My 93 e350 29' Tioga RV has really bad sway when getting passed by cars, trucks, semi's or by any gust of wind.

Currently it has no rear sway bar, which might help but the rear part of the frame looks to be from a regular f350 because I bought a sway bar from the JY from cab chassis van of the same year and didn't fit it was to narrow.

Do you guys/gals think a sway bar might help on this big old RV? the leaf springs also look really tired as they are arched really bad, can I use regular f350 springs or will the ride be to rough in an RV?

For those who worked on RV vans What would you recommend?

 

I have a E350 high top, 4x4 van. Not the same thing that you have, but similar issue, mostly body roll in my case, but some wind from passing trucks, too. There are a couple of different ways to approach this.

I currently have a small factory F350 rear sway bar (I used F350 axles in the 4x4 swap) and I'm in the process of putting an F350 front sway bar on also (I have to build mounts, nothing fits out of the box). I think these additions will help, but I believe the real answer is springs.

I have a set of Alcan springs ordered, should be installed within a couple weeks. These springs are built to the arch (ride height) and weight of my van. The van is pretty heavy, about 9200 trip ready, and 10' high at the roof rack, so it's working the factory springs pretty hard.

Once I have the Alcan springs installed, and if I still need improvement, I'll go to a Hellwig rear sway bar.

For your application, I would absolutely recommend weighing the truck, trip loaded, and see what you're working with. You need axle weights. On a '93, I'm willing to bet the springs are getting kind of tired. I'd call Alcan, Alcan Spring - Custom Leaf Springs in Grand Junction, CO give them the axle weight, and see what they can build for you. You could just do add-a-leafs, etc., but your main leaf will still be old and tired. My springs are going to cost me about 1400 bucks. You can do it cheaper, but you get what you pay for.

Once you get the springs sorted, you can address sway bars and/or track bars. With your 29' length, you have a lot of weight behind the axle. That's probably where your sway comes from when you get passed. There are two places that I know of that have track bars that should fit your application. Roadmaster Suspension Solutions - Page 1 - Roadmaster Inc. and Supersteer Supersteer Products - Henderson's Line-Up Brake & RV Inc. (hendersonslineup.com) . Both of these offer tack bars for motorhomes. There are more out there, I'm sure, just google it and you'll be set. A supersteer track bar costs 400-600 bucks.

Sway bars control roll stiffness, track bars control side to side movement of the body over the axle (and affect roll center, depending on the mounting height of each end of the track bar), but mostly side to side movement. In your case, I think the track bar would be more help that the sway bar.

I wouldn't worry about heavier springs making the ride too rough. If the springs aren't heavy enough, you'll be hitting the bumps stops a lot. Heavier (correct rate) springs will actually ride better, since they are working within their designed rate.

Short answer, new, correct springs, and track bar should make you happy!

 

That's the right term body roll, not sway thanks for clarifying it.
and thank you for the advise, ill look into new springs.

 

I was able to adapt the narrower F series sway bars to my '97 E series van using junkyard parts only. This thread has a lot of info and my instructions start at post #22.

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...ispreloading=1

 

Tossing my nickel into the mix.......

Former '94 cube van I had problems with just steering with a load in the back, always had body roll, took it to a truck spring shop, OEM springs were "tired", they added 2 new leafs to the pack, and solved the problems. Cost about $525.

Current '92 cube van, I added Timbren's to the rear.......NO more body roll, but springs were in good shape.
'05 utility van, added Timbren's to help "support" and remove body roll.

https://timbren.com/collections/timbren-ses

First - get your springs looked at from a truck spring shop to see if you have broken leafs, or they are just sagged from years and weight, see if the Timbren will work.

You said this is an RV? like there are 8 feet of body pass the rear axel? or "over hanging" the rear axel, aft fuel tank? and what ever else is hanging past the axel.

 

Yes there's significant overhang after the axel, where the fuel tank, grey and black water tanks are.