Class A body roll

^yup. The proper fix is stiffer away bars. Should be under $600 of you DIY. swap shocks later if you want to control bounce/rebound.

We are shooting all around the facts.

Can shocks AID in controlling sway-- absolutely. Any dampening will help.

Are shocks the first "line of defense" against sway-- absolutely NOT.

No question-- replacing worn shocks with good ones will help with sway, but have an even more significant affect on porpoising.

No one would suggest that shocks don't dampen. But side to side sway is much better controlled by sway bars.

I can see where new or beefed up shocks would help the sway somewhat. I think a combination of all of the above would help with every aspect of the suspension on these F53's. I just don't want to drop $7500 at one time to have the perfect ride. One question I do have. Has anyone added aftermarket adjustable sway bar linkages? What about just purchasing the adjustable linkage and tightening them to produce more downward pressure on the existing bar? Is this possible, or could I break the linkage and bar?

Well, all I can say is I have experienced less body sway since our Koni installation one year after we purchased our brand new coach. You can relate to the mechanics of a shock all you wish and what it does. But the switch for us was and is noticeable.

So if other shocks are designed for different reasons in comparison, it's not totally unacceptable that Koni's could show improvement. It did. Where it's noticeable the most is turning from a out from drive with a incline down to street level and the body sway side to side. Much less. The Sach shocks that came on the coach were terrible. The coach dipped so much when braking it wasn't funny. It didn't help on the side to side sway either.

I'm not claiming it's the fix for the problem, merely it helped make the problem easy to live with on ours.

When it comes to side roll track bars fron and rear helped me the most. The chf helped but the track bars were the biggest help. I have a 20,500 lb. fleetwood flair 2004. In the spring when I get home from Fl. I will add a steAring stabilizer to help with cross winds.

You can do a search for my post from earlier this year. We have a 2013 Tiffin Open Road on the Ford F53 chassis. Due to my wife's cancer treatment, she could not deal with the body roll. Went to Henderson's Line-Up in Grants Pass, OR and spent $7,500 for a full suspension upgrade. It did the trick and the handling is superb.

They also weighed the coach and I dropped the tire pressure to 85 psi. which resulted in a less harsh ride.

wolfe10 wrote:


My point is that ANY shock that is valved to control sway will be WAY TOO STIFF for all other conditions. Said another way, do not expect shocks to control sway. That is the job of sway bars, with any shock, even the best only contributing a small amount.

Exactly. Shocks may help in a dynamic sway situation (rolling back and forth multiple times) but you need to limit the level of roll in the first place by increasing the "roll stiffness" of the chassis, and that is done through adding "anti-roll" or "sway" bars.

We have a WH chassis so not the same comparison for an F53, but I added Hellwig bars both front and rear before a two week summer trip through the east coast mountains and it made a significant difference. Example: entering a gas station at an angle where the curb cut-in to the main road usually would send the MH into an oscillating back and forth motion and make everyone sick and throw belonging everywhere. I used to need to enter very slow, now I can enter more like I'm driving our truck.

This has a direct impact on driving down curvy roads - less body roll as you enter corners means more confidence and less white knuckle. I would not have done the trip without them - pricey but worth it, especially since we are going to Utah this summer.

In general, as I understand, the upgrade paths are:
- Sway bars for body roll (control on curvy roads)
- Track bars for passing trucks, high winds on the interstate
- Steering stabilizer for consistent high winds and also helps with passing vehicles
- Shock upgrades for poor ride and chassis control on rough roads

Our coach has all of the above - each has it's own primary effect, but having them all can improve upon each of the individual upgrades. For example sways + shocks will have more roll control than just sways, but sways are what you want first for that.

Anyone please correct where I may be incorrect in the above.

Now I drive a coach that I would argue "should have come from the factory like that"

wolfe10 wrote:
My point is that ANY shock that is valved to control sway will be WAY TOO STIFF for all other conditions. Said another way, do not expect shocks to control sway. That is the job of sway bars, with any shock, even the best only contributing a small amount.

Interesting, this seems at odds with Koni's claims:

Advantages of FSD shock absorbers
Ends the compromise between comfort and handling
No need for sensors, cables, or other electronic devices
Damper cost efficient
Ultimate road holding and handling
Improved grip and safety level
Great stability
Optimum comfort level
Superior body control
Adding comfort to low profile tyres
Maximum driving pleasure

And:

"By using a special secondary valve that registers the different pressures associated with different frequencies, the FSD dampers can exert the high force needed at low frequencies to control body roll while becoming more compliant for improved ride quality when experiencing higher frequency bumps in the road."

I am skeptical of their claims and it sounds like you have some experience with them, so I will take your word for it, but they don't seem to be breaking the laws of physics.

jharrell wrote:

wolfe10 wrote:
Were a shock valved stiff enough to control sway, it would be WAY, WAY too stiff over bumps.

Again the FSD part of the Koni, it's supposed to be stiffs on slow movements like body roll but soften up on quick bump hits. So if the FSD valving truly does this, then it wouldn't be to stiff over bumps and still control sway.

I do agree that the first point of attack should be the sway bar since it is a proven way of doing things and very straight forward to change/adjust.

Agreed-- the Koni FSD's are less harsh over the small bumps/concrete expansion joints than comparable shocks that have the same dampening over large bumps. I am very familiar with the FSD's-- I worked directly with the engineers at Koni-NA to develop FSD's for a previous coach.

My point is that ANY shock that is valved to control sway will be WAY TOO STIFF for all other conditions. Said another way, do not expect shocks to control sway. That is the job of sway bars, with any shock, even the best only contributing a small amount.

Many shocks, including the Koni FSD's have only a small dampening force on compression (because high force here adds to effective spring rate and ride harshness) with the vast majority coming on extension (where it dampens motion, but does not add to ride harshness).

Sway bars do nothing (add no ride harshness) unless one wheel is at a different level than the other. Then they act immediately on BOTH the up and down direction (the wheel that went over the bump and the one that did not).

wolfe10 wrote:
Were a shock valved stiff enough to control sway, it would be WAY, WAY too stiff over bumps.

Again the FSD part of the Koni, it's supposed to be stiffs on slow movements like body roll but soften up on quick bump hits. So if the FSD valving truly does this, then it wouldn't be to stiff over bumps and still control sway.

I do agree that the first point of attack should be the sway bar since it is a proven way of doing things and very straight forward to change/adjust.