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Front end is all over the road


maggie blair

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Here is a thread on another forum you may enjoy. I didn't read it all but it sure sounded familiar what I read. Driving a class a will be different than your car or truck. Because you are sitting over the steering tires instead of them being out in front of you.

 

http://www.rv.net/forum/index.cfm/fuseaction/thread/tid/28853795.cfm

 

Jeff :)

I am NOT a fan of CW but the site is good. Thanks for sharing... :)

Maggie Blair

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How does it drive now the alignment is correct?

I took My RV to the truck scales today and had it weighed. The man there didn't really know how to weigh an RV but he did the best he could. He came up with the steer axle weighing 5420 pounds the drive axle 8640 pounds. He said if he added those two together that would give me my total weight. My RV is fully loaded with everything that I will be traveling with. Now that I have the weights I'm not exactly sure what I am supposed to do with those. I also took it to the alignment shop and they aligned the front in and then they made some suggestions for some other add ons later on. It does seem to drive A little bit better than it did before.

The RV place recommended that I get a front track bar, Davis true track bar and a Safe-T-Plus. They also checked all of my tires and make sure they were at the correct permission from pressure.

Maggie Blair

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Lets see how you compare between the ratings and the actual and then figure things out. I suspect that you will probably need to do some moving of things, but let's don't borrow trouble. :P

Weight might not be correct. The person who weighed the RV wasn't sure how to weigh the front and back separately. He said the front weighs 5420 lbs. and the back 8640lbs. The RV is fully loaded but those weights do not include my toad.

Maggie Blair

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maggie blair, on 29 Apr 2016 - 7:02 PM, said:

He came up with the steer axle weighing 5420 pounds the drive axle 8640 pounds. ...I'm not exactly sure what I am supposed to do with those.

 

Compare them with the GAWRs of both axles and the GVWR of the rig. Kirk gave you those numbers in Post #51. Assuming the weights you received are correct, it looks like you're OK as far as the axles are concerned. The only thing you don't know at this point, is the weight on each tire (you can't assume that each tire on an axle is carrying the same weight). You should still have each tire position weighed when you have the chance.

 

 

The person who weighed the RV wasn't sure how to weigh the front and back separately.

 

It's really not rocket science. Drive the front axle on the scale, get the weight. Drive both axles on the scale, get the weight. The difference between the two will be the weight of the rear axle. Or, after getting the front axle weight, you could drive the rig forward so that just the rear axle was on the scale.

LindaH
2014 Winnebago Aspect 27K
2011 Kia Soul

 

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GVWR ~ ~ ~ ~ 16000#

Front Axle~ ~ ~ 6500#

Rear Axle~ ~ ~ 10500#

 

He said the front weighs 5420 lbs. and the back 8640lbs. The RV is fully loaded but those weights do not include my toad.

It looks like you have plenty of room to carry more. Front can take another 1080# and rear can carry another 1860#. If your weights were accurate, those are excellent. Did you get weighed at a truck stop or........... ? I really don't know why he would be doubtful of the ability to get your weights, but they do seem to be low for a loaded RV. That is more what I would expect for it empty. Commercial truck scales will have a scale that has a separate pad for each axle and you will receive a printout listing the weight of each axle and the total.

 

If this was a single pad scale, when you weigh each axle you need to have the wheels being weighed as nearly in the center of the pad as is possible. Some scales won't be accurate if you don't do that.

Good travelin !...............Kirk

Full-time 11+ years...... Now seasonal travelers.
Kirk & Pam's Great RV Adventure

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GVWR ~ ~ ~ ~ 16000#

Front Axle~ ~ ~ 6500#

Rear Axle~ ~ ~ 10500#

 

 

It looks like you have plenty of room to carry more. Front can take another 1080# and rear can carry another 1860#. If your weights were accurate, those are excellent. Did you get weighed at a truck stop or........... ? I really don't know why he would be doubtful of the ability to get your weights, but they do seem to be low for a loaded RV. That is more what I would expect for it empty. Commercial truck scales will have a scale that has a separate pad for each axle and you will receive a printout listing the weight of each axle and the total.

