Steering seems to have slack

[newella1]

Purchases used 2016 Tiffin Allegro 36LA and loving it but seems to have some slack in the steering. Does anybody have any suggestions what I should have checked?

[oscarvan]

Originally Posted by newella1

Purchases used 2016 Tiffin Allegro 36LA and loving it but seems to have some slack in the steering. Does anybody have any suggestions what I should have checked?

Have you had any class A diesel pushers before? They're all somewhat sloppy. It's a bus, on air suspension. It's designed to be smooooth, and smoooths won't do NASCAR. It's not like a car, or even a HD pickup. So, can't tell from here whether it is excessive.

If it is.... I would start with checking that your tire pressure is correct. Let's say 100psi, if the max on your sidewall is 110. you can fine tune later, that's close enough (Oh no, here we go again) If that's OK or corrected and it's still sloppy it may be time for an alignment. While they are under there they can check the steering and front suspension for possible wear and tear, although on a 2016 I would doubt that unless previous owner went 250,000 miles in three years without maintenance.

If you then still think it's too sloppy you can start spending money on steering stabilizers, shocks, air suspension restrictors and what have you.

There's 500 people here that will tell you how they fixed their bad chassis design.

[Chuck Q]

New front tires with heavier side walls helped my steering a lot. Went from really sloppy to firm.

[dezolen]

No slack on our 13 36LA. Totally stock suspension.

[Dav L]

Most important is to ensure that all joints are tight and in good shape.
When I got my very used DP, some wacky "mechanic" left tie rod ends finger tight with no cotter pins...and yes, the steering tightened up quite a bit once they were replaced and tight.

Have someone wiggle the steering wheel left / right while someone who is mechanical looks underneath to isolate any slop in the system. And, yes, put some heavy duty jack stands underneath the chassis before going underneath.

[ThePowells]

Welcome to the forum!!

[Fred Cooper]

Also have the steering gearbox checked for excessive play.

[smalldw]

The F-53 chassis has an adjustment that a knowledgeable heavy truck service tech would be familiar with. Did it to my 2016 Canyon Star.

[txcpl]

An alignment might be in order as well.

[YC1]

As suggested, depending on the steering box it may have a simple adjustment.

If it is a Sheppard for example it might not be adjustable but if it is a TRW it may have one. I actually changed mine out and many of us Monaco owners have done that to remove slop from the steering. There is a very long thread on the issue,

[dssl]

I have a 2015 Tiffin 32sa that i purchased last year.

I found that I needed to do allot of steering corrections as I drove down the highway. I installed a safety plus steering stabilizer and it reduced the problem considerably.

[lwmcguire]

As the first reply air pressure first and I agree with the 100 to start with

check the height on all 4 corners to be sure it is in range and not a lot of difference side to side. also check it against specs

Have someone turn the wheel back and forth while you watch from the side to see if anything in the linkage has slack in it

When I picked up the new coach back in 2016 there was only 75 psig in the front tires. It drove like a blind steer until I got to a truck stop and aired it up to 110

[newella1]

Thanks everyone for the comments, gave me some good information.

[oscarvan]

Originally Posted by lwmcguire

When I picked up the new coach back in 2016 there was only 75 psig in the front tires. It drove like a blind steer until I got to a truck stop and aired it up to 110

Oh yeah, that sounds like a fun ride.....