road wander February 19, 2001, 08:48:40 am Yahoo Message Number: 2139Any advice on which remedy to correct road wander has worked best for you. Between Steer safe Safe_T plus and Davis TruTrac, any strong recomendations? My LD is a 22'RL on a Chevy 454 Chassis, I've already installed Bilsteins and am very careful about tire pressures. Main issue is in windy conditions.
road wander Reply #1 – February 19, 2001, 10:38:00 am Yahoo Message Number: 2141Before spending money on one of these after market systems, have a qualified Front Suspension mechanic check the front end out. There are parts that regularly wear out. The most common parts are the idler arm and pittman arm. Ball joints and A-arm bushing wear also. Realize that the front end was designed for a van that weighs much less than a MH and that it will wear out much faster. After market sway bar bushings can help. The thing that stabized mine the most was installing Firestone air bags on the rear suspension. It made a BIG difference in cross wind and on back roads. I also use the bags for leveling . No matter what you do, your LD will rock and roll in high winds, so slow down in those conditions. Aftermarket systems will not help if you have worn parts.
road wander Reply #2 – February 19, 2001, 03:05:49 pm Yahoo Message Number: 2146Thanks for your advice. Im having some preventative maintenance done to the engine and drivetrain so I'll just add this to the list. At 42,000 miles there certainly could be some wear on the the front end.
road wander Reply #3 – February 19, 2001, 03:46:16 pm Yahoo Message Number: 2149Road Wander...sounds like a new flu virus...but I had to tell you that I gave my used unit the supreme test and it does not and did not get "road wander" no matter how many bumper to bumper tanker and 16 wheelers passed us at 70 mph! Nope...nada, did not feel them, nor the wind they usually cause...nor did I feel the wind in the prairies when it was blowing hard - 40+ mph at various times...no, there was and is no wallowing about with my 1989 Ford Laze Daze and you can take this to the bank! Mari Susan P.S. It does not rock and roll nor hip hop or anything like that...smile
road wander Reply #4 – February 19, 2001, 05:57:11 pm Yahoo Message Number: 2151"Any advice on which remedy to correct road wander has worked best for you."I have also installed the Bilsteins, and replaced the worn pitman arm and idler in the steering linkage, and adjusted the steering box. I also added a rear sway bar and replaced the bushings in the front bar with polyurethane ones.The total result is handling that carves up the curves in the mountains and handles ruts and road irregularities well. However, wind gusts still require minor steering corrections, and there is little steering feedback from the road. I suspect this is the nature of the beast.Steve
road wander Reply #5 – February 19, 2001, 07:28:08 pm Yahoo Message Number: 2154Most vehicles (including GM G30s) are designed so that when they roll, the front wheels turn OUT of the corner. That is, when you turn left and the rig rolls to the right, the front wheel turn angles will decrease. This is called roll-understeer; and you can feel the effect by noticing that you must increase steering wheel movement to make a smooth, constant radius turn.Now, if the steering wheel is not moved, and the rig rolls to the right, the front wheels will turn to the right; and the rig will steer to the right. When a cross wind hits you from the left, the rig will roll to the right and turn right. (Lee helm :-)).By making sure that the anti-roll stiffness of your coach is up to snuff, the wind-induced roll steer will be reduced; and it will be less work to drive in gusty winds.Lazy Daze hates to have us mess with chassis set-ups; but IPD suspension mods really helped our 86 Chevy with a small block engine. The stiffer bars will require a bit stiffer shock calibrations than the production bars --a handling vs ride trade-off.By doing the things Steve did, the rig will be as good as (have the intended compromises) Chevy intended it.Another thing that helps with steering feel is to increase the static caster setting to 4 or 5-deg from the small (2-deg if I remember correctly) recommended setting. This will bring you much improved steering feel and help the rig track better.The caste will change the roll understeer of the vehicle, but we never noticed that.bob phillips
road wander Reply #6 – February 19, 2001, 10:34:42 pm Yahoo Message Number: 2161"Another thing that helps with steering feel is to increase the static caster setting to 4 or 5-deg from the small (2-deg if I remember correctly) recommended setting. This will bring you much improved steering feel and help the rig track better."It appears you did the caster change? I suspect some effect remaining in steering imprecision to be due to worn lower ball joints and steering box end-play and lash play, in our case. The ball joints are worn to about the maximum tolerance, and I adjusted the sector shaft end-play on the vehicle - which necessitated purposely leaving it a bit loose. Did you replace other suspension or steering linkage parts at the same time as the caster change? I'm wondering if you detected the improvement due to only the caster change?Steve
road wander Reply #7 – February 20, 2001, 12:58:38 am Yahoo Message Number: 2163I agree with advice that first step is to ensure your stock front steering and suspension parts are within Manufacturer's allowable wear tolerances.Bilsteins and careful tire pressure monitoring are excellent practices.If you want to essentially eliminate rock and roll in winds and that same effect from passing 18 wheelers, you will need to install ipd rear and front roll (sway) bars. ipd, located in Portland Oregon, can advise what they recommend with respect to bar diameters and bushing characteristics for your chassis. Those who have gone this way find that their rear ride is not adversely affected. I agree that the rear air lifts can eliminate roll in the rear, but that does nothing for the front. In comparison to a rear and front roll bar installation designed for sway elimination, the rear air lifts come in second. Pumped up to eliminate sway in the rear, which was about 55 psig, the rear of our last Class C had a very unpleasant, harsh ride on rough roads. (Such as I-40 in Arkansas.) The air lifts are less expensive than the ipd front and rear sway bars, though.If you are getting any steering effect from the winds now, the ipd's will help. My preference for reducing this is the Steer Safe, rather than the Safe-T-Plus. With Steer Safe, our last class C drove much like our large wagon on smooth roads, even with severe crosswinds.Don
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