BillMFl wrote:
TyroneandGladys wrote:
"The RV is not easy to drive under the best of circumstance, but mountain driving was particularly scary, especially from Bakersfield to Las Vegas, and Sedona into Phoenix. We have since gotten a sway bar installed, which has improved things some, but the fact is, the Mirada is a light, underpowered low end rig, and we have to deal with that."
Lets address this statement
Have you taken this RV to a truck scale and weighed it?
IMHO the majority of handling issues are the result of a under loaded front axle. You can throw money at all you want for handling upgrades but if that front axle is not at least at 80% you will have handling issues.
Weight behind the rear axle unloads the front axle and the further back from the axle the more it unloads, think of a see saw.
In mountain driving you have to use your transmission. Downshift going up and downshift going down to control your speed. Your first downshift is turning the overdrive off.
x2 If you are light on the front you lose a lot of control and constantly have to correct steering. A 60/40 front/back will do. The simplest least expensive fix is to add adjustable air bags to the rear axel. Call Camping World for a quick quote.
As I said below, I missed a bunch of email notifications! Thank you for this - I will tell my husband about this suggestion.
Also, I got another suggestion recently that we should be dumping our fresh water tanks before driving, since we are not dry camping - I think it is in the back, and that may be adding a lot of weight too.
