Its A Dry Heat
Arizona
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Joined: 01/04/2006
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I own an '07 Jayco Greyhawk 33DS with the kodiak chassis that I plan on doing some suspension mods. I have seen quite a few folks on the forum here that have had good luck with various suspension mods and Henderson's line up seems to offer some nice products and overall do a good job in the suspension department.
My concern is that it seems most of the conversation has been suspension improvements to the Kodiak chassis Seneca. Given some differences as far as weight and length, I'm wondering if the same mods would help my Greyhawk. I'm not having any sagging issues. My main concern is to significantly tone down the severe side to side swaying when encountering any off-camber situation. I do a lot of dry camping in the desert and even at an a absolute crawl, the coach swaying is ridiculous. I understand it is not an off road vehicle with a long travel suspension, but even crossing railroad tracks at a crawl has me rocking back and forth excessively for a while.
In general the coach drives really well and I don't have any real complaints about it's road manners, but the back and forth swaying does occur in certain situations on the highway as well.
I am considering the following: 1.Supersteer rear and front track bar 3. Koni FSD shocks 4. Roadmaster front and rear sway bar 5. Safe-T-Plus steering control.
To do everything would be approx. $5K installed. If I need to do everything I will, but if I can improve my situation by 90% by doing 3 of the 6 mods, I would probably start with that.
Any feedback or specific recommendations re: the kodiak chassis greyhawk suspension mods would be appreciated. Thanks!
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jauguston
Bellingham, WA
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My recommendation is talk to Henderson Tech Support. They will be able to give you a game plan. Those boys are good.
Jim
Jim, Sharon and Buddy the Yorkie
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GrumpyandGrandma
CIncinnati, OH
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There have been numerous comments on the " Yahoo Kodiak" blog about the tires that came on the earlier Greyhawk/Seneca. The last was from a fellow who had planned all the suspension upgrades, changed to 245/70 19.5 Michelin XZE load range "H" and has scraped the upgrade because of the handling improvments...
You might want to check it out.
http://autos.groups.yahoo.com/group/KodiakChassisClassC/
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She lets Grumpy drive!!
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Pigkisser
West Texas
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I added the Supersteer rear track bar to my Seneca. It stopped the "tail wagging" issue I was having. I think the rear track bar is a good place to start when working on handling issues. It's not extremely expensive and most people can DIY on the installation.
2007 Jayco Seneca 33SS
2008 Jeep Wrangler 4 door 4X4 toad
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dcowley
Texas Panhandle
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Its A Dry Heat wrote:
My main concern is to significantly tone down the severe side to side swaying when encountering any off-camber situation. I do a lot of dry camping in the desert and even at an a absolute crawl, the coach swaying is ridiculous.... but even crossing railroad tracks at a crawl has me rocking back and forth excessively for a while.
3. Koni FSD shocks 4. Roadmaster front and rear sway bar
Your Roadmaster front and rear sway bar and Koni shocks will correct the problem described above and your local mechanic can do it. Should be way less than 5K... I ordered Konis and sway bars and had installed locally (town of 7K) and sway (side to side rocking) is virtually eliminated. I have a Seneca 35gs but theory is universal of the problem you are trying to correct.
Let us know how this works out as you will be very pleased.
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az99
N.Y.
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Joined: 12/26/2006
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Henderson's will gladly sell you at least $5K in bolt on band aids but you do not need it all for your problem. You get the bad side to side rock for 2 reasons. 1. The springs are not heavy enough to carry the weight that is being transferred to that side when the coach tries to roll over. 2. The shocks are not controlling how fast the weight is being transferred from side to side. I would try the Koni shocks first. They make an amazing difference. If it is still not good enough, put heavier rear springs under it. Call around to your local truck spring shops. You will be surprised how many times they have worked on this exact problem. Good Luck
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A/C Inspector
St. George Ut.
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I installed Ride Rite air bags and calmed the roll considerably. I also put a set of Bilistein on the front. Think about how many time you encounter off camber situations. Off road many but we who seldom get off the asphalt not so much. So why spend a gazillion to correct a once in a while problem. My rig drives so well its scary. I used to have a Greyhawk 31ss on a ford chassis and I couldn't relax driving it. A small car passing would effect the handling. It had Helwigs, and all the other stuff that was said to help. No the 35GS is a dream to drive. I recently had the opportunity to drive it in a some pretty harsh quartering cross winds and it was as tame as a kitten. As mentioned in an earlier post the 245 XZEs will be most of the help in handling problems and them go from there. The air bags made a good handling MH better in my opinion.
Denny
2006 Seneca 35GS.4"cat back.Edge/Attitude/GPS/Bilsteins/. Ford Ranger toad.
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Mile-High-Endura
Colorado
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The only suspension change I've made is replace the OEM shocks with Bilstiens. That took away alot of the side to side sway. One day planning to add airbags to the rear. Always towing something either the racecar trailer or the Jeep Wrangler. Handles fine to me.
Jeff
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zkathyz
Newhall, CA
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We added air bags and that made a great improvement in the side to side rocking and in cross winds DH just fills up the one side to add wedge to level the coach out and it drives nice and straight.
The Beast and The beloved
Jayco Senecca 34SS & '84 Mobile Traveler
Always in our memories
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bumpus4
Tn
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Joined: 12/20/2008
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I had the same problem with my 08 Seneca and went all out on installation of the following. I had all the items done except the rear sway bar. It appears the 08 Seneca is on a Kodiac 07 chassis. I got the hurry up goitis and I paid dearly for it. I should have followed this forum's advice and do one thing at a time then road test etc.
1. Replaced Goodrear tires with Michelins--- got better ride even at higher pressure.
2. Front sway bar --- installed by me in less than a hour. Better ride was the result.
3. front track bar ---- may have wasted my money.
4. rear track bar ------ " " " " "
5. Safe-T- Plus ----- WOW! What a difference in the steering. Well worth every penny, to me at least.
6. Rear springs supplement------ by Henderson's tech at ALB rally.
WOW again. increased height 2 1/4 inches.
7. I also added "Air Tabs" to the rear of the MH. They work!!!
In a rain shower you could see (via the rear view camera)the vortec going stright back and away from the car and car hauler.
8. Front alighment---- WOW again.
9. forgot--- replaced OEM shocks with Bilsteins
Henderson didn't want to tackle the rear sway bar at the rally as they said the gas tank on 07 Kodiak had to be lowered and rivets had to be removed to facilitate swar bar installation.
I am having a Sat sys dome installed and some warranty things fixed this week and will ask the seller dealer to install the rear sway bar.
regards, bumpus4
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