Steering Control Issue Discovery

[SteveR]

Being new to RVing and having never owned or driven a motorhome, my only frame of reference to their driving behavior has been my own rig. After frequent discussions with others I have come to realize that the steering behavior of my motorhome is not unique but is worse than many others. After driving 2000 miles with this rig I finally had an experienced alignment shop look at it.

First my symtoms:

Wandering front end...never know where it is headed.

Wanders to the left.

Cross winds make steering nearly impossible without slowing way down (below 50mph)

Trucks passing me created a "wild ride" where the steering wandering too on Biblical Proportions.

Vague steering...not sure where center is on the wheel and makes for a lot of minor adjustements frequently...a few hours of this makes one exhausted.


Ok....what they found.

The camber was way off. They adjusted it back into tolerance.

The front axle was factory adjusted with shims. The shims were placed in at opposite directions on the axle. This was creating a torque stress on the axle and was creating the wild wandering and vague steering.

The rear alignment was off.

The castor angles were out of spec.

While they were there I discussed other options to manage the steering as many of our trips will be several hour stretches of driving and I want the best steering and handling I can get. One of their options was to add a Roadmaster Antisway bar to the front. GM has one but is is mounted only on the axle. The Roadmaster is mounted in a different way and should help the front sway and wandering. There are other options but I wanted to only go one at a time since I may have already created an acceptable improvement.

Road Test:
Wow!
I can now drive with only one hand and I don't fight the wheel on lane changes or turns. The coach seems more solid and less prone to wandering. The steering is more defined and it stays straight within normal expecations.

At freeway speeds I noticed a huge difference and was surprised to see that I was doing 70+ mph several times with little or no effort in steering and far less roll.

I am a believer. Get an alignment with your rig loaded close to what you would carry on a trip.

Have your tires checked for balance and out of round. My balance was not too bad but I have one dually that is a bit oval and it will vibrate a bit at higher speeds. Not a big deal since I don't usually drive very fast (well until today).

I am very happy with the improvement. What a difference!

[bill crommett]

Interesting ! On my BFT it handled like the old Caddy, but when I noticed the front tires scrubbing a little, I had it alligned at a pro shop and since then it is not quite as stable on the road. When I get to a good alignment shop I am going to have it rechecked.

[bcope01]

Get an alignment with your rig loaded close to what you would carry on a trip.

What can we expect to pay? Will Ford or Born Free pick up the cost? They ought to if you only have 2K miles on your coach and the factory "mis-alignment" was bad enough to make driving unsafe.

Glad to hear you have your steering issues corrected.

Bill

[SteveR]

Get an alignment with your rig loaded close to what you would carry on a trip.

What can we expect to pay? Will Ford or Born Free pick up the cost? They ought to if you only have 2K miles on your coach and the factory "mis-alignment" was bad enough to make driving unsafe.

Glad to hear you have your steering issues corrected.

Bill

I paid $150 for the alignment but that included both front and back.

Born Free will not pay for your alignment. The owner's manual clearly states you need to align your motorhome after you load it as you would for your use. The factory does not have the equipment to do an alignment and it would need to be done again after you load it up anyway.

That said, I would like to see them include a "coupon" of sorts to defray the cost of your first alignment after taking delivery. This would be a nice Customer Service idea and would also be consistent with the BF mission of saftey and customer service.

[bcope01]

you need to align your motorhome after you load it as you would for your use.

Steve, thanks for the information - good stuff.

My dilemma - my load is seldom constant on my coach. It is normally heavier, sometimes significantly, when I start my trip and lighter on my return. Sometimes the holding tanks are full, sometimes they are empty. Sometimes I'm packed for an extended trip, or dry camping, which adds load over other shorter trips. Sometimes I have just myself, other times I may have four people along. Pulling a toad would have another affect.

Are you saying that after the coach has been aligned for a particular load, it will be mis-aligned for any other loads?

Bill

[KTnLen]

Am I missing something here, or are we forgetting that these new Ford and Chevrolet chassis are under warranty from the day delivery is taken? Clearly this is a chassis issue. Isn't a mechanical misalignment covered under the warranty? And if so, why would Ford or Chevrolet deliberately deliver them misaligned causing themselves a lot of post-delivery work?

