, they only recommend the "safe" pressure ; there is no plaque anywhere in / on my Coach dealing with driveability? My whole post was intended to deal with an approach to altering the driveability of the vehicle, not the ability of the tires to support the load, that's just a given for me that you wouldn't go below the safe pressure.

And you'd be amazed at the number of people that DON'T know enough not to go below the recommended pressure. You might, the OP might but some might not.

[loisjop]

I had the same problem on a Spartan chassis and after much searching and alignments they found the power steering gearbox was not timed correctly. On the top of the gearbox there were alignment marks and they were not aligned. When they finally found the problem and aligned the marks my steering wheel was almost 180 degrees off. They took the wheel off and recentered it. By the gearbox not being properly lined up it was keeping the valves open and making the steering way too sensitive which caused the mh to wonder all over the road. Don't know if your power steering gearbox is set up the same, but I would bet the MH manufactures get parts from the same place. Hope this helps. Noel

[CountryFit]

hookum, how did this go? any solutions?

[Hookum]

Originally Posted by sdlcrazier

hookum, how did this go? any solutions?

Thank you for your interest. After getting several good ideas, I must confess that I have NOT had the time to work on it. Work was really busy at my day job after I got back from Oregon, that kept me and the mechanic from working on the m.h. or looking at my problem. I needed his help and he was not available either

Now it has slowed back down, I hope to be getting a few of my own projects, like the m.h., to work on. I will report back on this site. It would be nice to see an improvement and share that with you.

Norbert

[CountryFit]

take your time no hurry... yeah let us know how it goes. good luck!!

[CharlieMax]

Hooum, you have described exactly the same problem that I have on my 2008 Inspire 36' coach with 12,000 miles.
It will not track accurately at highway speeds and requires constant steering corrections.
It seems as if there is excessive play in the steering linkage. Even if you hold the wheel steady the it will drift out of your lane.
I have noticed that it is worse when I am towing my Honda CRV.
I have hade the front end aligned with a slight increase in tow in but that did not help.
There is something in this design that is not correct, but I do not know what it is.
I often wondered if truckers put up with this problem but based on what you said it does not seem so.

Charlie

[Hookum]

Charlie, Thank you for writing. Interesting to know that yours with only 12K miles has the issue. I too noticed the problem being worse when towing the Explorer. I spoke to a experienced CC tech today who really wanted to look at it for further clues and I told him I would make an appointment next week with him.

He offered two areas that he wanted to specifically look at. One was the tag axle support bolts (tightness) and the other was the HWH leveling system. I don't feel those are the problem areas because I know the ride height is perfect and the tag axle would not cause such quick movements in the steering.

That being said, I will let him dig and probe and tighten. Anything and everything is on the table for discussion and investigating. He was baffled but was willing to look. I will let you know as I find out.

One of the best ideas came from a mechanic who owns a similar chassis and he had looked and looked for movement. He finally found it by placing a 10' x 2" square tube into his receiver and moving the coach back and forth with that leverage while he laid underneath and carefully studied each bushing and part as the coach was rocked side to side as if going down the road. He found worn bushings in his front and rear alignment bars. They looked tight until he duplicated driving motion and then he could see the movements.

I really liked that idea he shared and I plan to do that too. Just to see what shows up. Maybe something will or won't but it was a novel idea.

Yours does not have the tag axle, does it? I am still leaning toward a linkage or steering box adjustment or a hydraulic valve or pressure issue. Those were two ideas that were also thrown into the ring and will be looked at.

Truckers drive an average of 300K mile a year and they don't fight that steering wheel like I do. It is a one handed drive while eating, talking on the CB or filling in the log book. The have rough roads, buffeting winds, large surface areas for catching the wind and drive at 75mph. New trucks drive like a dream. Heck, even my old trucks drive better. ha ha

Thanks for your input. I'm sorry you don't have a smooth, easy ride in your coach either. We'll keep looking for an answer.
Norbert

[jofo777]

What a great idea. Makes a lot sense to add input to the chassis like that. Do you have the front tow receivers like mine does? If so you could put the lever in the front as well and look for any play from that angle as well.

I am going to remember this trick, Joe

[straydog01]

I have a 2005 CC Inspire 40' and am experiencing the same steering issues (constant corrections needed, coach is constantly wandering/road walking, etc.). I too had Eric at CC look at it and he completed a laser alignment and adjusted the steering gear box. Still having the same problems that I had before he worked on it. It doesn't seem to be an alignment issue as the coach will track straight as an arrow when you aren't touching the steering wheel. The coach just seems to overreact to driver inputs.

