3051 suspension upgrade

[Gumpster808]

Ok so we’ve had our 3051 for a couple years and love it.

We have even found that traveling with a full water tank improves the ride some.

We have the Firestone air bags but they don’t make much difference in the ride no matter what they are set at.

Has anyone updated the rear suspension short of the liquid springs replacement to get a better ride?

If so, what did you do and what was the approx cost?

[BehindBars]

Assuming a 3051 is a recent model Forester, it may already have the Hellwig sway bar and Bilstein shocks. I agree the Firestone air bags do very little to affect the ride. I, too, am interested in the Liquid Spring upgrade. I see the company has a web site with contact info, and I believe they will do a retrofit on an existing E-450. I have not contacted them yet but I think the cost is around $12,000, give or take. They are located in Indiana.

I’ll be interested in hearing if anyone has done this upgrade.

[Gumpster808]

Yeah it is a 2014. Does have a sway bar and not sure what the shocks are.

If we decide to keep this as our retirement coach I may do the liquid springs. But since that isn’t decided yet wanted to see what anyone else has done to get the back a little softer ride.

The liquid springs are expensive so those are an option only if we keep for a long time.

As heavy as it is there may not be a whole lot possible....

The independent guy I had setup our toad said he’d change the shocks if I wanted but wouldn’t do what I was looking for.

[A32Deuce]

Basically a long wheel base truck on not smooth highways. Its not going to ride like a caddy. Spend more money on better seats if you want to spend the money. Maybe having weight on the hitch helps with the ride, but we have over 94000 miles on ours and the only really bad ride was I 10 through the state of La. I only did shocks all the way around, 90psi in the bags and a track bar for the rear and can drive easily with one hand on the wheel. 12000 dollars is a lot of nights camping! I guess 37 years driving big trucks made the difference.

[Gumpster808]

Yep it is a lot of money which is why I want to do something else.

Basically over the small heaves in the road it acts like a solid suspension in the rear and bangs a lot.

Feels like the hay wagons I used to ride on in the summer working on a farm.

The weight of fresh water being full did help some.

Front and the seats are pretty comfortable already and rides nice so just the rear I want to soften up a little.

[ExFed]

Well, we just did a 4 day white knuckle drive to Texas at the end of October, gusts to 35 mph on our first major trip in our 2015 3051. So, rather than do that again, we upgraded with Roadmaster front and rear sway bar upgrades and steering stabilizer. Just got home yesterday from 3 day return trip, and much improved handling along the way, although gusting only reached mid twenties this time... steering was smoother, but I agree the air bags don't seem to help as much as I would like.

That said, we gave the furnace a workout as we came through single digits in the midwest to home. Mother Nature is a wonderful companion.

[DaGrinch]

Well, for my '17 3010DS Sunseeker I put the Roadmaster steering stabilizer on, changed out the stock rear sway bar for a Blue Ox, installed a Blue Ox trac bar and had a front end alignment. NOW it drives decent. Total cost was probably in the $1200-$1500 range, that was doing all my own labor except for the alignment.
In the picture, the Blue Ox is the heftier of the 2 sway bars.

[newRVer]

Originally Posted by DaGrinch

Well, for my '17 3010DS Sunseeker I put the Roadmaster steering stabilizer on, changed out the stock rear sway bar for a Blue Ox, installed a Blue Ox trac bar and had a front end alignment. NOW it drives decent. Total cost was probably in the $1200-$1500 range, that was doing all my own labor except for the alignment.
In the picture, the Blue Ox is the heftier of the 2 sway bars.Attachment 219174Attachment 219175

All good changes! Did similar changes on my 2016 3011 but also changed front sway bar as well. The costs where about the same and the drivability is much improved. Additionally I am now comfortable with having my wife drive it where as before the changes I would have never considered it.

[DaGrinch]

Originally Posted by newRVer

All good changes! Did similar changes on my 2016 3011 but also changed front sway bar as well. The costs where about the same and the drivability is much improved. Additionally I am now comfortable with having my wife drive it where as before the changes I would have never considered it.

DW "says" she wants to drive the 3010DS, but it hasn't happened yet, and won't until at least the Spring. It's in storage.

[Gumpster808]

All good changes and glad they are more drivable.

Ours does quite well in the wind etc and staying straight already. Think the original owners updated sway bars and those things already.

I haven’t looked but I would guess they are original shocks though.

Has anyone changed shocks etc to get the rear end to stop being so stiff and banging over small frost heaves in the road etc?

Saw a thread on the F53 improvement with different shocks but don’t know if that would help the 3051 or not.

[emm-dee]

I can get much different rides by just changing the rear bag pressures, sometime by as little as five psi. My driveway has a significant rise at the end so before pulling out of the garage I set the bags to 100 psi. That raises the rear end enough to have the Brute tower clear the ground by maybe a half inch or so.

Once on the road I will immediately know if I didn't reset it. Ideally, as soon as I clear the driveway I drop the bags to 65 psi. That usually works but depending on how much I have loaded (ie, full water=75 psi) I will adjust up or down in five psi increments until I get it where I like it.

Obviously there has to be an on-board compressor with remote control.

[newRVer]

Originally Posted by Gumpster808

All good changes and glad they are more drivable.

Ours does quite well in the wind etc and staying straight already. Think the original owners updated sway bars and those things already.

I haven’t looked but I would guess they are original shocks though.

Has anyone changed shocks etc to get the rear end to stop being so stiff and banging over small frost heaves in the road etc?

Saw a thread on the F53 improvement with different shocks but don’t know if that would help the 3051 or not.

Good question Gumpster. I will be going into my 5th season with this unit and have been looking at replacing the front shocks to something more forgiving since the front end is where we sit and we both could use a better ride! However, I have not heard much on the benefits of replacing the rear's outside if a shock starts to fail then it need to be replaced.

Since I run pretty close the maximum weight I have to keep the rear tires inflated to max air pressure (80 PSI) and the rite rite air bags at 65-70. This does not help at all in reducing rear end bangs and probably exacerbates the problem. I've often wondered if there was a replacement to the rear OEM shocks that could at least mitigate the added "bang" factor of running with high tire and air bag pressure but have not heard or read anything yet from others replacing the shocks and getting noticeable results.

PS. I've noticed that when the RV is unloaded, I'm not towing anything and the air bags are at a lower inflation (55 or so) the rear does not seem to have quote the same jarring effect but of course we are never driving like this on trips!

[rthomaslyons]

Originally Posted by Gumpster808

Ok so we’ve had our 3051 for a couple years and love it.

We have even found that traveling with a full water tank improves the ride some.

We have the Firestone air bags but they don’t make much difference in the ride no matter what they are set at.

Has anyone updated the rear suspension short of the liquid springs replacement to get a better ride?

If so, what did you do and what was the approx cost?

On our new 2019 3010DS Sunseeker the air bags don’t hold air so that is being looked at under warranty right now before our 2500 mile trip to Arizona. We did upgrade to the Roadmaster steering stabilizer and I had a front end alignment done where they corrected the toe and tightened the wheel bearings a bit and the steering has improved considerably except in large side wind gusts. For the first while I had to learn to let the steering stabilizer do it’s job of re-centering as I was oversteering but now I just hold the steering wheel and things return to normal except for sudden large wind gusts or strong side winds that require some manual steering. Handling now during normal driving conditions is greatly improved.