Thor Forums

[Beau388]

We can get into the polar moment of inertia or center of pressure vs center of gravity but that is theory. The coach will handle better the more weight is moved forward. In a race car all the movable weight is moved as far forward and as low as possible. It will go around a corner better if all the weight is near the center of gravity but can be a handful to control. So handling (as subjective as can be) is a depending on where the weight is located and how the chassis manufacturer configured the chassis. Ask anyone who has driven a 40ft 2 axle diesel as compare to a 42 ft 3 axle one. Night and day in directional stability, but you have to dump the air on the tag to make a sharp turn. If you have a gas coach with the bath, generator, propane tank and water tank behind the rear axle it will be more susceptible to handling problems than a coach with only storage and a bed behind the rear axle. Most people load the coach so that everything heavy near the rear axle. Remember the Ford F-53 is a class 6 truck chassis. With a truck, you always put the weight forward, otherwise you have an ill handling truck.


Of course a manufacture can compensate for know weight distribution or there would be no front wheel drive cars, air cooled VW, diesel pushers or Porsche 911.
The problem is Ford has one chassis design with no idea what is going on it. The house builders (Thor, Newmar, Tiffin) are not permitted to modify the chassis as it will void the Ford warranty.



In closing, let me say than no one fix is applicable to all coaches. You must narrow down what you don't like the most and strive to fix that problem. For me, that was the rocking of the coach on uneven surfaces (body roll). Sumo Maxims fixed that. It also fixed the bump stop problem I did realize I had until it was gone. Next was the pull of the Dolly on the hitch. A track bar fixed that. The coach had a tenancy to wander on smooth highways: lower air pressure in the front tires (5psi); higher pressure in the rear (5 psi) increased the front toe-in to 3/16 of an inch.

My coach has all the built in stuff up front - water, propane, sink, generator. The only thing behind the rear axle is the outdoor kitchen, bed and the fuel tank.
Now back to regularly scheduled rant about how poorly Thor MC coaches are constructed.