Do you have a question related to alignment, steering, handling, braking, fuel economy, tires, safety and maintenance of your RV? Robert Henderson, the president of Henderson’s Line-Up Brake and RV and SuperSteer/SuperStop products in Grants Pass, Oregon, is available to answer questions from readers. You may send your questions by e-mail to editor@rvlife.com.
Question:
Dear Robert,
I have a 2008 Holiday Rambler Admiral with, 6,000 miles on it. How often should I consider front end alignment? I have a Workhorse chassis, gas engine. And do I have to consider any particular maintenance of tires, rotation, etc.?
Thanks,
Barry L. Young
Madisonville, KY
Answer:
Hello Barry,
We usually recommend that a straight front axle coach like this one gets aligned when it is new, and then once every 30,000 miles after that. Why do it when it’s new? For one thing, these alignments are done en masse at the factory, so it may not be that accurate. Also, the coach is unloaded the first time it is aligned, and now it’s loaded. We recommend that you always have a coach aligned in its normal, loaded, road-ready condition.
If you ever hit a bump hard enough to knock the steering wheel off center, you need to get it checked out right away. In any case, it should be checked out annually, or every 15-20K miles just to make sure it’s okay. Whoever is doing your lube work, if it’s someone that services motorhomes, ask them to check everything out for you. Also, I recommend taking the weight off the front axle when king pin is lubricated; in fact, it’s not a bad idea on any of the chassis to do this. Grease takes the path of least resistance; if there’s weight on the front, the grease won’t get to the critical wear points as much as it should.
I like to see the grease come out the whole way around the thrust bearing and bushing area. King pins don’t have a rubber boot on them the way a ball joint does, so whatever grease is on the pin is all it’s going to get. That’s why we use a #3752 Lubrication Engineers grease; it won’t pound out or wash out—it’s water resistant and impact resistant.
With regard to tires, I recommend rotating them every 20-30K miles. Make sure they’re properly inflated to the weight of the coach (download a load/inflation table from the tire manufacturer—see http://www.goodyear.com/rv/tirecare/loadinflationtables.html or http://www.michelinrvtires.com/michelinrv/tires-retreads/load-inflation-tables.jsp) and you should be fine.
Question:
Dear Robert,
I encounter steering wheel shimmy on my 1997 Ford E-250 B van when coming to a stop. The brakes were inspected at a safety inspection and found to be fine. There are 200,238 miles on the van. What needs replacing?
--Ron
Lynnwood, WA
Answer:
Hello Ron,
If you are only experiencing shimmy when coming to a stop, it is usually caused by a warped rotor. I believe you have drum brakes on the rear of a ‘97 Ford. When we do a brake inspection on a vehicle with brake shimmy, we actually check for run out with a dial indicator. Another test we do is for parallelism. We mic four different points on the rotor and compare thickness. Every rotor has specs for these tolerances. Another spec that may cause problems is the machine to spec. You are not supposed to machine rotor down to the minimum thickness when doing a brake job. This leaves no material for wear and increases the chances of the rotor warping again because there is not as much material to dissipate the heat.
Another mistake often made is that people do a front brake job only and let the rear brakes go because they have a lot of pad or shoe left on them. If the drums are not in proper adjustment or the shoes are hard and glazed over, they may not have the proper co-efficient of friction. This puts more load on the front brakes and may dramatically shorten the life of the front brake pads.
Bottom line: I suspect whoever inspected your brakes did not check for the tolerances I mentioned and you have a warped rotor. A simple test you can perform is to drive the vehicle and apply the parking brake and see if there is any vibration. If there is none, you know it is not coming from the rear brakes. Now apply the main brake pedal while still applying the parking brake. If you now feel the shimmy, you know it is coming from the front.
As it happens, we are introducing a high performance long life brake rotor along with a Carbon Metallic brake pads that will give superior stopping power along with a very long life.
Question:
Dear Robert,
How can you make it easy to pack bearings on a 5th wheel? You might even mention those bearing caps that fit on wheel that you shoot grease into that makes bearing re greasing last longer.
Thanks,
Frank Anthony from Montana
Answer:
Hey Frank,
Unfortunately, there is no “easy” way to pack bearings—there’s only one way to do it, and that’s the right way.
The way we pressure pack bearings, we tear it apart, take the bearings out of the hubs, clean all the old grease out and replace with Amsoil synthetic grease. This way we don’t have two types of grease that may not be compatible. We use a special pressure washing tool to blow all the grease out of the rollers. We then clean the bearings with brake cleaner to remove the solvent so it doesn’t break down the new grease. Then we pressure pack the bearing so the grease is distributed evenly around the rollers. If it’s got electric brakes, we’re checking the function of the magnets, the hardware, shoes, springs, etc. to make sure everything is functioning properly at the same time. By the way, we also convert electric brakes to hydraulic disc brakes for people that want the superior stopping power of disc brakes on their trailer.
I would not use an automatic lubing device like you’re referring to on a travel trailer or fifth wheel. These continually apply pressure to the grease, and if it leaks out and gets on the brakes, you’ve got a real problem. These devices were originally designed for boat trailers to keep the bearings lubricated after they are submerged in water. It’s a good product for what it’s designed for, but not the right solution for every application.