Further, there is a GM truck dealer in Fort Dodge, and I know this because when we took delivery of the new 32-ft President last September, we discovered that the cab air conditioning wasn't cooling, so Kim arranged for us to stop at the Fort Dodge facility for a check and fix. Turned out one of the a/c electrical connections was not hooked up. Why doesn't Born Free send new vehicles for a final alignment once all the load is on with fuel, water and so on? The people and personal effects would be a minor add on to a 16,000 lb total, probably less than 5%.

I recall seeing a local dealer sticker on the Ford chassis too.

Post-warranty, I would think any reputable tire shop would be in the best position to do an alignment. I haven't found a lot of integrity with North American vehicle dealerships outside of warranty.

Born Free sales (and I know you monitor these threads) take note. This is another quality issue to address with your delivery team.

[Dallas Baillio]

Now for the Devil's Advocate point-of-view!!

You had it fixed. It works fine. You are happy with the results. Do you want the grief, and aggravation of trying to collect $150? Or do you want to enjoy what you have and forget the bad aspects of the experience? Is the value of your time and peace-of-mind worth the trade-off of perhaps collecting $150 (or some negotiated sum between $0 and $150)? When all is said and done this is how the world works. You get screwed by businesses all the time. If you believe in the hereafter (and today is Good Friday) you can rest assured that whoever made the mistake, if it was deliberate, will eventually have to answer for it.

[SteveR]

The shims are "normal" according to the alignment shop who does a lot of motorhomes. The problem on mine was how they were inserted; obviously done at the GM factory.

I have no intention of trying to collect the $150 from GM or Born Free. The BF manual clearly states it is my responsibility to get an alignment after I load the coach for my use. The shim issue did not cost me extra as it was covered under the front and rear alignment cost.

I feel this is more a maintenance item than a factory defect. Sure the shims were wrong and the alignment was a mess but who knows when the alignment got that bad. My rig was the DEMONSTRATOR for this model for several months and was run 9000 miles before I got it. I am still fixing little stuff that was "messed up" by someone prior to my getting the coach.

I am not happy about the shim issue nor the alignment issue but I guess it goes with the territory of buying a motorhome and a "used" one at that. It drives much better and I am relieved it was not a major cost to have such a wonderful improvement.

[bcope01]

When all is said and done this is how the world works. You get screwed by businesses all the time.

True, if you allow it to happen. Personally, I prefer to hold them accountable for shoddy work. If I don't, how can I ever expect to get what I pay for the next time. I have a fixed, finite number of dollars to spend on recreation, so I have to be careful that I don't just throw it away.

Bill

[Ray'n Mary]

Any of you other BFT-22-ers (or 24 or other short BF's) had that "steering slop" problem?
--And/or use Roadmaster Antisway system?
--Or talked to Ford about it?

Our 2006 BFT's steering is gucky, takes the fun out of driving it. I've driven lots of trucks in my not-young life, and the steering on this one has more slop than I can remember. (Okay, so my memory probably has holes.)

The alignment shop says not much can be done about it--although they didn't seem to know about Roadmaster Antisway or similar equipment to alleviate the problem. They said play is inherent in E350's type of steering system. (BTW, they found my 2006's alignment to be pretty good, and needed only a small amount of adjustment. )

Ray

[Trisha]

There are two separate issues being discussed here, most unknowingly.

The Kodiac chassis is one thing. Whatever issues are specific to the kodiac chassis I can't speak to. But the issues from this to the next are specifically and radically different.

The Ford E-X50 (mostly 450) chassis has a "twin I Beam" construction. One person asked, "does this mean that different loads will change the alignment?" The simple answer to that question is: with the twin I beam, yes. If you significantly change the load, it changes the way that load is handled across the axle because of the twin I beam, which will put your rig out of alignment.

I am lucky to have a very good, very thorough truck alignment shop 3 miles from here.

Here's the deal though. All that alignmnet did not do for me what the (now) Roadmaster anti-sway stabilizer bars have done. The truck is much more solid, and I do mean MUCH more solid with the Roadmaster bar on it, and it handles and steers significantly easier as a result. 40 mph wind? No prob. 60? Okay, now I might want to ride it out somewhere... Semi truck passing me (either direction), If I don't see him, I don't know about it. No difference at all. Unless he's creating a huge draft as he blows by me 30 mph faster. But normallly...I can't even tell. They sneak past me

I did put the Koni shocks too. Did not yet put on the steering stabilizer. I am SO much happier with these improvements. But the twin I beam creates it's own set of issues, which are, unfortunately related to load.

I have the 26' RB.

I cannot, unfortunately speak to the Kodiac chassis as I am unfamiliar with it and it's proclivities.

Trish