Installation Concern

[kevin_standlee]

Lisa examined how the RV shop reinstalled the steering stabilizer, and says that they didn't do it right.

What we have is a Roadmaster Reflex Steering Stabilizer. The left end (relative to the direction of travel) of the stabilizer should look like this:



The connection to the front end is via a bracket that goes between the two rubber bushings, visible in the photo below.

Climbing under the RV, I snapped this photo of the left end of the stabilizer:

The most glaring problem here is that one of the washers should be on the inside (toward the center of the vehicle) of the spring. Look at how he washers form a sandwich around the last coil of the spring in the photo of what the thing should look like, then compare how it's actually installed.

The problem here is that while the vehicle is somewhat more stable, without that other washer in place, it won't return to neutral quite as smoothly, because it's only working in one direction.

I called Safari RV this afternoon. We'll take it back to them a week from Monday (I can't go any sooner because I have to be in the Bay Area next week) with a print-out of what it should look like and see if they can put it right.

Comments

[nojay.livejournal.com]

I had to look at that for a bit but, yes, it's not fitted properly. The stabiliser should work both ways to push AND pull the steering back to centre and for that the end of the spring has to be "trapped" at the bracket by the first "washer" which should be fixed onto the damper rod. At the moment the spring only pushes against the bracket, it doesn't exert force in the other direction if there's slack. Notice how the spring is fixed to the body of the damper at the other end? The other end of the spring should also be similarly attached to the damper rod.

It's the same sort of damper/spring combo you find in vehicle suspension systems but in that case the springs only work in one direction so they don't need to be secured at both ends, the weight of the vehicle does the job of keeping them in place.

[kevin-standlee.livejournal.com]

Exactly. I don't have any photos that show it clearly, but below is one that almost does so, taken when the stabilizer first came loose:

It's not that obvious, but the bolt on which everything depends has a sort of notch in it, so that the "inside" washer (the one that is currently missing) can't just slide freely loose when it forms the "sandwich" around the last loop of the damping spring.

We're surprised that an RV shop that advertises this specific device would make this sort of mistake. They should know why the stabilizer has to be secured this way.

[nojay.livejournal.com]

The spring-end plate (it's not just a simple washer) screws onto the damper shaft to couple the end of the spring to the shaft. The notch at the end is to take a spanner to prevent the damper shaft turning when fitting this plate and later the securing nut, although the plate comes pre-fitted from the factory.

I suspect the RV mechanic just made the repair with parts off-the-shelf, assembling rubber bushes and washers from stock rather than getting the correct plate ordered in from the damper maker (Roadmaster?) as a spare part.

I'm kind of surprised that plate went AWOL when the nut came loose and the rubber sandwich fell off, it should have stayed in place on the shaft.

[kevin-standlee.livejournal.com]

The washer fell off because it's not actually threaded onto the damper shaft. It only stays in place because the shaft has a larger diameter than the hole in the washer, except for the narrower part of the shaft onto which the washers and bushings slide. The only threaded part is the nut on the end.

This photo may show it better, although you have to save the photo and zoom in to see it more clearly. There is a sort of lump of metal (visible on both ends) that is the "stop" for the washers.

Had I known it was going to come to this, I would have taken more photos of the fine detail of the stabilizer after I dismounted it when the left end nut fell off.