Improving P30 Chassis Motorhome Stability

Got an interesting question, that came in on the site. "I have a 1988 Winnebago Super Chief 31 foot, "and would like to improve the handling, "especially during windy driving. "I've thought of replacing shocks, "rear air bags, which do not hold air and sway bar. "Do you have any recommendations? "What would you start with? "Where should I shop? "I can do some of it myself, "I'm a beginner, mechanically inclined. "Would having an alignment help? "The tires are in good shape. "And it's Rich." This is a pretty common problem with the older chassis. I spent five years on the road, driving mostly P 30 chassis, which this one would have on it, and it was, it was basically a one chassis, for about everything that was out there, and it was a little bit like elephant on roller skates. The number one thing, that you need to do, you remember, you're driving down the road, with a billboard pretty much. So anytime, you come under an underpass, and you have no wind there, but then you come out of wind, it's going to effect that side wall, so you, you need to check all the components, on your chassis. Make sure everything is up to specifications. So the first thing, that I would suggest, on a unit that's that old, is go get the coach weighed. You really need too make sure you stay under, the gross vesicle weight rating. Which is the GVWR, that's what the chassis manufacturer says, this is the maximum weight, that this vehicle can weigh going down the road. With all your propane and your gas, and your water and your stuff inside of it. Don't go over GVWR. The next thing you're going to look at is GAWR, which is gross axle weight rating. Do I have too much weight on the front end? Do I have too much weight on the back end. You know, the heavier the vehicle, the more its going to move around. The more the tires are going to kind of be a little mushy, going down the road as well. So go to a CAT scale. You'll find them at just about every Flying J, Pilot, if you go to CATscale.com, you'll see one in your area, and for $10, you put it on that scale. Put the front wheels on the front pad, the back wheels on the second pad, so I know gross vehicle weight rating overall, that I'm not over, and I also know that I'm not over on one component. Now that P30 chassis had a pretty light front end. So I would start by looking at that. I may have to move some stuff, and one of the things owners don't rec, don't understand, is that just because I have, all this storage capacity underneath, doesn't mean I can fill it to the brim. I have to know my weight ratings. So check that out first, the next thing is that P30, had a A frame front suspension it was called, it had two coil springs at each of the wheels, rather than today's I beam that you see on the Workhorse, Fords, so forth. Inside those coil springs there were airbags, and pretty notorious for those airbags to get pinched, deflate and pretty much become worthless. You need to crawl in underneath those, take a look at those airbags, pump them up, if they don't hold air, I would replace them. Now he also recommended, or said that, he had airbags in the backside. Now this happens to be a '96 Monaco, and Monaco's have great rides, if their airbags are all filled up. They have eight airbags, they have two sets on each wheel, versus one set on some of the other ones. Now on that '90, or that '88, he just talked about, the airbags on the back would have probably been, an optional airbag from either 3T, or could even have been, Jet Company out of Humboldt. Those airbags are not holding air, I would replace them. The next thing I would look at is the shocks. In the front especially, if those shocks are starting to get weak, they're starting to bend. I may even upgrade those to Bilstein Shocks, the newer models that are out today. I wouldn't go out and look at a chassis suspension system, until I made sure every one those components, are up to specification. Now if you still have some handling issues, at that point, then you might want to look at somebody like, Roadmaster, who has a suspension sway bar, that would go up on the other side of it. One last thing to look at is your tires. Now this is something that people take for granted. You need proper tire inflation, you know, before, and I would get alignment. He did bring that up too, I would, because once you get your coach, most manufacturers will align the coach at the factory. But once you get the coach, and you put all your stuff inside of it, and it has a chance to settle a little bit. That alignment's going to be, will need to be redone. So get those aligned, but make sure you check your tire pressure, on a regular bases, and the only way to find proper tire inflation, it's not what's written, stamped on the side. That's maximum pressure, at maximum weight. Once you weigh that vehicle, that we talked about before hand, go to the tire chart, if you go to rvsafety.com, you can go to tire chart, for just about every tire on the market. Find your tire, the size, dual or single application, and what is the pressure. If I have too much inflation in there, if I've loaded that up to the maximum, what it, if it says 90, 120, whatever it happens to be, and I don't have full weight in that. I'm going to balloon that tire up, and I'm not going to have enough tread, and that's going to affect my handling as well. I want the maximum tread, so check your, all your chassis components, get the proper tire inflation, and make sure you're not overweight, and it should make a big difference, in the handling of your RV.