Hoping someone can answer a question for us. We have a 30' QBF 2010 Coachman Freelander on a Ford chassis. Is it possible to have a 3 piece drive shaft balanced one section at a time and be successful? We can't locate any shops locally that will do all 3 pieces together.Thanks in advance for any information concerning this problem.

Before you get to that stage, your question itself begs a further question. What makes you think your drive shaft is out of balance?I ask because short of bending it, tearing a weight off, or a worn out u-joint a drive shaft can't really go out of balance.

Unless you've hit something and physically damaged it, it's probably just a bad u-joint. Unfortunately the only way to know for sure is to take it off the vehicle and take it apart - you cannot tell by just looking at them unless they are ready to fall out.

The vibration was noticed while driving between 10 and 45 miles per hour. After 50 MPH the vibration disappears. With only 1,780 miles on the motorhome (770 was already on when we purchased)I had the U joints and carriers checked by a mechanic and all was well. The motorhome has never been on anything but blacktop or concrete roads. I would think it was a balance weight either misplaced or came off. The mechanic suggested having the drive shaft rebalanced but that is the problem. Nobody in the area does the 3 pieces drive shaft together, so my question was can it be done successfully one piece at a time?

How bad is it? I somehow have developed a hypersensitivity to driveline balance. I can pick up signs of unbalance in a third to half of the RWD vehicles I drive. I wish I didn't notice it because I don't like it. I can feel a touch of it in my low mile E450 at speeds over 65 to 70. Driveshaft spins quite fast on these vehciles w/ 4.56 ratio. The chassis could be well within specs, but the vibration sets off a resonance in the coach. No way I'm going to touch mine, probably the only direction it could get is worse. Hopefully if it is truly bad you can find a relatively inexpensive solution.

If you shift into neutral at 35MPH does the vibration go away or still there ?If it's still there may be a tire balance problem. If it goes away it's not a drive train issue.

Drive Shaft vibration on 2010 Coachman Freelander

30 Replies

j-d
Explorer II
Sep 11, 2014
Good Deal!

Driveline Angle!

Often Overlooked...
dejaroda__
Explorer
Sep 11, 2014
Okay here is the low-down on the 2010 Coachman Freelander's vibration.

After balancing the front end,the vibration was still there.

Sent the drive shaft to another shop to check balance and it was found to be okay.

Rear end took 30 shims to bring in line with the drive shaft. Vibration is now gone. YAY!

After a month it is finally fixed and it is all covered by the warranty we have. YAY again!!!

Thank you all for your hints and suggestions!
carz57r
Explorer
Sep 11, 2014
Did you get the problem fixed?? What was wrong?
pauldub
Explorer
Aug 16, 2014
It might be worth having the wheels/tires Road Force balanced.
Cousin_Eddie93
Explorer
Aug 16, 2014
Don't no if this has any merit as it involves a completely different vehicle but the problem sounds identical to my DW's Honda Odyssey. The dealer was stump and dumbfounded, they even replaced the mini vans little trans axle and this only worsened the vibration. We were about to apply for NJ lemon law as the thing was in the shop at least 6 times and then we get this recall notice in mail for our model year Odyssey, 2007 at the time, the recall for a shuddering transmission issue, we promptly brought in and they fixed it in 15 minutes. The vibration was completely gone. Apparently the issue involved a computerized setting that regulated the trans axle clutching.

Not saying this is anything remote to your issue but perhaps the problem may lie in the tranny.
jjbyas
Explorer
Aug 16, 2014
Thank you all very much for all the replies. I just picked it up. They tried shimming the carrier bearing down or up and that did not fix it. They took the shims out and sent the driveshaft out to be balanced. It is just as bad if not worse than when it was dropped off. I am pretty upset as the motorhome was purchased new a few months ago. It sat at the rv dealership for 5 weeks. It appears will be paying out of pocket to have the commercial GM dealer fix it.

A word of advice to new buyers....... test drive before you buy to include freeway speeds.
Healeyman
Explorer
Aug 16, 2014
I have a Freelander 28QB that should be similar to the OPs unit, but mine is on a Chevy chassis so I probably cannot help.

That said, before we got this Freelander, we had a 22' 4-Winds also on a Chevy chassis.

When we developed a highway vibration, I had the tires rotated and balanced several times. Long story short, the vibration ended up being a bad drivers side front shock, as evidenced by leak marks. Even though the tires were VERY well balanced, the LF still bounced at highway speeds.

I put new Bilsteins on and that fixed it.

Tim
j-d
Explorer II
Aug 14, 2014
Good point about angle. I was thinking of changing angle with spacers on the spring at the seat. There's a thread about a new Chevy sitting high in the rear. Wonder if it's throwing driveline angle off... So...

OP - Does your coach sit level on level ground? Or is the rear high or low?
tboss
Explorer
Aug 14, 2014
you can substantially change the degree angle by simply lengthening the spring shackles on one end of the springs
j-d
Explorer II
Aug 14, 2014
The Driveline Angle idea is that the Driveshaft should face the face of the Differential {and I suppose the Center Bearing(s) and rear of Transmission} "Straight On." The concept is that the typical U-Joint speeds up and slows down as it rotates, UNLESS it's Straight On. That doesn't matter when the grocer's stock boy cranks the store awning up and down morning and night, but it does matter in a vehicle. That is why cars went to "CV" joints, the term being "Constant Velocity," to smooth thing out.
We had an OP who had this problem on a Ford-based C. I sent him some pix indicating that our differential was cocked upward to face the back end of the driveshaft straight on. I believe he went on to have a shop change the alignment of the rear axle.
I'm pretty sure that's Chevy meant by Driveline Angle, but there's another factor we should remember. A pieced shaft like we have is NOT supposed to be in a straight line front-to-rear as seen from above. It IS supposed to have a little zigzag in it. This would be seen by draping strings, weighted on both ends, over the shaft right at the "joints" {transmission, center bearing(s) and axle} then looking lengthwise along the shaft. The strings should NOT be in a perfect line. That said I don't know how much offset there should be.