F-53 suspension sagging on passenger side

My 02 had same problem. Rear slide, propane tank and basement air all on the right rear!!! I went with Firestone air bags and problem solved. I keep 90 psi on right and 40 on left, and the bags sure help on sway of M/Home..Have had them on for 10 yrs and no problems. Good luck...

Some manufactures are "Known" to overload one side of the RV or the other.

Ford did not overload the chassis, or build it crooked. With time, the owner might have put more weight on one side or the other, and the springs weakened over time. .

Like someone stated, you can make a spring block of your own with some 4" wide steel, 1/4" thick, and say 10" long. Put one of these under each spring where it is sagging, and it will lift the factory springs. Race car drivers do this to their RV's all the time, then overload the heck out of the chassis by towing a extremely heavy trailer!

But the first step is to get side to side weights, with the fresh water tank with the 'normal' amount of water that you carry, and put about 5 each 1 gallon water containers in the refrigerator to simulate weight of food in there. Full or at least 3/4 full fuel tank too.

If your side to side weight are off by only 300 pounds, you will be fine, and not indicate the source of the problem. If more than say 600 pounds side to side, or one tire is overloaded, it indicates the problem.

Good luck!

Fred.

Totally agree with sch911. My 2003 had ride rites on the rear axle and helped in many ways. The F-53 needs to have enough weight forward to hold proper caster.
If not, it becomes hard to drive. Set up in range (caster) and you can drive with one finger(not that you should). Seems to me I used to run about 65#.

jim

It really sounds like your coach is heavy on one side. There is no "known" problem with the F53 chassis where they lean to one side. IMHO if you can balance the weight out better by moving things around that's your first option. Next would be the Ride Right Air Bags. Good luck....

This has always been a problem with Ford Class A chassis, even 2014.
The CORRECT fix is to take to a Spring suspension shop and they will either re-arc the existing defective leaf springs or add a leaf with a spacer if needed. ADDING air bags does not solve the problem. They will lift a side, but make the ride stiffer. We have this done 3 or 4 times a year on brand new and used motorhomes. Doug

Have you checked to see, if theres any spacers under the springs from the factory.
Our 99 F53, has about a 1" spacer on the drivers side rear spring, I guess to off set the weight of the genset when it was new, to level the coach & now we have the same tilt to the passengers side as you have.
Adding spacers to the passengers side on front & rear springs would be the cheapest, but the air bags route, would do several things other than just level the coach up.
Neil

Go anyplace that sells steel. Buy some 4" X 1/4" metal strap. 8, 10, 12' whatever you need and cut your own. You can buy a grinder at Harbor Freight for about $19 and cutting wheels. You may have to buy longer U bolts which may be the biggest expense

I elected to use Firestone air bags on the rear of my 95 F53.
They are only $319.99 for your chassis at SDTruckSprings.
The only draw back is checking the air pressure when checking the tires. Mine require some air every 30 days. Never could get them sealed up any better.
A spacer block will require an alignment hole on one side and an alignment pin on the other. It's not as easy as just whacking out a 4" piece of steel. Then you may need longer "U" bolts.


Richard

First thing would be to weight the wheel positions. If that corner heavy, move any weight you can to another wheel position.

No rocket science in making proper 4" footprint shim(s). Worse case is a few bucks at a machine shop.

And, yes, either helper springs or spacer blocks are common remedies.

Any old-time HD truck spring shop should be able to do this for you. We have one here in Houston. Except for the calendar on the wall, the shop looks like it probably looked in the 1930's.