MH Sway

[clay]

Another Newbie question

I have a 95 Damon Intruder MH.  How can you tell if the unit has excessive sway or in sway is just normal operations to this unit?  I get a little white-knuckled while driving when making in-lane corrections due to wind or bumps in the road and I haven't even been on our first road trip yet this is just local driving conditions.

Also, I?m planning on towing a Jeep Liberty.  Will this decrease the sway or make it harder to correct.  I really don?t want to scrap my unit on a construction barrier.

 

[John From Detroit]

Well... You have answered your own question "I get a little white knuckled"

I have a 2005 Intruder myself... I added a Blue Ox True-center steering stablizer.. Made some improvement but not as much as I wanted.. A Davis Tru-Trac bar (Track bar or pan-hard bar, answers to both names) and suddeny.. Well,  A tale of two trips

In January (the 2nd in fact) we hooked up, found up the tail lights on the towed were not getting power from the Motor home, read the diagrams for a few things, pushed the paking light switch on the towed, picked up a friend and headed to Las Vegas.

When I got there the towed was a relief to drive.. I mean that big rig was a female canine to drive (you do know the proper name for a dog's mother right, If not may I suggest Webster's, Look under "B" for words rhyming with Witch)

After I got home we added the stabilizer and later the pan-hard bar

Then in November.. I did it again (Save for the no power to the parking lights)  This time when I got to Vegas that same towed was right hard to drive.. Same towed, no changes there at all.

Yes, the rig drives real easy now.

I've one more pan-hard bar to add to finish the job but I'm no longer in a hurry...

Workhorse/Damon used a good sway bar

(Sway, is rocking side to side,  What I think of when I hear sway is something else)

 

[Karl]

Clay,
Some rigs will have more sway (wander, fish-tailing, body roll, etc.) than others, but it's not easy to say if it's excessive, or just normal for your driving conditions. If you're going 30 mph., and there's no wind coming at you from the side, it should track true and straight. If you're going 55 and the winds are gusty, you can expect a bit of movement. Same with passing big rigs coming from the opposite direction on a 2-lane road. Your steering should be tight and responsive (but not overly so), the front should not dive under braking. These and other undesirable traits, should be looked into and corrected BEFORE adding additional hardware, as they may only cover up unsafe items like worn steering parts, broken springs, etc. Have it checked out by a qualified RV mechanic.

That said, if this is your first time driving a 'big truck', some amount of anxiety is to be expected. These rigs don't handle the same as the family sedan, and it'll take some getting used to. Try to recruit an experienced rv owner to ride along with you, and get his(her) opinion. It may just be handling and riding normally.