Have You Experienced Broken Shocks?
A technical article by John Davis, JDRV Services
Have
You Experienced Broken Shocks on your Motorcoach? The main contributing factor
to this is the fact that the HWH system has the ability to over inflate the
rear bags. This pushes the rear suspension beyond the travel of the shocks and
breaks the center shaft. This also results in the ride height valve system
being over extended and can break the valves and linkages.
I
am finding that the main cause is the system is designed to increase the air to
the drive axle bags when the tag axle is lifted to compensate for the weight
increase to the drive axle airbags. The problem here is that the system does
not stop pushing that air to the drive bags until the tag returns to its down
position.
When
driving in heavy traffic or sitting for extended periods of time with the tag
lifted, this may cause this issue as the tag is designed to return to the down
position automatically when the coach reaches 7 or 12 MPH depending on which
program it has in the HWH brain (normally
when shifts to 2nd gear under normal acceleration).
In
my experience, there is no true fix for this issue but there are things you can
do.
Remember
that the reason for lifting the tag is to reduce wear on the tires and increase
turning radius at low speeds. If you are not
making tight turns or backing up in a tight turn situation the tag does not
need to be lifted. Be aware that you don't allow the tag to stay in the lifted
cycle while in gear for more than about 4 minutes at any one time.
You
may have also heard of the shock limiting straps. These are not a foolproof fix
and have been also known to break, but are an accessory that can be installed
to help reduce the possibility of shock breakage.
Contact
me to discuss this subject in more detail if you wish or any other coach
questions you may have. (I am pleased to extend a 10% discount
to Country Coach Friends Inc Club Members.)
JDRV Services
Inc: www.jdrv1.com/.
Ph: 541-306-6473
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