Steering Issues

[Outdoorsman2]

Have a 2017 Winnebago Spirit 22R that I purchased new. Circumstances have changed that is going to allow much longer trips. I have done nothing to alter the RV except to add chrome over brass extensions on the rear wheels and have the toe in adjusted to the max. This slightly improved the “wandering”.

Have read on the forum about front anti-sway bars and steering stabilizers. Would home the members could “dumb it down a bit” and give me some advice about what I should ask an installer.

Last question-is there a straight extension that can be installed in the front wheels? Have to remove the wheel cover to check tire pressure and add air…a real pain!

Thanks for the anticipated advice.

[Harvard]

Sounds like you have too little positive caster. Lots of reading on that subject concerning the E350/E450 chassis.

https://www.rvforum.net/threads/e350...-caster.40337/

[OFDPOS]

Lots will chime in on what to do not do etc.

When you say wondering when, where and how does it wonder ?
When all the time ? highway/freeway speeds ? being pushed over by passing larger vehicles ?
Are you constantly adjusting the steering wheel to go down the road ?
Lots of situations causes wondering , overinflated front tires, steering gearbox too much free play causing you to continuously moving the steering wheel to go straight.

First things first what are your tire pressures?
Need to get the MH weighed then adjust tire pressures according to actual weight Not what the sidewall of the tire or the door sticker reads. Those are MAX weight pressures !


Read up on the link Harvard posted.

Give us more info to help..

[Outdoorsman2]

Thanks Harvard and OFDPOS. This is exactly what I needed to know.

[ChrisDParise]

Originally Posted by Outdoorsman2

Have a 2017 Winnebago Spirit 22R that I purchased new. Circumstances have changed that is going to allow much longer trips. I have done nothing to alter the RV except to add chrome over brass extensions on the rear wheels and have the toe in adjusted to the max. This slightly improved the “wandering”.



Have read on the forum about front anti-sway bars and steering stabilizers. Would home the members could “dumb it down a bit” and give me some advice about what I should ask an installer.



Last question-is there a straight extension that can be installed in the front wheels? Have to remove the wheel cover to check tire pressure and add air…a real pain!



Thanks for the anticipated advice.

Duallyvalve.com sells a 2.25" metal valve stem extension for your front wheels pre-bent at 20 degrees.

[Rush2]

I added roadmaster rear anti sway bars. Wind and semis were pushing me all over. The anti sway bars have helped about 80%

We added valve extensions to all 6 tires. Can’t remember who we ordered from. A commercial tire dealer installed them.

[Ron Dittmer]

Originally Posted by OFDPOS

(with minor editing for clarification) First things first, what are your tire pressures? You need to get your motorhome weighed during a trip (not when emptied at home) then adjust tire pressures according to the actual weight as declared by the tire manufacture.

Hi Outdoorsman2,

OFDPOS's point is the single biggest influential factor in how your motorhome handles, along with the quality of the ride. The over-all length and wheel base of your rig is a variable that determines "how influential". During your next trip, get your rig weighed at any truck-stop CAT scale, making sure everyone remains seated in their usual place, including yourself in the driver seat.

I recently replaced our tires with these Michelins. Following this chart for this tire yielded a nice improvement in handling.


I read a lot about "more caster" but when I take our rig in for a wheel alignment, they can get only so much before camber becomes a problem. I don't know how to achieve more of one without creating a serious problem with the other.

For many people, tire pressure and a wheel alignment together does not cut the mustard.....and I am one of those people. Our rig SEEN HERE is not large by class C standards, and it is more aerodynamic, yet I wanted the rig to handle as best as possible for less driver fatigue, improved passenger comfort, and to improve over-all safety. I found great success when making these changes and additions to our 2007 Ford E350 chassis.

1) Added a heavy duty Roadmaster rear stabilizer. Our 2007 Ford E350 chassis originally had "NO" rear bar at all.
2) Replaced the inferior front stabilizer bar with a heavy duty Roadmaster version.
3) Replaced the shock absorbers with heavy duty Bistein-RV versions.
4) Replaced the inferior steering stabilizer with a heavy duty Safe-T-Plus version.
5) Added a rear trac bar.

