bluebarry1964b
Homestead, Florida
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Travelon wrote:bluebarry1964b wrote:bsinmich wrote:I think the ones seeking the smoother ride are the ones with gas chassis and spring suspensions. Don't you have air bag suspension? If that is a problem have you had it checked for proper pressure and any leaks. Roads are not good in a great portion of this county. You can't make a rough road ride like it isn't there.
Mine is a Workhorse chassis and I am not overloaded. I have next to nothing in the storage compartments. We just kept taking out what wasn't needed and got to this point. I have driven Van Hool tour buses and mine doesn't ride like that but it sure isn't something I am constantly complaining about. I like it.
At the risk of openly breaking out in tears just at the thought of it, I bet the tour buses rode like a dream, didn't they, compared to a DP with no tandem axle?
I do have air bag suspension, but as I've said on other postings, that's actually part of my problem. This is our first RV. I've never ridden in a gas RV with spring suspensions. I'm going to one of these days, then maybe I'll stop expecting so much out of my air suspension system.
The air bags and shocks are brand new. I had doubts about the installation (it's a Source Enhancement Ride Enhancement Kit) so at Quartzsite, I actually had one of the owner's of Source Engineering refer me to a shop there who were very experienced with the REK. They went over the entire system, adjusted the back air ride height, but gave the rest a clean bill of health.
So, what is the problem? Load it up , weigh it, adjust wheel/axel weights and enjoy it - simple don't over think it.
LOL!! Overthinking things a.k.a. obsessing about something is what I do too much of....drives my wife actually bonkers watching me spend 20 minutes or more looking at 2 different kinds of you-name-its at Home Depot, trying to make up my mind as to which one to go with.
I keep trying to convince myself that if I think about this smooth ride thing long enough, get advice on this forum, ponder, think some more, get more advice-- I'll actually come up with a way to make an RV ride like a bus. It'll never happen.....but I just can't help myself.
Travelon
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RCtime
So. Calif.
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Bluebarry
I believe you said in a previous thread you unloaded your freshwater etc. and reduced your weight and had a much improved ride.
Didnt this work out as well as you thought?
To answer your question I am under weight front and rear by about 1500# each.
I do have to adjust my tire presuures to the weight carried or my ride will increase in harshness.
Otherwiase I enjoy a very comfortable ride on my Freightliner XC chassis.
I always carry a full tank of water as I can feel subtle handling improvemnts with the extra weight, Best of all is just after full fill up of 90 gal. diesel which is carried just aft of the front axle and full fresh water. I always travel with black and grey tanks empty. Four corner weight check done with coach weighted to traveling specs.
Good luck to you.
* This post was
edited 02/06/12 09:27am by RCtime *
Ron
2002 34HD Winnebago Journey DL, Cat. 330/freightliner
2004 Honda CRV - Garmin 1490t
Great wife & Cavalier King Charles Spaniel
TT/N
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stripit
Casa Grande, AZ
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Joined: 02/24/2004
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The problem with this question is your assuming folks have actually weighed their rig, so many never have.
Stacey Frank
'04 Mobile Suites 36 TK3 #1341
'99 Int'l 4700 Lo Pro MDT
'08 Lexus 400H
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larry barnhart
wenatchee. wa usa
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stripit wrote:The problem with this question is your assuming folks have actually weighed their rig, so many never have.
This is very true from what most tell me and they seem to know the weight of their rv. One guy with a 36ft Teton triple axle and triple slide tole me our 35 ft alpenlite was a lot heavier than his so I said ours weigh 14380 loaded for the winter and what is yours. The answer was I haven't weighed it!!!!
chevman
chevman
2001 35 ft avalon alpenlite RK
2005 3500 2wd duramax CC dually
prodigy
easyrider/reese airhitch
trailair center point suspension
JT Strong Arm Stabilizers
KSH 55 inbed fuel tank
Garmin 2720
scanguage II
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Induction Overhaul Kit
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oneolddog
Vancouver
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Joined: 11/29/2008
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bsinmich wrote:A tag axle isn't there for the ride but for the extra load. On a Van Hool everyone went fully loaded in their luggage compartment. The ride was great empty or full but the handling was much better fully loaded.
Tag axle coaches have a much nicer ride. A bonus is that you get extra carrying capacity also.
Adam
2009 Allegro Bus 36QSP (Sold March 2011)
Looking to buy something new.
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bluebarry1964b
Homestead, Florida
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RCtime wrote:Bluebarry
I believe you said in a previous thread you unloaded your freshwater etc. and reduced your weight and had a much improved ride.
Didnt this work out as well as you thought?
To answer your question I am under weight front and rear by about 1500# each.
I do have to adjust my tire presuures to the weight carried or my ride will increase in harshness.
Otherwiase I enjoy a very comfortable ride on my Freightliner XC chassis.
I always carry a full tank of water as I can feel subtle handling improvemnts with the extra weight, Best of all is just after full fill up of 90 gal. diesel which is carried just aft of the front axle and full fresh water. I always travel with black and grey tanks empty. Four corner weight check done with coach weighted to traveling specs.
Good luck to you.
I felt that emptying the fresh water tank did improve my ride. But I'm still hoping to get ideas, add more equipment such as an anti-sway bar and air seats. I don't know how smooth my ride will be by the time I'm done, but my goal is to maximize it. There's only so much one can do, and I realize it. However, I'm going to try anything that sounds logical...I mean, what can it hurt? If I try all that I can then I know that I've done everything possible, and I think that in itself will help me to be happy with my ride.
But you know there's nothing worse than settling for something that you're not completely satisfied with, only to hear from someone, "You've had this issue for 3 years? Gee, all you had to do was adjust the _____ and the problem would have been solved years ago". So you adjust the ____ and find out the problem is solved. I want to keep digging and digging to see if I've missed anything that I could be doing. Like I said, when I feel satisfied that I've done everything within reason, then I think that will help psychologically, knowing that there really is nothing more that I can do.
The fact is that now that I've adjusted the tire pressure (lowering it by 25 psi on the front & 30 psi on the back), gotten new shocks (big difference just from that), and am continuing to find ways to lighten the weight, the ride is fine, it really is. I'm simply trying to fine tune it now. It's not that it's no longer tolerable. It's like someone tinkering with their motorcycle engine just to tweak it a bit to get that extra ounce of power from it, or renovating something inside your RV that really is fine to begin with; you're just trying new ideas to see if you can get it as near to perfect as possible.
When we go back home to Florida this fall, I can already see that there's a lot of stuff in our basement that we're not using. I'll leave it behind, and then hopefully be able to increase the amount of freshwater somewhat.
My ride has gone from being a 2 out of 10, to being a 6 out of 10 since getting rid of the fresh water. That's a big improvement. I guess I'm a bit of a perfectionist and even if I got the ride to be a 9 out of 10 I'd still be trying new ideas until such time as I ran out of ideas.
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