Handling/Ride improvements

[David Brady]

Don,

At some point Wanderlodge decided to do something about
Ridewell's road manners - not sure when they added front sway bars,
but my '02 LXi has one. It's about 2 inches in diameter. Paul Lazar went
to IPD to have a sway bar put on the front of his '97 WB (same suspension
as my bus). He's very pleased with the upgrade. Sounds like all the WB's
could be much improved with a front sway bar. IPD was sold to Roadmaster,
so I'm not sure what's available anymore. The MCU's sound kinda like
a poor man's sway bar in that they provide roll resistance by limiting
rapid air
flow from one side to the other. In a long a long turn I guess the air
will get through
though. The Ridewell tag axle provides a ton of roll resistance, not
sure that you
need the MCU's at the rear. I've had a ton of success with the Koni FSD
shocks
at the rear (wish they'd make 'em for the front), and of course ride
height tuning
helped my coach considerably, but then again, my air bags might be different
than yours (pistons are hour glass shaped). Good luck.

David Brady
'02 LXi, Smokey
NC

Don Bradner wrote:
>
> Some of you may recall that I asked if anyone here had ever had a Ride
> Performance Assessment done on a Bird by Henderson's Lineup in Grant's
> Pass, Oregon. Didn't hear from anyone who had, just one recommendation
> for another place and Tom's very negative view of the idea.
>
> Our first 2K miles or so were mostly freeway, and I would class the
> overall handling/ride on freeways as good. I was therefore surprised
> on our recent trip up the coast of Oregon and Washington at how poorly
> it rode the many washout-dips on 101. Porpoise and sway was the order
> of the day!
>
> I decided that it would be worth the $150 cost of the assessment to
> see what a pro thought, and we took Blue Thunder into Grant's Pass
> this past Wednesday. Their shop foreman did our assessment drive, and
> he did not feel that the ride was exceptionally bad, but did agree
> that it could be better. He recommended, in order of importance:
>
> 1. Adjust the existing front Konis (presumably a replacement by
> another owner) to a stiffer ride.
>
> 2. Add their motion-control units to the air bags.
>
> 3. Replace the original shocks on the rear with Koni FSDs.
>
> The first item turned out to be impossible - the shocks simply would
> not take an adjustment. They tried both on (releasing the bottom end)
> and off the coach on the bench. All they would do was spin. They were
> also very difficult to expand and contract.
>
> Replacing the shocks was not possible on the spot, because of the
> three different part numbers needed (90-2490SP1 in the front,
> 9005-1025 on the drivers, 8805-1010 on the tag) only the 8805 is a
> stock part for them, and the various sources they use, including
> KoniRV, did not have the others in stock either.
>
> Item 2 is an interesting one, and a hard decision. The reason it is
> hard is that you have to pay a lot for some very small parts. The MCUs
> are sold (exclusively so far as I can tell) under Henderson's Steer
> Safe brand, but are made by Donvel. They are about the size of a
> shotgun shell, and their purpose is to allow normal fill-and-dump
> flows to each airbag, but resist sudden flow that occurs when a bag is
> compressed or extended by going over a curb/bump or dropping into a hole.
>
> The most common installation is inline in typical plastic airlines, as
> near the bag as possible. Fairly simple installation, and they run I
> think $185 a pair. For hard-plumbed installations like the Bird, they
> have units that screw into the top of the bag, then the airline is
> attached to the unit. Those are newer designs and run $250 per pair.
>
> I found a few postings on the internet that attested to them working
> well, and none that said they didn't, although there were definite
> gripes about the price!
>
> My tolerance for cost when it comes to ride/handling/safety may be
> higher than most - I decided to go for it. They had 8 of them of the
> necessary size (there are 7 units depending on pipe size and vehicle
> weight), so we did everything but the tags.
>
> We will likely go through there in September and get all of the shocks
> replaced. With a glass-half-full perspective, we are able to evaluate
> the effect of the MCUs with no other changes to the system.
>
> Conclusion: significant reduction in sway. Flatter through corners.
> The most obvious test is a speed bump taken at an angle. Before, when
> the drivers would cross the bump, the coach would rock back and forth
> in a major way, now it just tilts up as one side goes over, then the
> other way as the other side crosses, then back to level.
>
> The run home from Grant's Pass involves US 199 to Crescent City. That
> is about a good a test run for cornering as you can find. I won't say
> the MCUs made the drive fun, but I was a lot less worried about
> bouncing off things than in the past. That will always be a bit of a
> paranoid run for me - I did bounce off a guard-rail in the past on
> that highway in an SOB; I could swear I had enough room, but I rocked
> outward just enough to hit. No scrape, just a linear crease about 20
> feet long.
>
>
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