 

If this was a single pad scale, when you weigh each axle you need to have the wheels being weighed as nearly in the center of the pad as is possible. Some scales won't be accurate if you don't do that.

GVWR ~ ~ ~ ~ 16000#

Front Axle~ ~ ~ 6500#

Rear Axle~ ~ ~ 10500#

 

 

It looks like you have plenty of room to carry more. Front can take another 1080# and rear can carry another 1860#. If your weights were accurate, those are excellent. Did you get weighed at a truck stop or........... ? I really don't know why he would be doubtful of the ability to get your weights, but they do seem to be low for a loaded RV. That is more what I would expect for it empty. Commercial truck scales will have a scale that has a separate pad for each axle and you will receive a printout listing the weight of each axle and the total.

 

If this was a single pad scale, when you weigh each axle you need to have the wheels being weighed as nearly in the center of the pad as is possible. Some scales won't be accurate if you don't do that.

GVWR ~ ~ ~ ~ 16000#

Front Axle~ ~ ~ 6500#

Rear Axle~ ~ ~ 10500#

 

 

It looks like you have plenty of room to carry more. Front can take another 1080# and rear can carry another 1860#. If your weights were accurate, those are excellent. Did you get weighed at a truck stop or........... ? I really don't know why he would be doubtful of the ability to get your weights, but they do seem to be low for a loaded RV. That is more what I would expect for it empty. Commercial truck scales will have a scale that has a separate pad for each axle and you will receive a printout listing the weight of each axle and the total.

 

If this was a single pad scale, when you weigh each axle you need to have the wheels being weighed as nearly in the center of the pad as is possible. Some scales won't be accurate if you don't do that.

The scale was a regular truck scale and the man had me move the front axle almost to the edge of the front of the scale for the front weight. He actually gave me the following readout.

Steer axle. 5420 lb

Drive axle. 8640 lb

Trailer axle 8580 lb

Total axle. 22640 lb but then he told me ignore the trailer axle and changed the total to 14,600

He did say he didn't know how to weigh an RV.

I will get the RV weighed properly once I find a place that knows what they are doing.

Maggie Blair

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I have not read the entire thread but if your tires are 10 years old they are well beyond the replacement cycle. Tires on RVs don't wear out they age out. Just be aware of this as I feel you are at risk. We generally replace our tires at the 6-7 year age. Have you thought of contacting the previous owners and asking them if they had a problem?

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  • 2 weeks later...

Just to share...

 

One year ago our, then new to us, class C motorhome was wondering on the road a little, we had to do a lot of oversteering, it was scary. Did several alignments at Ford place (we have Ford), did not help. Played with weighing and pressure in tires, did not help. Then we installed Safe-T-Plus, it did not help much but some. Then we talked to Henderson's at the Phoenix Good Sam Rally, we had their guy drive our motohome, he suggested we install Steer Safe and a Roadmaster (I believe) rear anti-sway bar. It already had anti-sway bar but very weak. Roadmaster, as we found out, is the real deal - very thick. The last two did it. Now our motorhome drives like a car, no problems whatsoever. Most likely we are installing all those things in the new motorhome we are going to get very soon.

 

Good luck!

2009 Dynamax Isata 26ft

Honda Helix scooter

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Just to share...

 

One year ago our, then new to us, class C motorhome was wondering on the road a little, we had to do a lot of oversteering, it was scary. Did several alignments at Ford place (we have Ford), did not help. Played with weighing and pressure in tires, did not help. Then we installed Safe-T-Plus, it did not help much but some. Then we talked to Henderson's at the Phoenix Good Sam Rally, we had their guy drive our motohome, he suggested we install Steer Safe and a Roadmaster (I believe) rear anti-sway bar. It already had anti-sway bar but very weak. Roadmaster, as we found out, is the real deal - very thick. The last two did it. Now our motorhome drives like a car, no problems whatsoever. Most likely we are installing all those things in the new motorhome we are going to get very soon.

 

Good luck!

Thanks so much. That is my next step.

Maggie Blair

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