Twisted Body On Motorhome --Follow-up

[ronnieg]

On September 15, 2011, I posted a topic about having the body twisted on my 2000 Southwind (Fleetwood, 1999 Ford F53 chassis). I have been pondering this problem and asking everyone about it since then. I've been investigating my motorhome and every week or so crawling under it to see if I can find what cause's it.

Several month's ago I went away for quite a while and asked a friend of mine to start and drive my motorhome while I was gone to keep it in running shape. He's the director of Aircraft maintenance at the Airline I used to work for, and he own's a 2000 34' Bounder. When I came back, he commented that when He drove my Southwind 36T, the steering wheel "jumped around" and it didn't do that in his? Well, both of us spent time crawling under to see if we could find the problem.

Last week, my generator had a fuel pump problem which he and I worked on together. (note: if you change a fuel pump on a Onan "BGM" you must prime it before you start it-- It doesn't tell you that in the service manual). While we were working he said that it still bothered him about the steering wheel jumping around and it still did it after I had airbags installed to level the coach (At the suggestion of several RV shops and Fleetwood) and he had an idea.

He and I were going to drive around with the engine "doghouse" off and he would observe the body movement while we drove (It's a V10 front engine chassis). Off we went driving around finding bumps, sounds silly right? Did you know that Fleetwood welded the "I-Beam" of the coach to the "I-Beam of the F53 chassis. We discovered that the mounting plates on the right side which appeared to be in perfect condition were broken loose from their very small 1/2" weld bead on each vertical end of an approximately 8" mounting plate. Did you know that these plates do not begin until about 6 to 8 feet from the front of the coach mounting frame? That's about where you entry door is! I have seen many AD's for motorhome's that have stated "It only lean's a little" and have had many people tell me "That's normal in older coaches". We also found the plates on the left side of the coach bent and moving the body to the left quite a bit. We also noted that his coach is a 2000 Bounder (Fleetwood) but it has a 2000 Ford F53 chassis and we haven't checked but I'll bet it was manufactured after mine, because when we went to compare the mount's, we found his mount's to be "L" channel with support gusset's instead of steel plate, and his weld beads were longer and both vertical and horizontal. I don't wish to believe Fleetwood found a problem and never advised owner's or dealers with service bulletins??

I am posting this, because many of us have and appreciate our older motorhome's and aren't aware of how they were put together. Mine is currently at a excellent welding shop, who's owner pointed out how the plates on the left side had buckled almost imperceptive and had shifted the body to the left.

The repair will go like this: Support the body, cut the current plates free, align the body correctly and re-weld the plates on the right and put new or reweld the plates on the left and possibly add some gussets. You must be careful in welding to a chassis as each weld can weaken it. If you have this problem, get someone knowledgeable to do the repair.

Hopefully I have passed along some knowledge.

Happy RVing.

Ronnie G.

[hanko]

Very interesting, and very informative, thanks.

[hermanmullins]

Ronnie, That is an excellent report. No doubt it will help many people out there.

Thank you.

[jassrnj]

Thanks for taking the time to outline the problem and resolution to your issue. I have a 2000 Fleetwood Southwind Storm that leans to the left. I was going to have a truck shop take a look at the springs but will now check out the welds first. I will have to double check the year of the F53 frame.

again, thanks