Just wondering if anyone had any update on a possible solution?? Thanks. If I find a solution I'll be sure to update.

[Drafter]

Originally Posted by straydog01

I have a 2005 CC Inspire 40' and am experiencing the same steering issues (constant corrections needed, coach is constantly wandering/road walking, etc.). I too had Eric at CC look at it and he completed a laser alignment and adjusted the steering gear box. Still having the same problems that I had before he worked on it. It doesn't seem to be an alignment issue as the coach will track straight as an arrow when you aren't touching the steering wheel. The coach just seems to overreact to driver inputs.

Just wondering if anyone had any update on a possible solution?? Thanks. If I find a solution I'll be sure to update.

Straydog,
This is a interesting issue. I have a 2004 42' Magna Chalet with tags. I to have the wandering problem. I just got it out of the shop at our local Cat dealer and they found a loose and worn drag link in the steering. I took it home yesterday and it drove much better. I to am a retired truck driver and know how a large rig should handle. I also need new tires, so with tires and all three axles aligned, I think the problem will be solved. At least I hope it will. The drag link was orded from CC chassis dept and made a huge differance. So my best bet would be to say, "have the drag link checked" best of luck.

[laj]

Drafter:

How many miles on your coach? Just wondering how many i have left till mine needs checked. No issues at this time tho.

[Drafter]

Originally Posted by laj

Drafter:

How many miles on your coach? Just wondering how many i have left till mine needs checked. No issues at this time tho.

Just clocked 30,200 laj. I hope you go much longer, but the Drag Link did help the problem.

[laj]

Thanks Drafter. I do have a few more miles to get there.

[Hookum]

Straydog and fellow travelers,

I don't believe the alignment is the problem. As I described earlier, I have been having the same wandering problem. I first took it for an alignment in June, it did not change the steering issue. While traveling in Oregon, I took it to CC and they did a 2nd alignment plus they loosened up the steering box by 1/3 of a turn. Driving back to Tucson, I knew quickly that nothing was better. I then turned to our local coach specialist who asked to have a shot at fixing it.

I left it with them for 2 weeks. They consulted with their people, test drove it 50 miles and last Thursday (25th)we had a meeting to discuss their findings.

They did agree with me on the symptoms but we are still apart on the cure. Looking at the alignment printout # from CC, they said the caster # were within the recommended range, it was at the very bottom of that range and they wanted to see it at the top of the range. A 3.5 on left caster and a 4.0 on the right caster. Ok, I can change that but that is not the primary issue.

They also did not agree with the 1/3 turn that we added to the gear box and they reversed that. That was fine by me since it didn't improve anything anyway.

What they did recommend was to replace the Sauer Dan Foss power steering pump. They ran a flow check/ pressure on the unit: 700 rpms, 6 gpm, 200psi and 2000 rpms, 6 gpm, 300 psi. They said that was to low, there was not enough change in the psi at the higher rpm, and the pump needed to be replaced because it is a gear pump and not rebuildable. They did not do a load test, such as bottoming out the steering to one end or the other, which may give a different reading for max. psi.

I had asked a friend to join this meeting for his input. He is very experienced in this field and he felt that we did not have the full story regarding the pump issue. He wanted to know what the pump was set up to do and how the flow valves were tie into the working of the system. With part # in hand he asked to do some further research and testing before we just replaced this pump. And I agreed to wait for him to review this information.

Tomorrow, I am going in for the 3rd alignment in 4 months and I am doing this, not because I think it will solve the problem, but to remove any variances that might add to the problem. And I respect the technicians opinion on the caster numbers.

I am leaving for a 6 day trip to Vegas and San Diego and upon my return it will go to the hydraulic shop. I feel fairly certain that the problem is related to either the pump or flow valves in the system and they will look deeper into that specifically. I think we have all but eliminated all other sources to the problem.

It is still very driveable, it just is not as nice and relaxing as I know it can be.

Alignment and steering issues are very common and most of the time the simple fixes of alignment, tires, worn shocks, tie rods, springs, etc will solve the problem. The experiences that some of us are having is beyond the normal fixes and we have double and triple checked those, we are now into an area that is more rare and far less understood and harder to
diagnose.

I feel confident that with enough money thrown at the problem, I will get the steering fixed. If not look for a cheap coach on E-bay. [IMG]file:///C:/DOCUME%7E1/User/LOCALS%7E1/Temp/msoclip1/01/clip_image001.gif[/IMG]

I will post again just as soon as I know something more that I can share with you. Fingers crossed, it will be two weeks or less.

Thanks again for your interest and input. Happy travels.
Norbert