Well I now know why my new to me 2004 winnie32g was such a steal. Spent a couple of days going over the Class C at the dealer and drove it for a while but never on the freeway. Paid for it and picked it up today and headed for I-5 in the middle of Portland, over the bridges and rivers between 35 and 45 mph due to traffic. I thought I would lose my grip on the steering wheel it was shaking so bad. I figured I would head for my local tire and align place 75 miles above Portland. The shaking started to improve as my speed picked up. At 55 it was all but gone and at 60-65 it was like floating, a slight pull to the right but a really pleasant drive otherwise.The front tires are mismatched one a factory installed Michelen installed 10 years ago the other a Toyo that is newer but I haven't gotten under to look at the date stamp which is on the inside surface. I had already planned new tires all the way around and now I'm hoping new tires will fix the bounce. Any other suggestions that I might have them look for when they have it on the rack? I'm sure there are lots of things it could be so if you have had the experience please shout it out.Kind of a lousy way to start out with your first Class C but I know if I can get past this minor (I hope) setback it will be just a hunk of heaven the rest of the way. Everything else seems to work great.Luckily we don't need steering to try our first outing in our driveway.for any ideas.

Moved from Forum Technical Support

Do a full front-end inspection, including brakes. One of the common problems with rigs that sit a long time is sticking brake calipers.If it turns out you end up needing any major front end work (brakes, ball joints, or even bushings) I recommend a new front axle. The '08+ axles have much larger brakes, larger ball-joints, better sway-bar design, and a better radius arm design. You can pick-up an almost new take-off front axle from QuadVan (Front street north of downtown P-town) for $400. Even with a new dealer sway-bar, and installation labor, you won't be much more into that than a brake or ball-joint job in the current axle.I did the upgrade on my van to address my problem with short rotor life on my original axle. I wish I had found out about it before paying for balljoints.

Failing tire(s), Worn steering and/or suspension part(s). Are you able to check the front end parts for wear? If not, I think it needs to go to a TRUCK alignment shop. Inspect components, replace as needed, and align. Alignment should be done with coach loaded as if for an outing, and will probably involve installation of offset upper ball joint bushings. CASTER should be set toward the high end of the positive range, not midrange as most shops'll do.These chassis have lots of front end wear, seemingly more when the wheelbase has been stretched. It could have 20,000 miles on it and need ball joints, or tie rod ends, or both.

Our 2004 Tioga 26Q, Ford E-450, only had around 8000 miles on it when it went into a shimmy after driving over some rough pavement. I stopped to inspect for a problem, nothing apparent. Drove some distance with no more shimmy to an RV service center. The mechanic crawled under the rig and checked everything over carefully and said that he could not see anything wrong, also said that the shimmy thing happens when you hit rough pavement sometimes with nothing wrong. We continued on our trip up the Coast to Oregon and back to Socal with no further shimmy problems. Your shimmy problem might be the same thing.

I agree with carringb full front end inspection with brakes. Also check all tires not just fronts. Then after that go get it weighed total weight and weight on front and rear axles. Best to get it weighed loaded for a trip but that can be done later. IMHO class C motor homes are prone to under loaded front axles and the longer the motor home the more prone it is to this problem. Any weight on the front axle that is less than 75% of it's rated capacity is under loaded. One classic sign of under loaded front axles is a floating feeling and is extremely hazardous. If you are under loaded then you need to move weight forward. There is an effect called the see saw effect and what that means is any weight behind the rear axle takes weight off of the front axle the farther back the higher the effect. Alignment is in order I am sure but it needs to be loaded for trips before alignment. Please keep us posted on what you find and what you do it can and will help the next person

Violent shaking in the steering wheel | Good Sam Community

Harvard
Explorer
Jun 26, 2013
Thanks for the alignment info, helps to know where others are set.

I have two comments about the caster.

