Thor Forums

[Chance]

Originally Posted by brucev

Chance
The fresh water tank is located under the rear wardrobe closet but it is above floor level so I started traveling with it full to reduce the sloshing and tail wag. What concerns you about how the weight gets to the ground?

What concerns me the most, is that rear axle can be loaded much more on right side while the front axle is higher on left side.

The implication of this data, if correct (and I don’t have reason to doubt your weights), is that chassis and motorhome unit is not stiff enough relative to suspension stiffness. That explains why these motorhomes ride and handle so poorly.

For example, in a modern car or SUV which have much stiffer structure than the suspension’s stiffness, I don’t think you could ever get skewed results like these. With more total weight on right side, a stiff motorhome would lean to right side, and both front and rear would show as heavier on right side.

There are ways to manipulate these side-to-side weight biases, like they do in race cars with adjustable suspensions, but I’m certain these motorhomes use standard OEM fixed springs. Ruling adjustable suspensions out, the only explanation I have (assuming weights are correct and were taken on level scales), is that frame and MH structure is not stiff enough in torsion compared to suspension stiffness.

Every mechanical engineer should know that to have good ride and handling the vehicle structure must be significantly stiff. That’s why OEMs have spent billions to upgrade their lighter-duty trucks. Ford, as an example, claims new Super Duty frame is 24 times stiffer in torsion (if I recall number correctly).