Suspension upgrade

"Rolls?" Har har a decent pun...

The role of a sway bar is to reduce leaning in a curve. Shock absorbers and spring's role is to reduce bpuncing and hobby horsing. My tag axle air system is for the latter. Under and over axle springs on the rear driver to manage weight.

But sway bars are next to useless to control hobby horsing and wallowing.

To cure lean springs alone would make the ride like a buckboard. I've got four Donaldson shocks in the rear and monsters for a Peterbilt in front. The effect is to minimize my poor driving skills due to advanced age.

j-d wrote:
Our sway bar experience has been opposite of Salvo's observation.

That's not an observation but fact! The suspension consists of springs and dampers. Do not confuse the two. They have completely different rolls in a suspension system. Rocking is due to inadequate damping. A sway bar is a torsion spring. It's not a damper.

If you enter a driveway or a speed bump at an angle the sway bar will become energized. The bigger the bar the more energy the bar attains and the more rocking you'll get.

Our sway bar experience has been opposite of Salvo's observation. Handling and Tracking on the Road: Better.
Rocking on the Campsite: Less.
Positive Impressions: All.
Negative Impressions: None

After I installed our Hellwig front and rear sway bars and before a test drive, I got into the coach just to get something. Wasn't even thinking sway bars till I got on the first step of the Kwikee's. I was used to pushing the step down, which of course rocked the coach. Whoa! What happened? Didn't push down! That's how much the sway bars firmed it up. Then driving it, I somehow misjudged a familiar downhill turn and got into it too fast. I simply steered and it went right through comfortably. Just on those two events, I was convinced I'd made the right modification.

As I mentioned, I bought Hellwig, on sale from SDTruckSprings. Free shipping dropped direct from Hellwig. The other brand is Roadmaster. Same steel, same diameters, marketed differently. Both Hellwig bars cost little more than one Roadmaster. I'm old, slow, and cautious. Took me half a day to install both and half of that was on the rusted capscrews holding the OEM rear sway bar. Rest was easy and no drilling.

mikim's F-53 is different from our E-450. We have a rear track bar and it makes complete sense for the F-53. If that F-53 has a single I-Beam front axle (and I thought they all did, now not so sure), I'm a little surprised Henderson's didn't add one there also. Rears are SuperSteer but front is Davis Tru-Trac, Eric's (Davis) RV in Sequim WA. If it has some form of Independent Front Suspension (IFS) then it doesn't need a front track bar. Our E-450 doesn't, the reason for IFS and any Class C but the very rare Ford E-550 not needing one is that the inboard end of the suspension (wishbone or twin I-beam) is already tied to the chassis.

The overall upgrade has really improved the ride. Rocking has been greatly reduced.

I believe I talked to them at Quartzsite.

IMO they put too much emphasis on sway bars. They are not a cure-all. Rocking becomes worse.

When I read "Koni" that grabbed my interest. My 10-wheeler Crown is outside the loop for such luxuries and I had to convert the tag axle to full air suspension to cure Hobby-Horsing. Addco Industries made my sway bars to the tune of $2,100 thirty years ago. 2-3/8" rear. Took four people and one big-rig transmission jack to install. But in my opinion it all was worth it. Wallowing was scary, which proved I am not a "good" RV driver. :(

I had a chance to visit Henderson's a couple years ago and I'm glad I did. They deserve the reputation they enjoy. They worked for it and they do it every day. I talked with people in shop, parts, SuperSteer and chatted with John Henderson for about half an hour.
The parts list above confirms what I decided during my visit: They pick what they feel is the best of every supplier's product line.
Expensive, yes, but still in line with what one of our Class C owners paid several years ago in another state.
I hope these upgrades will allow you to enjoy RVing for many more seasons.

I-5, still loaded with joints ? bump bump bump bump bump...