24 EDUCATIONAL TIPS It may surprise you to learn that motorhomes weren’t meant to be driven. At least, not in the same way that passenger vehicles are. Car manufacturers spend a great deal of time on the overall dynamics of their products – optimizing steering feel, ride and handling to make the vehicle enjoyable to drive. By contrast, motorhomes are simply designed to get you from one destination to another – driving is just a necessary part of that journey. Making matters worse is that most prospective motorhome owners are usually far more concerned with a motorhome’s features and floorplans than its handling traits, so there’s little motivation for RV manufacturers to improve chassis dynamics. As a result, most RVers not only accept poor handling as part of motorhome ownership but they now expect it. In this article, we will focus on why motorhomes don’t handle well and one of the key products you can offer to help your customers to make their RV handle more like their car and less like a ‘big rig.’ So, what causes poor handling? It’s important to remember that while motorhome manufacturers build the RV, they do not build the chassis. Chassis are typically supplied by a vendor such as Ford, Freightliner, Spartan, etc. These companies have no idea what floorplan will be mounted on their chassis, and they are providing the same chassis to a multitude of RV manufacturers. This means that the chassis is essentially a “one-size-fits-all” and is not tailored for any specific floor plan, or weight distribution. And because cost is paramount, the RV manufacturers do not specify suspension components beyond the bare minimum. The result can be a motorhome that is near its gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR) before the customer adds his personal belongings. And it may not be properly balanced, either frontto-rear or side-to-side. Add variables such as how the coach is loaded and whether the tanks are full or empty, and it’s easy to see how the suspension may be overloaded. An overloaded suspension results in sway. Customers perceive sway as poor handling that can be exhausting and sometimes downright scary. Because most customers do not base their buying decision on handling, the chassis are not built with driving performance By Keri Sprenger - Technical Writer, Roadmaster The Solution To Poor Handling Is In The Suspension
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