Smooth out the ride

Motorhomey · 09-23-2009, 04:38 PM

Hello all
I have an 09 Georgetown 357 qs (with the bunks) love the coach so far however, Can anyone give me some ideas as to how to smooth the ride. From the basic to the extravogant. After market air ride, shocks whatever works. I live in MD and we got to Florida and other locations south and if anyone is familiar with the stretch through SC on 95 with all the expansion joints. I started to drive with one eye on the road and one eye on the TV. No I wasnt watching it I just knew it was going fall and whack me in the head. A lot of miles of BABAM BABAM BABAM BABAM.
Tire pressure is dead on. Please give me some ideas

NWJeeper · 09-23-2009, 05:16 PM

Motorhomey, welcome to the group...

Ours does the same thing, don't think there is much you can do it is just inherent in the heavy duty chassis. Air bags will help with the swaying from side to side but don't do much to control ride. The stock Bilstein shocks are good but a change to a different shock may produce a different ride but you would have to play around with them. Sorry I don't have a good answer but a lot goes into suspension and unfortunately we are driving extravagant "trucks".

LadyWindrider · 09-23-2009, 08:51 PM

Tire pressure is dead on what? Are you running max air as stamped on the sidewall? Do you really need to? Watch your tire wear to help determine, outside edges wearing equals too little air. Center of the tread wearing equals too much air. Shocks may help very little in the expansion joint situation. Air bags won't do much, unless you change the springs to softer and then supplement with airbags. How are you loaded? Does it bump more in the front or rear? Can you shift some weight? Lot of questions, and you have some options, some of which are cheap. Can you fill the fresh water tank? Do you need to empty the fresh water tank? Just some thoughts.

ronhanson · 09-23-2009, 09:28 PM

I highly suggest getting your weight checked and inflate according to the tire manufacturers recommendations.

When I picked up my 350TS they had all the tires inflated to 95psi. It road very hard. I think the wall sticker says 90psi but you should inflate them to the tire manufacturers recommendations.

I have Michelin 235/80Rx22.5 XRVs
Michelin RV Tire guide can be downloaded here: http://www.michelinrvtires.com/miche...e-material.jsp

Ideally you would do a 4 corner weigh but most scales only do per axle.

On a recent trip I was loaded to the gills headed to SD/Wyoming for 10days. I weighed at a flying J since I felt I couldn't pack any more stuff in if I tried and this would be a good baseline. I measured 6780lbs on the front axle, 14280lbs on the rear axle.

Consulting the RV guide I could run 75psi on the front and 85 on the back. I added 5psi safety margin, since the weight on each corner could be different, but the ride is much much better than the way it was delivered. Most of the comfort came from lowering the front tire pressure.

A side note about weights: Loaded up at 21,060lbs means I had 2330lbs of water and stuff along (350TS ULVW is 18730lb). I still had 940lbs of capacity left but....my towed, a Ford Edge AWD LTD weighed 4560lbs at that scale. So on that trip I was within 380lbs of my GCWR of 26,000lbs. Too close for me, so I have endeavored to loose some junk and get my weights down.

It sure has a comfy, quiet ride with that much weight and correct pressures, but once we were over 4000ft in Wyoming I was wishing there was a turbo diesel under the hood.

bballerfanatic · 11-23-2009, 02:58 PM

The constant banging of the TV in the front of my 357 is really bad. The TV is an Olevia and i think that it is a cheap pos. The noise appears to be coming from the internals of the tv and it is one heck of a racket.

By the way, have any of you taken your Georgetown back to the factory to have things fixed rather than to the dealer. If so, how did it work ot?

NWJeeper · 11-23-2009, 03:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bballerfanatic

The constant banging of the TV in the front of my 357 is really bad. The TV is an Olevia and i think that it is a cheap pos. The noise appears to be coming from the internals of the tv and it is one heck of a racket.

By the way, have any of you taken your Georgetown back to the factory to have things fixed rather than to the dealer. If so, how did it work ot?

We live in Washington state so taking the rig to the factory is a bit out of the question. I also didn't take it to the local dealer as they are a bunch of ignorant monkeys that I wouldn't let near my rig. Do all my own work and FR was good about supplying me with or replacing parts or items as needed directly to me.

cfsoistman · 11-23-2009, 03:52 PM

You have to admit it makes falling asleep impossible. I've added air springs to help with the sway factor and it really did improve the ride. As for the bang, bang, bang on the road patches unfortunately they haven't perfected making them smooth. It's the nature of the beast so to speak. It's not an air cushion frame. As for the TV having something loose inside anything's possible with the bumpy or should I say BANGY ride. You may want to take the TV down and check it out.

Rte 95 is bad in quite a few areas but if any of you have traveled Rte 78 through PA it's in a league by itself. The day we picked up our motorhome in Hamburg PA was incredible. I towed my trailer there for the trade in. The trailer was going up as the Durango was going down. It was by far the worst stretch of road I've ever been on. When we took the motorhome back for warranty work after 3 months it was just as bad. The road is so heavily traveled by trucks it actually grooved and you just sway back and forth.

TulsaSteve · 11-24-2009, 01:52 AM

Same experience here. I'm looking for a Hula girl to put on the dash so I can watch a pretty lady dance to distract me from the trail of parts that my rig must be leaving on some of these roads.

I am putting a rear track bar on this Winter to cut down on the rear movement side-to-side. I decided on the Tiger Trak from Blue OX. Just arrived the other day. Looks pretty solid..

sparks1032 · 04-05-2010, 10:11 PM

Ok two seperate issue's the TV is a POS and it is mostly the INSIDES of the TV that are rattling. I had thoughts of gluing the circuit board to the TV and even found (and purchased) special epoxy meant for circuit boards. Not have had the chance to use it as we have not traveled more than a few hours from home anymore!

Second issue is the expansion joints and jarring the only thing I remember getting advice from the chassis guy that did my alignment that SHOCK upgrade should help if not solve that issue. Again it is a TRUCK chassis so not sure how much help it will be!

cfsoistman · 04-06-2010, 11:13 AM

The Ford Chassis already has Bilstein Shocks on it. They are very highly rated when compaired to other heavy duty shocks. As for the expansion joints, yes they are a pain and it's not a smooth ride like an Air Suspension Chassis. I added air springs to the front and rear. It helps with the sway from passing trucks, helps a little on the expansion joints but it is a truck chassis. On a few of the roads I travel the banging is pretty bad. The problem is the concrete roads are not constructed as smoothly as a nice asphalt road. It isn't just the motorhome but cars as well dealing with the thump, thump. It's the nature of the concrete beast.

TulsaSteve · 04-06-2010, 06:22 PM

I'm not ready to say good or bad until I rumble back over I-40W between OKC and Amarillo, but I can state with certainty that having that shim removed has changed the weight distribution, which will change the ride.

I'm headed to the Grand Canyon in a couple weeks, so I'll know more then.

You may also like: