While polishing the rear duals, I happened to notice that a metal strap around the front of the right leaf spring was broken. On further inspection the strap around the rear of the spring was broken also. These straps hold the leafs in alignment. My local Workhorse shop beefed them up and welded them back. I had assumed that the handling problems I was having was due to the long overhang on this particular coach. Evidently the integrity of the spring is totally dependent on these straps. Crosswinds and trucks are no longer a problem, also body roll was greatly reduced. This is something you might want to check if you are having these problems. I probably will still add Safe T Steer or True Trac, but mainly for blowout protection.

If the truth be known,the root cause of the breakage you have found,is due to the excessive lateral motion exhibited at the rear end of your coach.Do yourself a huge favour,and get some sort of Panhard Rod for the rear axle.I think you will be happy with the results.It will reduce the tail-wag steer even more than the "fix" they did for you.

quote:

Originally posted by newk72:
While polishing the rear duals, I happened to notice that a metal strap around the front of the right leaf spring was broken. On further inspection the strap around the rear of the spring was broken also. These straps hold the leafs in alignment. My local Workhorse shop beefed them up and welded them back.

Any chance you or the repair shop took some photos you could post? Sounds like this could have turned into a serious problem...

Marshall, Like your National, ours has a lot of butt overhang. I never understood why they didn't put a 242 in wheelbase instead of the 228 in wheelbase on our coach. It would have made a difference on our coach.
After the wheel alignment, tire pressures, weighing coach, I felt things could be a little better. So, I ended up putting a track bar on the rear end and it made a significant difference. Also, I added the Safe T Plus quite a while ago. It seemed to take a little looseness off the front steering but I mainly bought it for the same reason as you are thinking. To aid control in case of a blowout.

Richard,

I do have photos, however, I have no idea how to post them.

quote:

Originally posted by newk72:
Richard,

I do have photos, however, I have no idea how to post them.

I use Photobucket. It is free to sign up and you just need to copy the direct link URL into the path for the link in a post. Take a look at other posts, right click on the properties to see what the link looks like.

UltraTrac Rear


UltraTrac Front


Steer Safe

Richard ,


this is the front bracket.Rear spring