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Old 05-05-2014, 10:43 AM   #1
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Ford 2013 F53 Chassis

Hi folks, We have a 2013 Georgetown 378 riding on a Ford 53 24K chassis. Getting alot oh "heavy" creaks, groans, thunks and thuds from the front-end suspension. Occurs during low speed turns, maneuvering over semi-rough terrain. Makes the DW sit up and say ""Oh ##&^#!, what was that. I suspect it is just the shocks, springs and bushings doing their thing but DW would like to hear from another source We have 9000K on the MH; will be 19K by October.
Anyone out there having the same moans and groans....from the chassis that is?
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Old 05-05-2014, 11:01 AM   #2
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Have you had the frontend greased?
Have the frontend been aligned?
Have you checked your tire pressures? What is it?
Have you ever considered spraying silicone lube between the leak spring?
Did you do the sway bar modification?
Have you looked underneath to see if your sway bar bushings are dry?
You can also spray them with silicone lube.
Just some questions to try and figure out why your make noise.
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Old 05-05-2014, 02:36 PM   #3
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Ford F53 Chassis

The coach has been aligned, grease job done and have done the mod to the front sway bar. Have yet to spray lube on anything yet. Will do it for sure before next trip this week-end. Iggy do you know off-hand if the sway bar bushings are rubber or poly? Haven't had a chance to look under there with that in mind.
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Old 05-05-2014, 04:45 PM   #4
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I believe they may be poly bushings but they are black and may be rubber.
But I always spray some silicone lube in them before any trip.
I also have the SteerSafe setup hooked up.

Here is a picture of both front and rear sway bar busings

Good luck.
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Old 05-05-2014, 05:25 PM   #5
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I would also like to know if they are poly. The sway bar bushings are also black in ours, but the OEM links had blue ones. Same thing in the rear.

Is Steer Safe good enough for you Iggy? Not a very good question since we have the lighter 20.5 chassis though.
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Old 05-05-2014, 05:27 PM   #6
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I have a 2012 378. There rubber (black) on my unit. Had the dreaded bracket bolt failure and that's how I know.
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Old 05-05-2014, 06:01 PM   #7
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Originally Posted by alparmer View Post
I would also like to know if they are poly. The sway bar bushings are also black in ours, but the OEM links had blue ones. Same thing in the rear.

Is Steer Safe good enough for you Iggy? Not a very good question since we have the lighter 20.5 chassis though.
SteerSafe is great for me. I drive a lot of miles and I think it is worth it in case I get a blowout. But it also keeps the front end heading down the road easier. Effortless steering at 65 mph. I have 23,000 miles on my rig in the past 2 years and planning another 10,000 plus miles this year.
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Old 05-05-2014, 06:59 PM   #8
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I'm having a Ford sub-let truck shop check out the front end Wed. Don't want to do any lube until he sees/hears the suspension. I have the Safe-T-Plus steering stabilizer front and Roadmaster's rear trac bar installed as well. Both have made a huge difference in handling, winds and semi-push.
Will make a post Wed with results of inspections.
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Old 05-07-2014, 12:40 PM   #9
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Okay folks, Had the Georgetown checked out today. Seems the CHF (front) was the culprit in the thunking and clunking noises. The additional torque put on the sway bar by moving the bolts to the inside holes had caused the sway bar to shift just enough so that it was knocking against the left leaf spring. Moved the bolts back to original position. On an upcoming trip we shall see which is worse: handling or klunking!
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Old 05-07-2014, 03:08 PM   #10
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Originally Posted by goodstick View Post
Okay folks, Had the Georgetown checked out today. Seems the CHF (front) was the culprit in the thunking and clunking noises. The additional torque put on the sway bar by moving the bolts to the inside holes had caused the sway bar to shift just enough so that it was knocking against the left leaf spring. Moved the bolts back to original position. On an upcoming trip we shall see which is worse: handling or klunking!
This is the first time I've heard something negative about the CHF. I've put 4k miles on mine without a single screech. I just can't see how the sway bar can hit the leaf springs even if you use the original links. Something was installed wrong or something is worn or broke. Pictures would be great.
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Old 05-07-2014, 05:34 PM   #11
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I'm thinking your sway bar was not centered to begin with or you loosened the bushing brackets to rotate the sway bar and threw it out of center. Could be wrong but I also have not heard of anyone else having this your issue. I really don't know if the chf does a whole lot but doesn't seem to hurt.
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Old 05-07-2014, 06:57 PM   #12
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I had about 6K miles after doing the CHF. Just started this spring. And no, nothing broke, was not installed wrong, worn or anything else. How can you install wrong by moving from one bolt hole to another!!. BTW, I did not do the mod myself; was done by a professional truck suspension technician while installing the Safe-T-Steer control device! No stabilizer bushing bolts were loosened! Every suspension is slightly different: the technician showed me where the bar was hitting the leaf spring and showed me where the bar had crept slightly enough to make the contact.
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Old 05-07-2014, 09:19 PM   #13
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I would like to see a pic, I have been wanting to do this mod to my Rv but would like to see this possible issue before I attempt it....
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Old 05-08-2014, 07:13 AM   #14
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goodstick, Is this were yours was hitting the leaf spring? I know there are differences in frames, but they should be similar to this. That is the only area I can see where the sway bar could make contact with the leaf spring. Please note, that I have longer links and this is the same angle as stock. There are a couple of inches on each side so something must have gone wrong with yours.

Yours obviously had a problem and I would like to know what happened. Here is how I look at it. The end links is what keeps the sway bar centered, not the sway bar bushings/brackets. If you remove the end links you can move the sway bar up/down, and with some force left/right. Now, let's say this is true, then if your end link bushings gave out then the sway bar could have moved.

I've only put ~4k miles on ours so only time will tell. When the bushings give out I'm going to go with poly all around.

BTW, a picture would be nice to see what yours looks like.

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Old 07-18-2014, 12:00 PM   #15
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2013 GT 351DS. less than 4K miles. bought in may of 2013. i went to the goodyear truck tire center today for an all wheel alignment. they did the front CHF on the sway bar, but found one of the rear sway bar brackets broken in half and all of the rear suspension bushings shot! This should be a freebie from Ford and I'll pay the extra cost for poly bushings for peace of mind. btw. front sway bar CHF is amazing! Thanks for all of the info and knowledge i get from you people on this site!
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