I owned a tire and front end shop for many years, our alignment machine could handle 18 wheelers and we aligned plenty of logging trucks, motorhomes and cars. It was not uncommon to see cars come in with irregular worn tires with few miles on it, I just figured they did not get aligned right at the factory. My motorhome had the same issue, it was toed out 5/8 in. When it was delivered to me. The amount of extra stuff you are going to put inside your RV is minuscule to the total weight of it at delivery. Let's go back to the logging trucks, they were always empty or full, so 1/2 the miles were empty, the other 1/2 they had 80,000 pounds loaded coming from the woods going to the mills. So in the "Thor theory" those tires should have basically shredded because of all that extra weight. guess what, they did not. As posted these large trucks run around full or empty and it does not affect the alignment much. Bottom line the factory or dealers don't give a crap if the alignment is good and they are trying to pass that off on the buyer. Don't take delivery until you see a print out of the alignment to make sure it is OK. I am not saying every single motorhome sold has an alignment problem, but why take the chance.
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Originally Posted by Chance
I'm not talking about the bare stripped chassis, but the way the motorhome comes from Thor. They are the ones that "complete" the vehicle as sold, and should take care of alignment before it gets to customer.
The "weight added to a finished motorhome" argument is absurd in my opinion. My van weighed +/- 5,000 pounds empty and came aligned. And it can be loaded to nearly twice that weight without needing to be aligned again.
The same occurs if you buy a new ProMaster or Sprinter van. If you load 50% of their respective weight in them, the vans don't have to be realigned.
And the same with commercial trucks that can weigh twice as much full as empty. If they needed alignment full, how would they drive empty?
So now we have a finished 10,000-pound or more motorhome that "requires" about 10% weight added in order to get the alignment right? 
I just don't see it other than for what it is. A new owner should never have to worry about getting his rig aligned on day one. |
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