How Can I Improve The Handling Performance Of My RV?

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I just purchased a 2006 Four Winds 5000 29R Class C on a Ford E450 chassis with a V10. It has 8,400 miles and drives great but it has a good bit of tail sway and rut tracking. There are a lot of products out there. Can you point me in the right direction?
Thanks

ANSWER The first thing I would do is get new shock absorbers. I am going to assume that the shocks on your motorhome are original. I was experiencing the same sort of problem you were with our class A motorhome; it drove well but under certain road conditions it would get a bit squirrely. So I replaced the factory shocks with some Bilstein Gas Pressure Shocks.

I was pleasantly surprised at how much better the motorhome handled by just changing the shocks. It seems to handle much better in the wind and also when semis blow by me. Cornering is a lot smoother with less rocking back and forth and it took bumps a lot better.

There is only a tiny downside to the shock change and that is a little bit stiffer ride (actually I like the stiffer feel of the ride, it sure beats the mushy feeling the original shocks were giving me).

A few months after putting on the shocks I also went ahead and added some Rear Sway Bars (similar to the ones pictured at the top of this page).

The sway bars made an even greater difference in the handling of the motorhome. It is now rock solid going down the road. In fact it handles better than some passenger cars I have owned in the past. Don't get me wrong I am not going to take the motorhome and race it at the road course at the Infineon Raceway in Sonoma. But, it does feel that good.

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There are also steering stabilizing systems that you can install on your RV. These stabilizing systems will tighten up the steering on the RV. This could definitely help with the rut tracking you are experiencing with your motorhome.

I hope that this information has been helpful to you. If any of our visitors have any tips or suggestions for you they can add them to this page by clicking on the add a comment link located near the bottom of this page.

Happy RVing

RVing Al

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