motorhome sway

Pumped up the rear tires to 110#s and checked the tires on the toad which were set for minimum weight and raised them to 40# and then headed out for a trip up to Salt Creek park on the upper Olympic peninsula which is all two lane curvy roads and noticed a bit less tail wagging. I'll do the same thing on our next trip which will be mostly heavily traveled freeway and see what happens.

We had a 1999 30' on the F-53 chasis Georgie boy pursuit. As was mentioned, a rear track bar, or "pan hard" bar did the trick for us. Stiffened up the "roll". We did the steer safe as well as Koni shocks and got rid of alot of the sway.
Good luck

The best bang for your bucks is a rear trac bar. Do that first and you probably won't need any of the other suspension add-ons. I speak from personal experience.

I have the same chassis as you on my 2000 HR 38ft Endeavor. I had a little lean to one side and also had some swaying issues as well. I had the rear springs reworked and it fixed both problems.

Later added new Monroe shocks and new rear sway bar bushings.

This the second older class A I have owned that needed spring work. Amazing difference in handling when they are set up right. Spent about 700.00 each on each motorhome for the work.

Worth a look......

First, if you do not have a rear track bar/pan hard bar, either make on, or buy one. The springs are 42" long, with large rubber bushing, and the MH has a large amount of force on the rear end. Wind, either natural or from passing vehicles, cause the MH to flex on the rear suspension, causing the sway, or tale waging the dog feeling. Then the CHF, or moving the sway bar ends to the inner hole, for more side to side roll resistance. From here, you can go as far as you like, can afford, with little improvements.

When we first got out MH, it was new, and I was chasing it all over the road, with very few exceptions. I could not find out what was wrong until I was taking to the dealer for warranty work with the wife following me. When we got there, she said the people were afraid to pass me because the rear end was kind of doing a sideways figure eight. When we got it home, I would push on the rear side of the MH as hard and I could to get to move back and forth in rhythm, and looked as best as I could at the rear suspension and saw a lot of movement of the springs under the chassis.

kuckwood wrote:
36 ft Ford chassis V 10 1999 Damon Intruder gas Motorhome rocks and sways. Have new Michelin 19.5 x 6.75 tires inflated to 85 front and 90 back, have new heavy duty Monroe shocks, have 1 5/8" front and rear sway bars, have new front steer straight. Is there anything else that we can do to prevent all of the swaying? close to giving up the ride is so white knuckled. Thanks for any advice.

I've been a RV tech for almost 10 years, right after I retired from the USAF to do something different than what I had done for so long.

Now, I own a 2003 Flair, with a F-53 chassis. And all I can tell you is what I have done. And here goes:

1. Replaced the rear shocks, one was leaking. Not much of a difference
2. Replaced the steel 19.5 wheels with 19.5 aluminum wheels and all new tires. Huge difference in the ride. It's very smooth now.
3. Repaired the air lines for the rear air bags. Little difference, not too much.
4. Installed a Hellwig sway bar. Huge difference, and not much sway at all, whether on dirt driveways or road. Great improvement, worth it
5. Front air bags, and airless compressor. Very big difference, and worth it. Lessened the sway and roll even more. Worth every penny.
6. And lastly, a Super Steer Trac-Bar. Almost eliminated the "tail wagging the dog" issue I've had all along. Just got back yesterday for the first trip with it installed.

There is what I did. Everything was worth the money and the time to do it, I did it all myself, so no external labor. Now, to go back and do it again, I'd do the same thing. But, if I had to pick one or two, that would be very hard, but I'd go with the sway bar up front, and the trac bar in the back. Those were the biggest individual improvements. But the whole package is so worth it, I'd have to do it all again.

Whatever you do, I hope it helps you to feel at ease while you drive it. That is a bad feeling to have, helpless behind the wheel when you're away from home, and don't know what to do.

kuckwood wrote:
What is the Cheap Handling Fix?

On a Ford F53 Chassis, the sway bars have two mounting holes on the end. They are usually connected to the chassis via linkages bolted in the first hole. By simply moving the mounting bolts to the second set of holes, it stiffens up the bars torsion and hence controls the sway more. There's a link to a more detailed discussion in an earlier post in this thread.

What is the Cheap Handling Fix?

Sounds elementary, but have you checked your sway bar bushings? When I first got my coach, it swayed like a couple on the dance floor. When I checked, the rear 2 bushings were completely gone...worn out...all but melted, and the front two were hard and not flexible. I ordered new poly bushings Poly Bushings, spent an hour or so in my driveway replacing them and wow what a difference. Still have a slight bit of body roll/sway, but I'm going to try the Cheap Handling Fix and see if that improves it. No major worries if I don't do anything after replacing the bushings. Also planning to install a Davis TruTrack bar and new Bilstein shocks.

Check your bushings and if they are original, I'll bet you'll be pleasantly surprised how much new ones will improve the handling.