Sway/Track Bars

[Crankarm]

We have a 2009 Suncruiser 32H on the Ford chasis. The body roll/sway is very pronounced. I saw an article in the motorhome mag about sway bars, both front and rear from Roadmaster...as well as a steering dampner. The article concludes that they make a huge improvement. I would like to know if any one has actual before and after experience with adding the roadmaster sway bars/steering dampner. A follow on question, has any one had before and after experience with adding a rear track bar. As always, thanks in advance for your advice.

[wa8yxm]

Ok, "Sway" is side to side rocking.. If viewed from the rear it would look like this

\|/ Sway bars try to make it look like this |||

The next issue is fishtailing.. Viewed from ABOVE that looks like this \|/ (Same graphic isn't it) as the body swings side to side over the chassis.

A Trac Bar, also known as a Pan-Hard bar, cures that.. you may need two

Finally you have steering wander.. Steering stablizers like the Blue-OX true-center Do a fantastic job there

How much difference can it make?

Well... My house is built on a Workhouse foundation.

In Jan of 2006 I drove Detroit to Las Vegas with a co-driver and a stock rig
Summer of 2006 I installed one pan-hard and the True-Center
November I repeated the trip to Las Vegas, no co-driver

First trip when I dropped the 1992 Chevy Lumina off, parked the coach and drive the car.. It was a real relief cause it was white knuckle in the MH.

second trip it was White Knuckle in the Lumina.. It made that much difference.

As to sway.. Workhorse installed very good sway bars at the factory. No issues there.. and I seriously tested them last fall... Thankfully not as seriously as my wife feared (Well, we both feared) but I managed to keep her upright under very trying conditions.. I would just as soon not do that again.

[NeilV]

Originally Posted by Crankarm

We have a 2009 Suncruiser 32H on the Ford chasis. The body roll/sway is very pronounced. I saw an article in the motorhome mag about sway bars, both front and rear from Roadmaster...as well as a steering dampner. The article concludes that they make a huge improvement. I would like to know if any one has actual before and after experience with adding the roadmaster sway bars/steering dampner. A follow on question, has any one had before and after experience with adding a rear track bar. As always, thanks in advance for your advice.

I added the Roadmaster (IPD at the time) front sway bar kit with the poly bushings to my previous coach a 1995 Vectra 33RQ on the P30 chassis and only upgraded the rear to the poly bushing keeping the original sway bar. The heavy duty sway bar along with the new bushings helped with the pendulem type rocking however it made the coach also follow the road more closely so much so that the coach would at times uncomfortably pitch left and right as it followed the road surface a bit too exactly.

It was a more solid feel, more controlable and more sports car like however the closer following of the side to side pitch in the road as it transitioned was exaggerated due to sitting six feet off the ground instead of just a few inches like you would in a sports car. The coach already came factory with a rear track bar.

It was a big improvement albeit a bit too stiff for the 16,000 lb chassis I was ridding on.

[lakewoodpaul]

I have a 2010 32H on a wh chassis. Its not our 1rst winnie, but it is our 1st one that is 12ft+ high, and that makes a big difference in the sway and wandering. Had the alignment checked and it was in specs. Tire pressure made no difference so I had Helwig sway bars installed front and rear and it did help. We had Chip of Rallies Are Us install them at the Fla. state wit Club Rally. Chassis is a W22.

[Gotta_P]

Originally Posted by lakewoodpaul

I have a 2010 32H on a wh chassis. Its not our 1rst winnie, but it is our 1st one that is 12ft+ high, and that makes a big difference in the sway and wandering. Had the alignment checked and it was in specs. Tire pressure made no difference so I had Helwig sway bars installed front and rear and it did help. We had Chip of Rallies Are Us install them at the Fla. state wit Club Rally. Chassis is a W22.

We have a 2009 SunCruiser 35P on the W24 Chassis and just had Chip (see above) install the front sway bar/track bar combo and the Safe T Plus to the front of our coach this week at the GA WIT Rally in Perry, GA. It did make a difference! We live in Atlanta and just driving the 2+ hours south to Perry left me with sore shoulders from fighting the steering wheel every time we were passed by a semi. The trip home was much more relaxing and I wasn't sore after the trip.

I'll be having the rear sway bar added in about two weeks (Chip did not have an exhaust extension needed to clear the rear sway bar at the Rally). I can say that during the drive home, the rear sway seemed much more pronounced than it had been before, but that was most likely because the front was no longer swaying and the rear was, so that was all I felt. The mods aren't cheap, but if I can go longer distances and not feel I was mugged at the end of the drive, I think it is a worthwhile investment.

Chip also recommended replacing the front shocks with a pair that had better valving, and that also made a vast improvement in the ride. I'm not sure if it will make as much of a difference in your Ford Chassis (you did not specify if you had the 20K or 24K chassis) but with the stiff suspension on our 24K chassis, expansion joints on the highway used to make it sound as though the coach was going to jar the doors off the cabinetry as we went down the road. Our trip home was much smoother and quieter with the new shocks.

The way Chip explained it to me, the sway bars would take care of about 60% of the problem. The steering stabilizer was more of a safety item. The analogy he used was that of a skateboard with a heavy box on top of it. If the box swayed to the right, the wheels are going to tend to steer to the right. As you correct for that you shift the weight of the load to the left which then causes the wheels to steer to the left. this constant shifting and swaying causes you to constantly fight the steering wheel to correct for the sway. Reduce the sway and you reduce the fight! He did caution that you will never totally eliminate the sway just because of the shear size and weight of the coach sitting on top of that skateboard!

From my personal experience, I would definitely recommend you adding the sway bars, and if you can swing it, get the steering stabilizer and track bar as well.

[Luv2go]

We have a 2008 22,000lb Ford F-53 chassis. My first drive home experience (600mi) was very similar to what way8yxm described during his 2006 drive from Detroit to Las Vegas, white knuckle and very glad it was over. The problem I was experiencing was "tail wagging the dog" (fishtailing) when almost any type of vehicle passed me.

Our Ford F-53 has a trackbar on the front axle and sway bars front and rear (although they are not as stout as the aftermarket), so I decided the first thing to add would be a rear trackbar. Huge improvement, so much so that my wife noticed and really liked it. She now was willing to drive it for long periods.

It is still not perfect, next I will add better swaybars to improve the side to side rolling.

Stewart

[John Hilley]

I have a 1999 Winnebago 35V on the Ford chassis. I added AirLift air bags front and rear and a Safe-T-Plus steering centering damper. The combination works well for me. I can drive as comfortably as in the car and it does a good job of compensating for wind and passing trucks.