Jayco Melbourne, Steering is loose?

[Mergs]

We have just gotten a 14 Jayco Melbourne and my husband sees nothing wrong with the steering but when I tried to drive it I had a hard time driving it for a long time because the steering wheel had like a 4 inch space and I had to keep adjusting it. Someone said it is the stabilizer. Has anyone had this fixed?

[Hank85713]

I felt as if our 2011/12 RV did the same thing. Ended up playing with the tire pressures as noted above , also found that the rear airbags need to be inflated to 50+psi. Does yours have air assist, if so play with settings there and some with the fronts I think mine are at 65 or so.

[Harvard]

Wandering E450, circa 2011

[DrewE]

The stock stabilizer is very easy to replace; it's more or less a shock absorber mounted horizontally between the steering tie rod and the frame. It's nice and accessible in the front of the chassis. I replaced mine just a few days ago (it was definitely worn out, with signs of oil dripping from it), and I think it took maybe a half an hour, much of which was arranging a jack to take pressure off the suspension because the tie rod happened to be blocking the stabilizer mounting bolt in the fixed bracket.

However, if there is actual play in the steering, the stabilizer isn't going to correct that problem. You'd have to either adjust or replace the steering box and/or tie rod ends, most likely, or some suspension bushings. A bit of staring at things while wiggling the steering wheel ought to make clear what, if anything, is loose.

Sometimes the tendency with long vehicles is to oversteer because the response to steering inputs is rather more gradual than with a car. This is more commonly a difficulty where the driver's seat is over or in front of the front axle, as in many class A's. If you consciously try to make smaller corrections it might work out better. Needless to say, that doesn't in any way mean avoiding cranking the wheel over hard when navigating a parking lot or making a sharp turn, but rather more applies to the little corrections when cruising down the road to keep in the correct spot in the lane.

(Like tatest, I also drive a Fit in addition to my motorhome. When going from the motorhome to the Fit, it takes a mile or two before I adjust and stop nearly swerving into the ditch on the slightest of curves. There's a very big difference in the steering rate between the two vehicles!)

[tatest]

First, it is a truck chassis with recirculating ball steering and a high steering ratio, so it will have a little more play and more movement for a given effect when compared to the tight rack and pinion systems used on almost all front wheel drive cars and small to mid-size SUVs today. Day to day I am switching between a Honda Fit and an E-350 van, and there are definitely some driving adjustments to be made. But I am so used to the E-350 that it is the Fit that doesn't feel quite right, steering feels twitchy with no real center and lacking proportional feedback and return to center (but that latter part is because of the programming of the electric power steering).

But as J-D says, proper tire inflation is critical on the front of this van chassis (and many other trucks in this weight class). The tires are chosen to support heavy loads on the rear, and the same tires are used on the front so they are interchangable. If you inflate to maximum pressure on the sidewall, rather than for actual load on the tire, you lose a lot of the contact patch and grip on the road. You also lose part of the turning power generated by tire flex.

Inflation pressure the first thing I check when someone says their van or class C is wandering, but it is more of a feeling of being loose on the road than it is excessive play in the steering wheel. Play in the steering is best measured when standing still. Any additional wheel movement observed when driving would be from alignment or tire contact issues, rather than slack in steering mechanism.

[j-d]

I'm sitting here groaning. Not because of you, but because we get threads like this nearly every day, and NO STICKY to help with replies.

Jayco made a few Melbourne's on Ford E450's converted to four wheel drive. I trust yours isn't one of those, but that the chassis IS an E450.

Please explain what you mean by "4 inch space." Are you saying you can steer 4" in loose movement? Your steering is likely NOT worn out, but how many miles are on this coach?

Let's start here:

Load with people and Stuff. Drive it to a truck stop/travel center that has a CAT Scale. Bring an Inflation Chart. Weight it on the CAT Scale. If you tow a car or trailer, bring it along.

Assuming your tires will be HOT, adjust pressure to what the chart calls for for your axle weight and tire size in the chart, plus 5-PSI for hot tires. Notice the chart is different for single(front) and dual (rear) tires, so double chart weights since CAT weighs axles, not corners.

If your tires, especially fronts, are over-inflated, it'll wander, and also if way under-inflated. You can be arbitrary with the rears (as long as there's enough pressure for weight) but fronts are critical.

After that, it may not be properly aligned. Published specs don't provide enough Caster.

Sway bars help and could be very useful.

See if your tire valves are METAL. If you can't check and air them fairly easily, then you need to have custom valves like THESE installed.