First, the CROSS CASTER = LH - RH and the normal range is -1.5 to +0.5, yours is set at 0.0 which is a bit out of range. So, IN THEORY, if you drive hard and fast in both lanes then you are good to go. If you are more conservative and normally drive on the RH side of the road crown then you might feel the tendency for the unit to want to go a bit to the right side of the road. Again, this is the theory.

Secondly, speaking from experience (mine was LH +3.3 RH +3.5, almost same as yours) if you ever have the feeling that the "steering box needs to be tightened" then you should look into more +Caster. I added +2 to each wheel to go to LH+5.3 and RH +5.5 and it solved a lot of, what I thought, were handling issues.

SP on Edit.
ghsebldr
Explorer
Jun 25, 2013
Alignment finished. Took an hour and only cost $95. Toe was way off leading to excess tire wear on old tires. Put on 6 new Michelins last week.
Results Front toe was ..Front: Left was 7/32" now 0
Right: was 7/32" now 1/32"
------------------
Total was 7/16" now 1/32"
-------------------

Front camber was 1/8" now 1/8"

Caster Left was 3 3/4" left @3 3/4"
Caster Right was 3 3/4" left@3 3/4".

We left the Caster as they were since I haven't had any problems with the ride other than the shaking steering wheel which was almost totally solved with the new,balanced, tires. The alignment guy said my tires would last a whole lot longer with the Toe at the optimum settings of 1/32'.
Thanks again for all of the helpful input. ghsebldr
Harvard
Explorer
Jun 17, 2013
ghsebldr wrote:
....
He is aware of the caster fix and says he sets it at the limit of plus 5 degrees.(?correct terminology). ....

For the record, the upper Caster spec is about +7 Degrees BUT he was probably referring to the fact that there may not be any sleeves available that go much over +5 Degrees. Sounds like he is in tune with the caster part of things. Please do let us know how things turn out. If possible take notes of the before and after settings (Caster, Camber and Toe).
ghsebldr
Explorer
Jun 16, 2013
Thanks for all of the replies. I put 6 new Michelins on and that helped a lot, however there was really bad cupping in the right front (factory 8 yr old ) tire. Brakes were 50% (front) and the rotors looked good, even wear. I have a front end align coming up this week. This guy comes to your house (mobile RV repair) and does a front end align for $145. Sounds pretty cheap to me, hope it's a reasonable price for the service preformed also hope it's a reasonable service. He is aware of the caster fix and says he sets it at the limit of plus 5 degrees.(?correct terminology). I will update this post after the align and after I get my corner and overall axle weights. Thanks again for all the help.
trnfla
Explorer
Jun 16, 2013
I had the issue it was a brake caliper sticking due to brake line failure. If it happens again, stop and feel both rims, if it is a caliper, one rim will be extremely hotter than the other.
tvfrfireman
Explorer
Jun 12, 2013
I have had this happen once and the tires were old and a steel belt in one of the front tire broke. I couldn't see any thing wrong but could sure feel it. Once the new tires were installed all was well.
steelpony5555
Explorer
Jun 12, 2013
If it is a Ford check or just change out the steering stabilizer. They are not expensive and easy to change. We had lots of Ford chassis's in our fleet and most the times when you hit bumps it would go into violent shakes. But that is the job of the stabilizer to stop.
hershey
Explorer
Jun 12, 2013
A shaking of the front wheels would be a balance issue. What you described is a out of alignment issue. Probably toed out. The violent shake would come and go at certain speeds.
Of course the missmatched tires is an obvious problem, I'd buy two new tires for the front and get the front end re-aligned.
Dakzuki
Explorer
Jun 12, 2013
Fords are noted for doing this when the front suspension has slop in it from worn parts. It is called "precession" and is much like what happens on a shopping cart wheel. The Ford suspension geometry makes it prone to this. It can come and go with speed, vary with vehicle weight and can sometimes be tuned out by changing the damping on your shocks. The real solution of course is to correct it by replacing the worn out components. Been there done that.
othertonka
Explorer
Jun 12, 2013
Steering wheel shake is almost always out of balance front wheels. But it sounds like you need new matched front tires and have them balanced

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