spliters

[Rick Kirchner]

Changing rake, adding weight, and airtabs are the easy buttons. I can get the rebar for less than $200 at home depot and add a couple hundred lbs (300 ft of 1/2" rebar will fit in the bumper). The rake can be adjusted with a slider on the ride height valves. I need to check that against the specs anyway.

It has a front sway bar that 1.5" with 15" legs. No rear bar. It has a 2.25" panhard bar. On air bag coaches sometimes you can create a pneumatic sway bar with something called a "ping tank". Basically a 2 gallon air tank with valves that allow air from one side to flow into the other on roll. haven't done any research on how that works with the ride ht control.

[Chris Livengood]

Buy some gravel and a few bags of Quickcrete and fill that bumper up. I think a 60lb bag of Quickcrete is like $5.

[Rick Kirchner]

right now it's full of bricks. Need something removable because every now and then I have to disassemble all that crap to get up under the cap and work on the heat/ac/wipers.

[DaveW]

...On air bag coaches sometimes you can create a pneumatic sway bar with something called a "ping tank". Basically a 2 gallon air tank with valves that allow air from one side to flow into the other on roll. haven't done any research on how that works with the ride ht control.

Allowing air to flow from one side to the other in roll will lower the roll stiffness because you're transferring air from the compressed spring to the extended one. That's the opposite of a swaybar.

[Rick Kirchner]

I sure got that terminology wrong. the "sorta sway bar I was referring to are actually valves that go in the air lines and allow air to pass more quickly in one direction than the other.

Ping tanks just create a larger air volume than the air bag can physically.

[DaveW]

I sure got that terminology wrong. the "sorta sway bar I was referring to are actually valves that go in the air lines and allow air to pass more quickly in one direction than the other.

Ping tanks just create a larger air volume than the air bag can physically.

And a larger volume lowers the spring rate.

[Ed Womer]

Couple of things about Airtabs. One of the reasons you don't see them on semis is because most of the guys are usually hauling other people's trailers, and the trailer panels/boattail are more effective at drag reduction. Everything I've read about airtabs (despite the manufacturer's claims) are that they are very effective at sway reduction, but the drag reduction is almost unnoticeable.

You'll see more Airtabs on trucks that haul their own trailers.

One of the reasons you see so many trailer tails is that CA requires drag reduction devices on any box semi trailer in the state - along with the big underside panels. Most fleets don't want to keep track of some trailers that can go and others that can't, so they put the devices on everything. Besides, they actually do work.

I'm not having stability issues when I'm towing the race trailer despite the fact that it makes the weight imbalance worse. The drag associated with the trailer must move the CP much farther back. It's when the coach is towing nothing or just our Honda on a dolly - then crosswinds and semis can make it a tiring day.

You would not have believed how bad it was before I added the steering stabilizer (a shock absorber with two centering springs that's over 2 feet long and 3" in dia) paid close attention to the alignment and added the weight up front! Not to mention the inability to stop. When they built the thing the brake pedal linkage was adjusted such that it would immediately go over center at the MC. Thankfully I figured that out in a hurry with a little help from Carroll Smith.

Ed, I bet your Winnie was a front engine coach. There's frequently only one wheelbase from each manufacturer of those, so length gets added behind the rear bumper with frame extensions - same with most class C's. you can literally tear the back of the house off if the hitch is overloaded or rust gets in those extensions - which are frequently pretty sketchy to start with. A 40' front-engine class A has crazy rear overhang, but it's all hollow-core wood and such, not much weight. The trailer toad was designed exactly for the situation where the trailer has more tongue weight than the coach can carry.

You are right Rick but it was only a 27' and the rear overhang was not a lot. But they actual cut off the frame with a torch just behind the gas tank to install a full length basement compartment to the frame extension on the drivers side. They used u channel steel welded to the cut off frame down across the bottom of the compartment up the other side and then welded a frame piece to continue to the bumper and class 3 hitch.

I was able to get the motor home close enough to the garage so my welding leads would reach and after removing the long box weld a 1/4" x 2"x4" box steel in between the existing and added frame and then using spring shackles attach another piece under that and weld everything together. That stopped the bending of the frame but the damage had been done. I was towing a Southwest 24' trailer that towed beautiful behind the Suburban as well as the motor home. The trailer toad attached between the two carried the tongue weight and ended any more stress to the frame.

It was expensive but in the end worth it. The trailer toad has been sitting since I sold the trailer and motor home and if anyone is interested get in touch with me, I just want to get rid off it and sell for a low price.

Ed

[Rick Kirchner]

If I wasn't a continent away I'd take you up on that

[Rick Kirchner]

Thought I'd follow up on this.

I did do the two easy things. The rebar was - sorta easy. Because the bumper is tucked up inside, as it fills up the rebar has to be cut into shorter lengths to be maneuvered into the bumper. But I got the entire calculated mass in there - 200 lbs of rebar, so about a 150 lb increase.

Then I raised the back 1/2 inch, which was as simple as opening up a hose clamp and sliding a rubber connector up the valve link.

This resulted in the greatest increase in stability since I installed a Safe-T-Steer unit in 2010.

Just returned from a 2200 mile road trip through Nevada, across Cali, up the Oregon coast, and back home via central Oregon and the Central Valley. A mix of pretty much everything, although not a lot of interstate driving - some I-80 and I-84, but a considerable distance on CA-99, which is about the crappiest almost interstate in the country. Semi influence when passing and being passed was greatly reduced.

I met a gent at an RV park who owned one of the longer versions of my coach and he raised the rear a full inch. I also spent a couple of hours at the last Beaver Dealership in Bend Oregon talking with one of the techs who worked on the coach back in the day. The 300 lb slug of steel welded between my front frame rails (and the item that prevents me from easily moving the genset into the nose) was his work. He said before that addition they were simply undrivable. He told me the max I could safely run the driveshaft was a 12.5 deg angle, so that will guide any future ride ht changes.

One of the things I have not done is re-weigh the coach to see what the total combined effects are. There is a front axle limit you need to pay attention to. I also probably need to increase front tire pressure - I could tell from the profile I was a bit low - and the only reason I got away with it on this trip was that the temperature throughout was very much below normal. Increasing front pressure might bring some instability back.

The tech advised against dialing in a lot of toe - destroys the tires and isn't particularly effective at fixing this condition. I was thinking of adding some caster simply to increase self-centering.