alignment problems


wayne mauldin

New Member
I have a 2004 Southwind on a workhorse chassis and I don't feel it is steering as well as it should be. It wanders at highway speeds and the front end shop says its with in specs. I don't know what the specs should be. You get between two eighteen wheelers and it pretty scary. Can anyone offer any advice?
 

ARCHER

Senior Member
alignment problems

Wayne, welcome to the forum.
Go to another dealer and test drive a similar model like you have and see what happens.
 

janicenlarry

New Member
alignment problems

Have your wheels weighed. You may have a loading problem which is causing instability. Also Archer made a good suggestion. If the problem is the same on the 2nd unit, it would seem to be a design problem which is not unheard of with Fleetwood. There are some good after market products which can correct this problem.
 

mike sexton

New Member
alignment problems

I have a 2004 Southwind I just bought that has the same floaty feeling with the steering reported in an earlier post. If this is a Fleetwood problem, what sort of aftermarket stuff is available to fix it, and where is that available?
 

Huskyjack

New Member
alignment problems

I also have a 2004 Southwind on the Workhorse, for the first 4,000 miles it handled very good then during a trip the handling changed and I had the same problems you have encountered.
Turns out that the Southwind's front shocks are not the best, if you contact a Workhorse dealer you can have the shocks replaced without charge. They put on Monroe shocks and the handling is back where it should be.
 

paul1

New Member
alignment problems

Any vehicle will wander if the front shocks are worn or not heavy enough to begin with, most factory shocks are only good for about 25-30,000 miles. also check the pressure in all of the tires. Another option is an aftermarket steering stabilizer.
 

racingdude9

New Member
alignment problems

I have the same type problem on a new Itasca Sunova on a Workhorse chassis. I've been looking at thing since it was told to me that the alignment was correct. What I've found is there is a trunion mounted on the frame that a bellcrank attaches. This bellcrank is between the steering drag link and the tie rod. When the steering wheel is moved just enough to take up the play in the steering the trunion moves appx. 1/8 of an inch from side to side without any movement being transfered to the tie rod. This is a lot of slop in the steering. My coach has 2100 miles on it. Workhorse will not respond to me yet. My plans are shoe the repair center what I've found and if possible get the trunion for an inspection and sent the results to the NTSB.
 

RVAlaska

New Member
alignment problems

There have been a number of issues witht he Workhorse chassis, the 18,000 GVW has serious wandering problems, mine has sway bars that continue to sheer bolts. I have found there is one place in the US that has the experts on suspension http://www.ericsrv.com/ I highly recommend contacting them.
 
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