Sometimes, a customer’s email to our shop brings up a good blog topic. A couple of weeks ago, I received one from a gentleman named Dennis who was having problems with the ride height on his Super C. Dennis wrote: “I own a 2007 Four Winds Dutchmen Super C on a Chevrolet Kodiak chassis. The coach leans about 4 inches on the driver’s side rear because Four winds designed the coach 800# heavier on that side. Can I simply remove some of the space
blocks from above the rear axle on the opposite side to give the coach a level appearance, or should something else be done to properly eliminate the lean?”
This is a good question, and I’ve answered it for Dennis personally already-but now I’d like to address this for RV.Net readers. First, I’d like to point out that no coach manufacturer “designs” the coach to be heavier on one side or the other. As I’ve pointed out in previous posts, coach building is all about compromise; the number and size of the slideouts and appliances, as well as tank size/placement can all have an affect on a coach’s weight balance.
That said, in a case like this, an airbag is not enough. You’re going to need to add extra leafs to the leaf spring on that side and/or use a lift block. You hear about a coach being one or two inches low on one side, but four inches is a huge amount, so I would first want to confirm it by weighing the coach on all four corners and by taking individual bump stop measurements. To get the thing leveled out, it may take one or two more leafs on that side. Tapered leaves are funny; they don’t always raise as high as you think they would. For example, if the leaf is 3/4-inch thick at its center point, that’s all it’s going to raise it. They don’t behave like the old style leaf springs did, so that’s why you may need to add leafs and maybe a one or two-inch lift block.
Most of the Jayco Senecas we’ve seen have a lot of rear overhang, which just causes them to be a little low in the back, but not lopsided. In these cases, you can do some leveling with air bags, but I would still recommend another spring leaf and/or a block between the spring pack and the axle. If we beef up the leaf springs, you’ll get better stability, but the air bags have to be located in board, not over the spring.
With accurate weighing and the appropriate measures, there are very few weight imbalance issues that can’t be solved.