Improving harsh ride?
Hello all, I recently bought a 2008 Winnebago Access 29t class C with the Ford E-450 chassis. The suspension appears to be all stock with only 21k miles on the coach. It handles acceptably concerning...
Forum Discussion
Healeyman wrote:Healeyman Tim,
Rob,
Our first RV was a 22' Four Winds on a Chevy 3500 (1 Ton) truck chassis.
When we first got it, the ride was like yours, TERRIBLE!!! We actually had silverware bounce out of the drawer and broke glassware in the cabinet.
One day, I crawled underneath and looked at the spring stack on the rear axle.
The 13 leaves of the spring stack were absolutely FLAT. There was NO arch in the springs. When striking a bump, the rear axle could NOT move UP to absorb the blow.
The air in the rear tires was the ONLY suspension that there was. The axle housing was still 2 inches from the rubber bump stops (POOR design).
I ordered a set of 5,000 lb. capacity Air-Lift air bags (about $200) and installed them myself in a couple of hours. I didn't even have to jack up the body to get them installed. I ran the air inlet tubes to a storage bay.
When I added 55 pounds of air (about 1/2 full) the body actually rose up 1-1/2 inches. Now I had 1-1/2 inches of Tire, spring, and air bag travel.
The bags made it an ENTIRELY new RV. It was wonderful!
Later on, I added Bilstein shocks to the FRONT in order to stabilize and eliminate the "porpoising" on that end.
In the end, the ride was FANTACTIC!!! The ride was almost as good as that of my 3-seat GMC Suburban.
When we upgaded to a 28 ft. Coachmen Freelander, it came with Air-Lift air bags installed at the factory. I have never had to add air to them to use them.
I suggest that you or a shop-guy look at the rear spring stack to see whether or not you have any, or adequate, rear axle UP-travel.
Tim
Funny, I have the opposite story with air bags. The more air I put into them, the stiffer the suspension became. The less air, the softer the ride, but the worse the handling. Maybe your story is the opposite of mine because of the way your leaf springs were positioned.
I considered Sulastic Shackles for our E350 because we too could benefit from a softer ride. (Everyone could, right?) They are made for an E350/E450 motor home. I liked their bolt-on simplistic approach. I just never could justify the ~$400 cost given our ride is not all that rough.
I have always wondered if a small motor home built on an E450 which suffers from an extremely rough ride, could be taken to a specialty shop and have a leaf spring or two removed to bring the chassis load rating closer to the actual load to get a softer ride.
