rockhillmanor wrote: I also found keeping a full gas tank helps when traveling on rough roads. If I hit a bad stretch of highway I pull off and fill up.
I actually can tell if I am getting low on fuel by the way its riding.
This logic makes a lot of sense, and confirmed by my own experience. The softest ride can be achieved by loading up the rig as close to it's max load rating. We get the most comfortable ride when fuel and fresh water tanks are full, along with everything else. Our ride is roughest when the rig is empty, which fortunately is not the case when going somewhere significant.
As others have said, adding more air in the tires than what is deemed neccessary by the weight on the axle will make a ride much rougher.
But even the softest class-C motor home isn't going to ride cozy like a Cadillac. I think your best chance for a soft riding motor home is a full air suspension, commonly installed in high-end class-A diesel pushers.
Got on the computer, found the Michelin tire inflation tables and lowered the pressure way down. Wow, what a difference it made in the ride. It was so bad I could hardly control the front end before, after wonderful.
That is the first easy cheap fix I would look at.
That is the key to many ride and handling problems.
Grandma in front of her retirement home..
She lets Grumpy drive!!
Quote: But even the softest class-C motor home isn't going to ride cozy like a Cadillac. I think your best chance for a soft riding motor home is a full air suspension, commonly installed in high-end class-A diesel pushers.
Everyone told me that too, but after I installed the new leaf springs and lowered the air in just the 'front' tires. (Too much weight behind the axles of anything 31 and over to mess with lowering the back tires), I DID achieve a ride like a limo! No airbags, no aftermarket gadgets just stock springs plus one, shocks, new tires and a little less air in the front tires.
"We must be willing to get rid of the life we've planned,
so as to have the life that is waiting for us".
Quote: Even with that deflated pressure, still averaging 12.1 miles per gallon.
There ya go right there! You Chevy RV guys can do stuff like that.
We Ford RV guys have to keep the tire pressures at sidewall maximums to stand any chance of approaching 10.X miles per gallon.
Well, I don't know about stuff like that. I have kept a log book of every gallon of gas I pumped into my RV and I know how many miles in total I have driven - miles divided by gallons = 12.1 MPG.
Did you look at my weights? The Ford's usually weigh a lot more cause they can haul so much more. All depends on what you want.
2002 Trail-Lite Model 211-S w/5.7 Chevy (click View Profile)
Gene
Going w/ the idea of simple things to do to improve ride on bumpy roads...
Our 9-10k rig is lightly loaded, even after having full water and gas. I am not interested in filling the waste tanks at home only to seek a dump station before a campsite at a cg, but might be willing to half fill the blackwater tank at center rear of our 22 ft rig (see sig pic).
Say I put 16 gallons in the blackwater tank (132#). This load is close to the rear hitch, so its like having a small bass boat in tow, like Gene's trailer..
Say the BW tank is 6 ft behind the rear axle and the front axle is 12 ft ahead of the rear, a lever analysis (taking force moments at front axle) shows the BW load adds (12+6)/12 x 132 = 200# to the rear axle, and so reduces the front axle load 200-132 = 70#.
I do not see a big advantage in axle load changes, but perhaps the damping and clamping effect of the 'effective bass boat' bearing down on the long rear RV overhang might really make this worth the troubles it poses.
Any comments?
* This post was
edited 06/21/12 06:36am by burlmart *
As far as loading up fuel/water/etc to get a better ride, I found it worked to a certain degree on our RV, until you got into the heavier leafs on the rear springs. Once loaded up to that point the ride then became a lot stiffer again. We usually traveled with a full water tank but after loading the RV up I would drain some of the water to get off the heavier leafs and it did make a noticeable difference.
Filling tanks to improve ride is VERY dependent on where the tanks are located.
If the front springs are already underloaded (i.e. heavier spring rate than the load calls for), filling tanks behind the rear axle will make ride WORSE, as weight behind the rear axle removes weight from the front axle.
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