New to Class A are lots of steering corrections normal?

[Welfarewagon]

Just moved up to a Class A diesel from a fifth wheel my question is since I have never driven any other motor home is a lot if steering correction needed while driving or could I have a loose or worn tie end rod or steering part? I have a 2001 Holiday Rambler Endeavor 40DP with 90k miles.
I know I'm driving a 40,000 lb house down the road I just want to know If this or normal or should I be concerned

[jtfcons]

Some good suggestions here.
Tire pressure, looking farther down the road, alignment all good.

Be sure when checking alignment to do rear axle alignment as well. A small amount of out of adjustment of the trailing arms will cause the chassis to be bias one way or the other, resulting in a correction. This was the experience I had with my bus.

[toolttime]

My old endeavor was like that . It had a straight axle in the front and that was the way they were for steering. Our new coach has independent front suspension and drives like car

[dkreuzen]

RoadMaster chassis' are noted for this issue. Review the two related threads shown at http://www.irv2.com/forums/f115/monaco-technical-information-249622.html

I and many others have done these modifications and are very pleased with the results.

[MikeDavies]

Some good suggestions here on what to check.

Our 2004 Mirada did the same, the front end would "hunt".
It has the pneumatic pads on the rear axle.
We put in 80 lbs air pressure in the pads.
That totally changed the way it drove.
It seems throwing just a bit more weight on the
front end did the trick for us.
Mike

[lanerd]

Well, I'll add another possibility for you. Maybe it's you.

When I went from pulling a trailer to our first Class A, that dam thing was all over the road. After complaining on this forum, It was pointed out to me that with that huge windshield right in front of me, I was looking at the road much closer than I would be when driving my truck. I was instructed to look much farther down the road, maybe two or three cars ahead of me. Sure enough, that was the problem. Once I started doing that, the coach would track straight and true. If i took my eyes off of the distance, the coach would start wandering again.

This is just something that you will get use to after driving it some more. Be patient, it'll come to you.

Ron

[TNGW1500SE]

RV's are kind of like boats, put to much in and you get to much out. If you just let it do it's thing a little more you don't find yourself fighting it as much.

[Mile_High]

We came from a 5er and I was impressed with how well the Class A tracks. As expected though, wind can push you around a bit, and high wind can tire you.

Agree with others - have it checked at a reliable service center.

[RLS7201]

There are alignment shops and there are almost alignment shops. Most want to get it close to specs., which in many cases is not good enough. Lots of alignment equipment out there but darn few really good alignment personal. When you pay for an alignment and it don't drive well, you went to the wrong place. Precision Alignment in MN. and Henderson's Line-up in Grants Pass, OR. are two of the best.

Richard

[Ed_Gee]

There are many possible causes for this. Start with making sure your tires are inflated to the proper pressure for the load on them. Have the steering alignment checked. Also check the suspension components. I took the easy way out when I had that problem and just installed a steering stabilizer which in my case was like going from night to day in steering handling. Many Class A motor homes have so much hanging out behind the rear axel that good steering can be difficult to obtain.

[crasster]

Too little info. Was it windy? RV's are sails.

[Ivylog]

With the engine shut off how much free play is there in the steering wheel? If it's more than a half inch this could be your problem. Unfortunately Monaco did not use the TRW steering gearbox in all of their motorhomes... you can adjust the free play out of the TRW but not the other manufacture. If the Pitman arm has a large boat on the circumference holding it on the splined shaft of the gearbox it's a TRW. On the side is a jam nut and adjusting screw that will take the excessive free play out of it.

Assuming the tow in is correct and you have less than a half inch of free play then the problem may be the nut behind the steering wheel not giving steering inputs long enough to take affect... much the same as oversteering a boat that is slow to take steering inputs. You have to give smaller inputs longer to take affect or you'll be chasing the motorhome and all over the highway. On a good highway with no wind see if you can keep it between the lines by cutting your steering movements in half. With practice you can anticipate what you need to do... going under a bridge when you have a crosswind.

*I have 80,000 miles on my Monaco and it's a pleasure to drive. Other than adjusting the gearbox early on, the rest of my front end is stock and other than checking the toe end myself it has never been aligned since leaving the factory. If your tires are wearing evenly with 20,000 miles on them there is no reason to do an alignment.

[Busskipper]

Welfarewagon wrote:
Just moved up to a Class A diesel from a fifth wheel my question is since I have never driven any other motor home is a lot if steering correction needed while driving or could I have a loose or worn tie end rod or steering part? I have a 2001 Holiday Rambler Endeavor 40DP with 90k miles.
I know I'm driving a 40,000 lb house down the road I just want to know If this or normal or should I be concerned

IMHO, no matter how old or how many miles - if it feels like it needs and Alignment - then it probably does.

No vehicle that you drive down the road should be work.

JMHO,

[msmith1199]

The answer is it depends. No wind on a good road it should track down the road just fine. Mine does with no more corrections than driving a car. But add some wind or some steep crest to the road, and yeah it takes an effort to keep it in the land. I just drove to Reno and back this weekend and we had some heavy winds here in California and there were places where I was fighting it.

[Bruce_Brown]

It may be a case of just needing to get used to how a MH drives vs driving a pickup. With a MH try "guiding" it more than "driving" it.