Drive Shaft vibration on 2010 Coachman Freelander

was the motorhome ever towed. if the tow co. removed the rear shaft, he might have put it back together wrong.

Sounds good it should be easy to duplicate and repair at that level. Warranty-yep let them deal with it. The alternatives are too expensive even with 100 mile drive.

Maybe runout or driveline angle if it is in the driveshaft. I have never felt driveline vibration at 10 MPH due to out of balance though.

FWIW do 30' units use the stock Ford driveshaft? Or is it some kind of stretched chassis with a custom driveshaft?

make sure your hanger bearings are good, and that all the u joints are lined up properly.

The vibration is very noticeable to the driver and the passenger and can also be felt in the steering wheel, so it is something we need to have taken care of before setting out on a cross country trip. Since we have very low mileage, we will take it back to the dealership and have THEIR mechanics :h check it out. The dealership is close to 100 miles away from us.:( It is still under warranty!

Thank you for your input!

dejaroda** wrote:
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?

Wonder w/ low speed nature of your problem it could be more due to driveline angle? 10MPH is awfully low to set off a vibration.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.