Need some help in finding a good truck suspension shop. We are in Barstow at the moment. I believe the issue is my bushings. I think the pounding on the Cali highways did in the likely old bushings. Every time I hit a small divot in the highway or a bridge expansion joint. It sounds like someone is underneath the bus hitting metal components with a hammer. I can probably push it to Vegas.
I can't offer help, but I can offer sympathy. I hate that you keep having issues with your coach.
It is what it is. Just fix it and move on is all I can do. And buy a bottle of Whiskey while we are here in the Walmart lot🤪
I get a think when my muffler for the generator hits the frame on a big bump or multiple bumps. Might not be the same but see if your exhaust pipe moved back and forth that much.. worth a look
It's def. in the front. You wouldn't believe how small a drop off type irregularity causes it to make that noise. It sounds close to the sound that a Joey bed makes when it is extended and you are shaking it up and down. But the bumps are too small to rattle the Joey beds with them loaded.
Might check the shock mounts and bolts while your looking. If the grommets are gone it will do the same thing
Check around a lot of trucks pass through Barstow there must be a shop. The Walmart you are at closes at 12:00 and the signs say no overnight parking. If you are in the rear near the big dirt field you probably are ok. We stayed there on the way back from the Grand Canyon a couple of weeks ago.
We are way in the back next to the high wall. About 7 trucks back here and 3 other rv's.
Try some of these tomorrow.
Best Commercial Truck Repair in Barstow, CA - Yelp (https://www.yelp.com/search?cflt=truckrepair&find_loc=Barstow%2C+CA)
Check you bolts holding your generator slide in. If they are loose or gone the slide might be moving and hitting under the front of your coach. Hopefully it is something simple and easy to get fixed so you can get on down the road safely.
Best of luck ^.^d
It most likely is the shock mounts. Mine lost a washer and bugged me for a long time. Found it accidentally and hasn't made a thump thump in years. If one is loose, it will shake by hand.
I'll give the shocks a shake in the AM.
Take a pry bar and try and wiggle/move the torque rods,if you can move them it's the bushings,those are the only bushings except
for the shock mounts.If you still have the original shocks it's time for the Koni FSD.
A set of Koni's would be nice.
Bigdog, I had a similar sound just recently, started half way between Eugene and Junction City. It was so loud I was not going to drive it back to Eugene without a tech looking at it. He crawled under, found nothing. Turned out to be a large loose piece of metal that had fallen beneath the "joey" bed pull out tray. He laughed, no bill, said he was glad to find just that as his shop was so busy.
I had described the sound to him as a loose broken shock. I had to replace the bushings in Roadmaster 8 bag RV, after a blow out, sounded similar.
Check all the excellent suggestions. I had bad bushings on my sway bar. If this is the problem I would replace with polypropylene as they give better control.
Bill
After my similar experience recently I'm betting on a shock.
Let us know what you find.
Until you get the 'shake, rattle & roll' fixed, a good reason to avoid the 'Highway from hell' eastbound out of Blythe on I-10. >:D
I was able to grab all front shocks and two in the back. None of them moved. They are red Koni's. However. I was not under the coach so I didn't have a good position to really get a firm grip. One that I had a good view of in the back has a leak.
I called three places and the word is. We are days to a week out. One is supposed to call back. So hoping for the best.
Found a shop that can lift the coach and do an inspection on the suspension later today. So one more night in Barstow. Will report on what they see.
Mechanic inspected everything in the front. More mystery. Torque rods were tight. Shocks were tight. BUT. One shock was blown out (his words) He did say that it looked real clean and tidy in there.
He also noted that the gen exhaust pipe sits real high. So I commandeered a few small pieces of wood to hold the pipe still while driving back to Walmart. The noise remains.
I opened up the gen door and put my weight on the gen tray. Not a bit of movement or noise. So back to square one.
The one bit of bad news was that my air bags are pretty bad. So that is on the Arizona to do list.
Jerry, is your front ride height OK? If it is low you might be bottoming out once in a while. Check in the DR side front bay to make sure the radiator and blower are secure.
Jerry,
Did he go under and check the bushings on the panhard bar? This is another place that can cause a clunking while in motion.
Mike
He looked at everything under the front end. Said everything was tight.
All that stuff is secure Roger.
He should go back and look again, OBVIOUSLY SOMETHING IS WRONG!
Jerry,
Check your door magnet to see if it is loose causing the step to open/close when you hit a bump.
Mike
I think the plan is to call a shop in Yuma or Tucson and make an appointment.
I was fortunate that the shop I found in Barstow even had the time to inspect it. To get any repair work done would be a week out to just get started. As we will be in Ajo for two weeks. We should be able to have a more thorough inspection done and order parts. If they are going to be working on the suspension. Might as well have the air bags done and new shocks installed.
