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An Experiment To Test Your Sway Bar (s) Effectiveness

ron_dittmer
Explorer II
Explorer II
I posted this as a reply to a particular post and thought it good to post independently. Enjoy.

Everyone can easily experiment on their own motor home's rear sway bar very simply to determine effectiveness. While parked, have an adult family stand inside the motor home over the rear axle, facing forward. Have them try their best to rock the rig side to side by shifting their weight left to right. An effective rear sway bar will lower both rear corners simultaneously regardless which way the weight has shifted. If you had no rear sway bar, one corner would raise up when the other rear corner went down. You can sight it best looking at the relationship between the rear tire and RV body.

A lesser rear sway bar would still lower the opposing rear corner, but not as much as a heavy duty bar would, hence you will still feel the rig rocking.

You could also perform this experiment on the front axle but because people can't stand directly over the front axle, you might not be able to get the right rocking motion to see the results. Still it would be worth a try.

When I perform this experiment on the rear of my own rig with Roadmaster heavy duty sway bars, I feel the entire rear of the motor home drop regardless of my shifted weight. I simply cannot get the rig to rock side to side. It gets cancelled out by the lowering of the rear of the rig by some amount.

I suppose if you loaded up your rig with a pile of people trying to rock the rig in unison, you would create an extreme condition. I would imagine there is only so much any sway bar can handle.
4 REPLIES 4

ron_dittmer
Explorer II
Explorer II
No apologies needed at all. Like you say, the 2008-2014 E350 & E450 has an improved suspension of which may address much of what we have experienced.

JNorton
Explorer
Explorer
I wanted to add that I am not disputing some E 450s have handling problems. I respect both Ron and J-D very much and have enjoyed reading their many postings.
2008 Fleetwood Tioga Ranger 31W E450 V10

JNorton
Explorer
Explorer
Ron,
Perhaps the reason I have not been experiencing the poor handling problems everyone is attributing to the E450 chassis is that I have a 2008 with improved sway bars etc. Entering my MH has never caused the coach to lean.
John
2008 Fleetwood Tioga Ranger 31W E450 V10

j-d
Explorer II
Explorer II
Our entry step is a two-step Kwikee. I thought it was loose, it went down so much when I climbed in. The day I finished installing front and rear Hellwig bars, I headed into the coach to do something. Unrelated to the bar project and I wasn't even thinking sway bars till I got on the first step and it didn't go down! That first step is quite a bit offset from the coach body, and those bars absorbed my offcenter weight just like there was block under the step.
They make a huge difference while driving, but also on the campsite. Coach is as steady without the HWH jacks down as it used to be with them.
If God's Your Co-Pilot Move Over, jd
2003 Jayco Escapade 31A on 2002 Ford E450 V10 4R100 218" WB