All these improvements combined, made a monumental improvement, especially because our rig is so tail-heavy and front-light.

One change I made more recently was done to improve driver and passenger comfort even further, but this is not applicable to every motorhome. You can read about this project which includes details and diagrams, by CLICKING HERE.

[Capt Steve]

Ron, thanks for posting the load/inflation table for the Michelin Agilis Cross Climates {great tires BTW}. It illustrates what I have been saying for years... DO NOT blindly air up your tires per the sidewall max or the sticker inside the drivers door!

Get your coach weighed loaded as you normally travel and air the tires up per the load inflation table, from the tire manufacturer...period! Our 2012 Nexus E-350 has a GVWR of 11,500# and I run near or at that number most of the time.

Fully loaded our coach is nicely balanced with 3,800 on the front axle and 7,700# on the rear which gives me an almost exactly one third - two thirds weight distribution between the axles which is just about perfect. Accordingly I run my front tires at 55 - 60 psi which includes a 10 percent fudge/safety factor and the rears at 65 psi also with the additional 10 percent.

Given the above psi' and with slightly more caster on the front right {4.8 degrees} than the left it is no mystery why our coach rides and handles so well. Keep in mind that for many of us our weights can vary significantly from trip to trip depending on how you load. If I am hauling our cargo trailer {2,600#} I bump the fronts to 60 but the rears remain well within the optimum range at 65. If running very light {not very often} I will drop the fronts to 55 and the rears to 60 and still have my 10 percent fudge factor in play.

My tires have always worn evenly and generally give me about 40,000 miles of wear at which point they are getting close to timing out. I added a set of Air Lift 5,000# air bags that I use to level the trailer tongue by running them at 50 psi which brings it to dead level at exactly 16" to the top of the ball {as per the trailer manufacturers specifications}.

I replaced the original shocks at 33,000 miles with Heavy Duty Bilstein's and have added absolutely nothing else with excellent results. Bottom line it all comes down to a proper alignment {can you say "Caster"?} and the correct tire pressures.

As always... opinions and YMMV.

[Harvard]

Ron says: "I read a lot about "more caster" but when I take our rig in for a wheel alignment, they can get only so much before camber becomes a problem. I don't know how to achieve more of one without creating a serious problem with the other."

IMO, do not sacrifice caster for camber, it is Toe that wears tires, the camber only reflects the profile of the Toe wear. In my case I left the camber adjustment at neutral and dedicated all the adjustment to +Caster. JMO.

[Ron Dittmer]

Originally Posted by Capt Steve

.........DO NOT blindly air up your tires per the sidewall max........

We surely agree regarding tire pressure.

I have an interesting story concerning tire pressure.

Last September we met up with some friends out west who rented a Cruise America motorhome from the Chicago area, specifically a 25 footer with rear corner queen bed. On each of the 4 fenders, right above each tire were yellow stickers with black lettering stating something like..........

Must Maintain 80 PSI In Every Tire.

Yikes!!! No wonder why they had such a struggle keeping the rig going straight down the highway, most especially when a truck passed them by on Interstate-90. The slightest change in air movement had him panicking, counter-steering the drunken sailor.

[mikeh2obury]

The best and least expensive thing you can do is to take your unit into a truck shop and have the front end aligned. These units have not had alignments. Since. They left. The auto manufacturer and 90% of steering problems are simply alignments. We did ours, added no extras and it steers like a car.

[Harvard]

Originally Posted by mikeh2obury

The best and least expensive thing you can do is to take your unit into a truck shop and have the front end aligned. These units have not had alignments. Since. They left. The auto manufacturer and 90% of steering problems are simply alignments. We did ours, added no extras and it steers like a car.

and not all alignments are equal, beware of the "tweak the toe and you are good to go" alignment. The operative word here is "truck shop" where they will increase +caster...

[GoneToTheDog]

Originally Posted by mikeh2obury

The best and least expensive thing you can do is to take your unit into a truck shop and have the front end aligned. These units have not had alignments. Since. They left. The auto manufacturer and 90% of steering problems are simply alignments. We did ours, added no extras and it steers like a car.

x2. That's what I did when ours was new. Has driven like a car ever since.

[Weeds636]

Another vote for Truck Shop.