Motorhome rocks excessively while driving down the highway

The OP had asked about air shocks and they definitely could help. we have a Workhorse chassis but we travel a lot in the Great Plains area of the country where the winds can be very high. Rather than sit in an RV park, I put air bags on the front and rear of the coach. I have a button on the dash to pump them up or to deflate them. When the winds start picking up, I just pump them up to around 80-90 PSI. This makes the ride a little rougher but on a good road, it is no big deal. It certainly stiffens the suspension and minimizes any sway caused by the winds. When I am on a rougher road or do not have high winds to deal with, I just drop the air pressure down to 20 PSI or so.

Thanks for the update.

way2roll wrote:

plattpd60 wrote:
How do I find out what type of chassis I have on my 2013 Ford chassis of my 28 ft Thor daybreak motorhome?

All Fords are F53. There are different versions of the F53 based on weight, but for the purposes of the CHF it doesn't matter.

There are some small class A motorhomes built on bare Ford E series chassis, too, such as for instance the Thor Axis for. That said, the great majority of Ford-based class A motorhomes are built on the F53 chassis, including one mentioned.

plattpd60 wrote:
How do I find out what type of chassis I have on my 2013 Ford chassis of my 28 ft Thor daybreak motorhome?

All Fords are F53. There are different versions of the F53 based on weight, but for the purposes of the CHF it doesn't matter.

How do I find out what type of chassis I have on my 2013 Ford chassis of my 28 ft Thor daybreak motorhome?

RedRollingRoadblock wrote:
Pay very close attention to the rear sway bar bushings mounting. They are well known issue of bolts loosing off and falling out completely. Blue Loctite thread locker is your friend.

Had a motor mount bolt on my workhorse go walkabout.. (Get lost) got a temp in there now but to be sure I got the right diamater bolt I took the nut from the other one off... with my fingers.... When I put it back on I used that special Blue Oil... Don't think it will come off again.

Is this your first Class A? How a MH rides is very subjective especially if this is you first experience driving one. They drive much different than a car or PU truck. The CG is much higher. When I first bought mine it was a white knuckle ride home. I joined RV.net and many were saying the same thing about the P-30 chassis, so I was convinced it needed some improvement. However after several trips and I became used to driving it somehow the handling problems disappeared. Give yourself some time driving it before you throw a lot of money to try to improve the ride. Certainly check all the sway bushings,front end ride height, weight distribution(each tire such carry aprox the same weight) etc. After you have 4 or 5 trips do the CHF and I think you will enjoy your new MH.

garyemunson wrote:
Have you actually gone under the motorhome and put your eyeballs on the rear sway bar? There was a recall on them for rear sway bar straps that were not torqued and would fall off (mine did!).

Aaaha! I wondered why that clamp disappeared!

Do the free stuff first, before you toss parts at it.

Check tire pressure. Preferably get axle weights and inflate to the recommended inflation from your tire manufacture charts. A good starting point for pressure is from the placard that that should be in your MH that states the tire inflation from Thor. DO NOT inflate tires to the maximum psi that is listed on the tire sidewall, UNLESS the inflation chart calls for it. NEVER inflate to a pressure higher than what is called for on the tire sidewall. ALWAYS use a cold tire pressure, and inflate each tire on an axle the same, even if you have different weights side-to-side, if one side is requiring more air, use the higher rating.

Here is a link to the Cheap Handling Fix, CHF. https://www.irv2.com/forums/f23/cheap-handling-fix-72335.html There is enough reading in there for a week of bedtime stories. Look on YouTube for it too. It is not hard to do, you may need a small bottle jack or similar to get the bar lifted into position. An hour even if your old, slow and fat like me.

Pay very close attention to the rear sway bar bushings mounting. They are well known issue of bolts loosing off and falling out completely. Blue Loctite thread locker is your friend. Torque to 66#. If you need brackets they aren't real expensive from Ford. As said, check the bushings too. Ford used a soybean oil based product that self-destructed until the 2012 chassis model. Yours could be either. If the soft ones, replace with POLY ones. Lube with a liberal coating of silicon grease. There is/was a seller on e-Bay that makes quality ones, look for SkeeterDude

Some use extension downlinks in the front to keep the bar level but isn't really necessary. Make sure the bolts through the downlinks clear the springs. The change may cause your front tires to lift off the ground sooner when leveling, which seems to be the reason for using downlink extensions.

Trust me, the CHF is a profound difference first time, first turn out the driveway. I wanted more sway control and added a bigger front bar and the rear auxiliary one. Probably should have saved my $$ on the front one.

Basically - on the F53 chassis, it could be a number of things, or combin=bation. As other have suggested, maybe do the CHF, first. The F53 chassis is notorious for bad handling / ride (I know, as I have one). I am assuming you probably have a 22K F53 Chassis on the 28' MH. Possible fixes"

Tire pressure via 4 corner wright
Add Sumo Springs
Add HD front sway bar
add add'l rear sway bar(s)
Replace shocks with Koni FSD units

And you could add a rear trac bar to prevent swaying form passing trucks, etc.

Rather than just go to a RV repair facility and have them slap a bunch of stuff on, you may want to see if there is an authorized dealer for Henderson's Line-Up in your area that can do an assessment of what your issues are and what you need to have done. You can do this a piece at a time, with highest recommended first, or all at once. We had a brand new class A on the F53 chassis that we took to them, in Grants Pass, Or, last summer and they resolved all of our sway, porpoising, lane changing issues. It was not cheap, but we now enjoy traveling in the MH a lot more than we did before.