Talk about sucking the fun out of our first long trip. Yikes!
Tight is a realitive term when the coach is static and not moving. Bad rubber bushing if covered by a large washer may hide. Is there a way to support a unihome or unicoach so the suspension can be somewhat unloaded to check?
A go pro type camera pointed at various parts of the suspension while driving the coach might be necessary to help diagnosis what's wrong. My older go pros can send the pictures live to my phone or iPad if memory serves me,
Different mounts from them should allow a secure mounting?
Good idea. But with the forthcoming outpouring of yet more coach bucks. I doubt she who must be obeyed will let me have a GoPro.😁
Another place to try is All Aboard America in Mesa. Talk to Leo (service manager), great guy. He also does work on the side.
480-962-6202
230 S. Country Club Dr., Mesa, AZ
You might also check the brake calipers. If the pins are worn, they will rattle on bumps. Shake them to see if they are loose.
The brakes were rebuilt 2 months ago.
What you might do when you get down here, before you plug everything in, is take me for a ride, perchance I can walk around the coach when you're driving and spot the noise location. ^.^d
Or ride in the joey bed...LOL
:o
Agree........ Mike would be able to pinpoint many more noises from that location!
Please film and post your findings.............. :D
^.^d
The good thing about SR 85 from Gila Bend down to Ajo, is it's rough, and we may be able to replicate 'the sound'.
My thoughts exactly Mike. We need to go for a ride. Any good bars down Mexico way?
I was also thinking that if I can score some wood wedges to keep the Joey beds still. That might help. To my and the dw's ears. It does have a Joey bed sound to it towards the galley. But there is also a distinct metal sound in the front that I can also feel through my feet.
Perhaps bad bushings can cause a domino effect and the uncushend shock is transferred to the beds. It could even be an issue with the Joey bed it self.
I had a loose engine compartment door make a lot of banging noises from mid coach.
Your have to slowly lower the door and watch over the top edge to see if the part at the bottom is actually over the pin with the rubber on it. Plus rotated the rubber as it was worn and grooved.
Second noise was our chest freezer banging against the compartment door. Retaining latch was worn at the bottom and moved up allowing the chest freezer to hit the door.
Towel over the freezers handle stopped the noise.
See if you can rattle the engine compartments door? Fan on and off changes the pressure under the bed,
Make sure the bed is latched down also
I planned on checking all the side door latches. I think both large bay doors need adjusting. I may try to do it here at Cattail so we can see if it makes a diff next week on the trip to Ajo.
Jerry, you have not composed the 'song of the siren' so we could start taking bets as to what it is. Is it one metallic sound, or a 'click click rattle shake' sound? That's a nice Park you're in, have spent time there, too! b^.^d
Jerry, one of my rules for finding a problem is to check everything that was changed since the last no problem trip. I know it is a long shot, but you have had the brakes done since your last trip. Check all the hardware that was changed, or removed and put back on if the fronts were involved.
I don't think it's a long shot, at all. I thought the same thing, too. The nice thing about 'the noise', is it seems, merely:
My generator slide tray made a heck of a racket when braking, terrible racket. Took mc to generator shop and he installed two rubber washers on slide hold in bolts after he pushed and prodded on tray to duplicate noise. Problem solved. It had just been serviced. He apologized for charging me $35. I thought the generator bearings were shot. Good luck.
We'll get it sorted one way or another.
I have always had what sounds like Joey bed noise since buying the coach. But having never been in a coach before, Much less a Foretravel. I had no idea of what to expect for road noise and such. The Joey beds do make a big racket when I'm loading stuff on them or moving them in & out. So why wouldn't it do the same bouncing down the road.
It was the more pronounced metal sound that I could also feel through my feet after Cali. I-5 that made me think something else was amiss. As it was a new noise added to the other noises.
I drove I-40 east bound on the way home from LA, after the first day and damage to coach i let 20 psi out of the coach tires down to 85 psi which turned out right for my coach axle weights. Weigh your axles. In AZ you could see the whoop de do's coming and I just shifted the coach over to the right so I was straddling the center of the lane and the shoulder
What ended up being the problem!
Well, Not totally sure.
After leaving Tucson that year. We went to MoT and had the bulkheads looked at (they were fine) so we had the shocks and airbags replaced.
Two or three years ago. I had a big suspension shop in Tucson check the suspension and alignment. It checked out. The thrust angle on the drive axle was just within spec but is none adjustable. Being in or out of spec is a function of the bushings being good or worn out. I do have a set of bushings in the garage at home.
After new shocks, The noise did quiet down quite a bit.
I suspect it is a combo of niggling things. Like the side doors being in need of new gaskets and thus have gone out of adjustment and i couldn't get them properly adjust with the bad gaskets. Then the joey beds are in need of new rollers. The pass side is especially bad.