2017 Precept 35s terrible to drive

[dlibson]

Anyone else with a 35s find it near impossible to just relax and enjoy the drive. I cannot keep this thing on a straight line to save my life. It has the J-ride with the big sway bars and all. Tires are good, alignment is good. It's scary, add a little wind and I can't go over 50 hardly...

Anyone else?

[suscamper]

Did you add rear sway bar, track bar, and safe-t plus? Lots of discussion about these items making it driveable

[street rod 37]

My 2015 35 un was the same I added rear track bar and steering stabilizer. The change in sway bar holes made it easy driving regardless of conditions.

[dlibson]

I haven't yet. Just find it hard to believe that for the price of this thing I have to spend money to make it safe to drive.

[suscamper]

We felt the same way, but decided to bite the bullet to make it so that we wouldn't leave it in the driveway

[dlibson]

It had the sway bar already, so I'll have to bite the bullet I guess. Very disappointing...

[nma33]

I have a 2015 35un, Once I set my tire pressure to 100psi it made all the difference in the world, the factory was 85PSI when I got her, also check how you are loaded, too much weight in one area can cause big issues too. My coach drives like a sedan now, only thing I added was the 5 star tuning.

[Jopopsy]

I'd echo the tire pressure / loading post above me. Take your rig to the CAT scales and weigh it fully loaded w/ full gas and all your usual passengers. It sounds daunting but its really pretty easy. I did mine on the way to Florida last month; just top off the gas tank at the truck stop that has the CAT scales and then run your rig over the scales.

You can download your tire pressure chart from your tire manufacturer. Use the scales and the chart to figure out how much pressure should be in your tires. Note: since you can't weigh the each corner of your rig on a CAT scale, I take my axle weight, divide by 2 to get each side, then add 10% to whatever that number is to account for any side-side imbalance. Now use that number and reference the tire chart; set pressure accordingly.

The CAT scale will also tell you how heavy you are front to back. If you've got 'too much junk in the trunk' you'll unload your front axle - making it drive like garbage. Take your gross axle weight rating of the front and the back to get the weight ratio / percentages you should be shooting for front to back. For instance on my rig, I have 9600 pounds on the rear axle and 5000 pounds on the front. Ballpark I should have 2x the weight on the back as I do the front. If I don't have roughly that ratio going over the scales, its time to repack my rig and shift gear around until I do.

[Coachhark]

I filled my tires to 100 psi as well. Massive improvement.

[kevfra]

I added a roadmaster stabilizer. Helped, but mine wasn't bad to begin with. And it was not expensive. I travel light and keep my tires at 95psi. However I did have a -from-the-factory problem that until found made my driving terrible. I had a completely dry king bearing on one side. Climb under and if you don't see grease top and bottom...there you go. Turns out it is not unheard of.

[edfgrf]

chf and tire pressure.

[dlibson]

I have weighed it and set pressure. Even empty from dealer it was bad. I'll have to do some more looking at it. The dash is terribly squeaky too. I've fixed some of the issues, and hope it will stop squeaking once it isn't walking all over.

[edfgrf]

I had to get Ford to balance my tires also.

[tim3712]

Yes,


I totally agree I drove mine with about a 20 mph wind and I was all over the road it makes a two hour trip seem like 5. It is extremely hard to relax while driving this thing. I regret my decision now that I have drove 200 miles.

[Coachhark]

Tim. I wouldn't let this make you second guess your decision I just drove my 2016 35 s through very high winds gusts up to 40 mph and there were some white knuckle moments but I was happy with the way it handled the conditions for being a box on wheels. There are remedies for poor handeling. All I needed was an increase in the psi to 100 and it made a tremendous difference. I would start there and if that is not enough of an improvement work up the chain. There are many threads on this forum discussing this. Good luck in your quest.

[Allen_C]

Tire pressure and chf cost nothing. Try those first. If there is no improvement then maybe something is wrong.

[NickM]

Driving home from the dealer my 35S was all over the road, I could not keep it in my lane so eventually made it to the far right lane and managed to get home. This was with a front end alignment and 100PSI in the tires. I later discovered the fresh water tank was full, along with the grey water tank. Lots of un-needed weight in the wrong place.

Next drive was with the MH loaded for camping which I intentionally loaded heavier items to the front. Handling improved from white knuckle to annoying. Drove to FL in January towing a Wrangler.

On the way home in March I stopped at Safe-T-Plus in Atlanta and they installed a 51-230 stabilizer. Driving around I285 with the tech to get it centered the 35S handled like a car, one handed driving, no wandering.

Hooked up the Wrangler and headed to Myrtle Beach, front end starts wandering again only not as bad.

Leaving Myrtle I re-arranged loading and managed to get more stuff closer to the front, also drained the fresh water tank down to about 1/3 full. Small wandering improvement and could drive one handed on smooth road at 60 to 62 mph.

While in TN I took the MH out for propane, no toad. Drives like a car again.

I'm going to do the CHF before we take our next trip to see if there is any gain in driveability. I don't think CHF will improve wandering but should improve body roll. At this point I'm happy with the non-towing handling just want to improve handling with my toad. So far the cost of the STP stabilizer and installation is all I have invested, <$700. The rest is just my labor and experimentation.

[OutCole'd]

What I don't get is, i'm taking delivery of my new Alante 31 and ask the tech doing my walk through about the chf, the guy looks at me like i've got a third eye. Like he's never heard of it before, but a CHF is all over the various rv forums.

[NickM]

The techs I've met don't read the forums.

[Graunke]

Techs and Dealers hate the internet. Trust me. I worked at a harley-davidson dealership for 15 years. The internet is a great source for misinformation.

My techs at the RV dealer don't and won't do teh CHF on my chassis. They discourage it.