My RV seriously leans to the right...

[alliemac9]

My Class C always seems to have leaned to the right when looking from the rear (i.e. it leans to the curb/passenger's side). For some reason, it looks a little farther tilted lately.

We've always passed it off as just the weight distribution - primarily, the water tank (50 gal) is under the bed on the curb side. Here's a list of our driver/passenger side potentially weighty items (not considering furniture/cabinetry since that lines the entire coach):

Driver Side
Generator
Propane tank

Passenger Side
Water tank (50 gal)
Water heater (6 gal)
Exterior storage bays
Fridge

Would you expect a lean given the above? If you want to see the floor plan, there's an image in my profile. Is this a situation to be concerned about? The RV drives/handles great. I've thought about installing air bags - would this be a good application for them?

Guess it's time to get it to a scale that can weigh all four corners?

[luvztheoutdoor1]

Mine is tilted 1-1/4" towards the passenger side. So says the mechanic at the truck suspension facility I took it to. I was concerned about safety issues and was told there is none. I will live with it since the camper handles wonderfully and I did not want to mess with that. Plans are in place for auto levelers. That will help with leveling the coach when the slide-out is out so water does not run towards the camper.

[Butch50]

This thread was almost 2 years old before it got resurrected. The OP never came back and stated what he did for his rig.

[rockhillmanor]

Have you looked at the leaf springs? Sounds like you have a failed and/or broken leaf on one side. Leaf springs get metal fatigue.

If you 'are' way over weight on one side the leaf springs on that side would fatigue faster and be more prone to a broken leaf spring that you won't be able to see. Also that fat grommet gets squashed down and can slip too.

Not always easy to see all what could be going on just by looking at the side that is visible to you. I'd have a frame/suspension shop look into it before you start shoving shims in it.

I think everyone tends to forget that those leaf springs are not spring chickens after a few years of heavy hauling on them and don't take into consideration that they DO have metal fatigue.

I swear by rod and custom frame shops to work on my RV. After about a million different opinions on my MH. I finally took it to a frame shop and in 5 minutes they had it 'calculated' to the nth degree what to do to correct it. AND they were less expensive than ANY of the RV shops and what they 'thought' should be done.

[j-d]

FULLTIMEWANABE wrote:
Put in a leaf spring and it's like night and day,

Was this an addition to one side only? We added a leaf to both sides to correct sagging. You'd like to think that a pair of springs would sag equally, but I'm not sure that's true.

[FULLTIMEWANABE]

We had similar leaning problems on the passenger side. Have public weigh stations that helped us on several highways around. Put in a leaf spring and it's like night and day, in fact went close to half inch to the other extreme but like night and day when driving now. Done last August and driven a few thousand kms since and was great.

[DrewE]

Air helper springs are good; I'm entirely satisfied with the ride-rite ones installed by Coachmen on my class C as a factory option. I think they help give a stable ride, and certainly do help keep the ride height at an appropriately good level.

However, as others have said, while they certainly could compensate for side-to-side lean, it would be much better to cure that at the source. If you're reasonably close to balanced weight wise, a significant lean suggests some suspension problem or adjustment to be fixed. If the weight is significantly unbalanced, figuring how to fix that (maybe by redistributing some of your own stuff) would be a good idea.

Does the factory RV weight sticker give individual wheel weights from the factory? I think mine does. That at least gives a starting point for comparison.

[the_trippers]

Finally got my Jayco leveled. The lean to the right was driving the wife nuts which drove me...Anyhow took a picture of the 1 1/2" shim to Camping World to get it removed, too costly. Then tried Carmenita Ford, they recommended Long Beach Spring.
Had them add a 1" shim to the other side (better to add height than to lower the rear end). Leaving RV just a 1/2" higher on drivers side to compensate for the slides being out. Works great.
Long Beach Spring is very reasonable, cheap even, and they know what they are doing. Jayco just way overcompensated for the slides.

[markbrumbaugh]

I had a blown Mor-Ryde puck that did this for me.

[Toot_Mc]

Look into Firestone Ride-rite air helper springs. not too expensive and fairly easy to install. you can air up individually or together. will make your rig ride better, and you cam air one side up more than the other to level. well worth the $130 cost.

Can be ordered from PPL Houston

My Coach House has them and they work great. works wonders when you have a really windy day and the wind is blowing you around quite a bit just air them up several pounds and it will help some of the wondering around.

[alliemac9]

Thanks! I'll take a look at that and see if any will allow me to do all four corners. I guess I've never seen anyone discuss the logistics of it, but I would think you just get a weight of each axle, then go around again and only put one side of the RV on the scale to see what the weights are for front/rear on that side, then subtract to find each corner? As long as the scale and surrounding ground are reasonably level, this seems like it would be the way to do it...

[IAMICHABOD]

alliemac9 wrote:
So, I've always meant to weigh the RV, but haven't gotten around to it. As a result, I don't really know how the whole weighing process works.

I do know people here talk about getting a weight at each corner. Sounds great and I just called the CAT scale nearby and they *say* they can weigh all four corners. However, on the CAT website, it specifically says they can only provide axle weights (quote: Please note: Our scales can give you axle weights and a total gross weight, however, they cannot weigh each corner of the vehicle. We cannot provide individual wheel weights and, to prevent damage to your vehicle as well as our scales, do not allow that type of weighing.)

Should I be looking for a different scale? What am I missing here?

I found the same thing here in California. But I happened on a public list that shows a lot of scales, I just picked out a few in my area and called them to see if I could get what I wanted and the price.

It worked out great.

Here is the list for Colorado Public Scales

I'm sure some one here can walk you thru the procedure to do each corner and each axle or has a link to how it is done. As a retired trucker my explanation may be long and confusing........:B

[Francesca_Knowl]

Since you're only looking for info for yourself and don't need an official "weght ticket" or anything:

Dunno about Colorado, but around here there are plenty of highway scales that are unmanned/mothballed but for some reason the scales themselves are still "on". I've weighed more than one setup at such scales, and there's so little traffic that one can reverse the rig and weigh one side at least, or sometimes individual corners. Depends on configuration of the scale.

The other casual places I've used are landfill scales and those in small town freight yards where grain trucks etc. have to weigh before offloading. The latter scales are always on, regardless if they're manned.

[alliemac9]

So, I've always meant to weigh the RV, but haven't gotten around to it. As a result, I don't really know how the whole weighing process works.

I do know people here talk about getting a weight at each corner. Sounds great and I just called the CAT scale nearby and they *say* they can weigh all four corners. However, on the CAT website, it specifically says they can only provide axle weights (quote: Please note: Our scales can give you axle weights and a total gross weight, however, they cannot weigh each corner of the vehicle. We cannot provide individual wheel weights and, to prevent damage to your vehicle as well as our scales, do not allow that type of weighing.)

Should I be looking for a different scale? What am I missing here?

[weathershak]

Dakzuki wrote:
Do you have the radio tuned to Rush Limbaugh?

:B:B:B