Question Spartan Chassis steering wheel play ~1 in

[Joe Hogan]

Is it normal to have some play, about an inch, between left and right steering input on a Spartan K3 chassis? I find it rather annoying in gusty conditions to maintain a straight path down the road. The CanyonStar, after some modification (OK Alot) and an alignment, drove much like a sedan. Very easy to maneuver and drive on the highway.
The DSDP has this area between left and right steering input that needs to be accounted for when negotiating bad road surfaces, heavy traffic and gusty conditions which is tiring. It is very easy to over control with any type of Comfort Steer active.
On test drives with factory techs, Sawing the wheel appears common on rough roads surfaces in Indiana.

My preference is very little wheel input to hold lane center. But i find myself bouncing from left to right small inputs just to hold lane center. Very annoying.

 

[Neal]

Try turning up your comfort drive but I saw a video on Facebook recently with someone else asking the same, quite a bit of slop in the steering wheel. I personally do not have this on my (2017 FL).

 

[J&JD]

I personally do not have this on my (2017 FL).

Nor do I.

 

[redbaron]

I have a lot more play in my K3 than any of my prior FL chassis.

 

[Joe Hogan]

Headed to a local truck chassis shop to see what can be done if anything. It is that annoying to me.
At the same time, alignment check, wheel balancers of some sort, steering component mechanical review as well as a general inspection of chassis nuts and bolts torque.
Getting prepped for trip to NM, CO this summer.

 

[Rd1]

At the same time, alignment check,

For any alignments, I suggest consider places that have a full alignment rack. Alignment attempt on shop floor, IMO, is fraught with issues and problems. The rack would be long enough to drive the entire coach over, to perform the alignment properly. If you are in Florida, Josam comes to mind where I used to hear many other owners would go for alignments. Perhaps others in the area can comment on them.

Also, where ever you go, need to make sure they are familiar with comfort drive. If they perform any changes to the front axle resulting in the steering wheel to be of-center, most places would just remove the steering wheel and place in in another spline to center the steering wheel. CAN"t DO THAT WITH COMFORT DRIVE. THey need to have the proper software for the comfort drive to check all components are centered properly before making changes to the steering wheel. that can messup your comfort drive centering, among other issues.

 

[redbaron]

I good friend of mine, Larry Beckner (LWBAZ) sent me instructions to fix the gear box issue. Many of you know Larry is quite the expert when it comes to tuning chassis, and his work on Spartan ride comfort is what encouraged me to add the sway bars and custom tuned shocks to my 2022 LADP. Below is a cut/paste of an email he sent me that describes the process to fix the slop in the steering.

All credit goes to Larry for this procedure.

First thing you need to do is hit your local Home Depot and purchase one of these screwdrivers:

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Husky-3...ndard-Slotted-Screwdriver-H38X8FHSD/302346651

Not one kinda/sorta like that one, but that exact one – Home Depot house brand (Husky), 3/8” wide tip, square shaft, 8 inches long not including the handle. Home Depot usually has them in stock. If I’m remembering where you’re located, a nearby Home Depot may be the one in Cleburne. That store currently shows two in stock, Aisle 13, Bay 008, Model H38X8FHSD, SKU 1000014582. Be sure you get the one with the 8 inch shaft. They have a virtually identical Husky screwdriver but with a 12 inch shaft, which is longer than you need and may actually be too long to fit in the area where you’re going to use it.

You don’t need to and don’t want to adjust both steering boxes the exact same amount, simply because one may be close to where it should be while the other might be way off.

Start with the primary steering box, which is the one on the driver’s side of the coach. Once you get in there, look on the top of the gearbox and you’ll see a locknut with a slotted adjusting screw inside the nut.

You’ll notice the slot in the adjusting screw is large enough that most flat-blade screwdriver tips are too thin to work very well. That’s one of the reasons you took my advice and bought the screwdriver referenced above before you started! That screwdriver has two advantages: 1) the tip is fairly wide & thick, and 2) the square shaft will allow you to use a 3/8’ open-end wrench on the square shaft to achieve additional leverage if/when the adjusting nut is difficult to turn.

The adjusting screw may rotate a bit when you loosen the locknut. Once you back the locknut off a bit, return the adjusting screw to where it originally was and take a photo or draw yourself a diagram recording its orientation.

Now use your shiny new Home Depot screwdriver (and 3/8” open-end wrench as necessary) to tighten the adjusting screw until it's just about full tight. Not double or triple tight, just to the point that you can tell you’ve tightened it about as far as it wants to go. As you’re tightening the adjusting screw, count the number of full and partial revolutions in quarter-turn increments if not eighth-turn increments. In the end, what you’re wanting to know (and write down!) is how many turns and partial turns it took before the adjusting screw got sufficiently tight to indicate it didn’t want to go much further. That information is important because as you experiment with different settings, you’ll have your reference notes if you ever need to get the adjusting screws back to where they were before you started making your adjustments.

Once you’ve done what’s described above on the primary steering gearbox and recorded what you learned, repeat the procedure on the slave gearbox.

From there, you can take several different approaches, but here’s what I’d recommend as the most expeditious:

Start with the primary steering gearbox. Tighten the adjusting screw until it doesn’t want to go much further, then back it off half a turn. Tighten the lock nut. The torque spec for the locknut is 43 foot pounds. Anywhere around 40 to 45 should be fine. You’ll probably find the adjusting screw turning a bit as you tighten the locknut, so you may have to experiment. For example, if you find the adjusting screws tightens about an eighth of a turn as you torque the locknut, just back the adjusting screw off an extra eighth of a turn before you torque the locknut, so it will end up where you want it once the locknut is tight.

Repeat this procedure on the slave steering gear box. When you’re done, both adjusting screws should be right about half a turn less than fully bottomed out when their locknuts are fully torqued.

Test drive the coach and see what you think. If you’re happy, call it a day. If it still feels a bit vague on-center, repeat the steps above but with the adjusting screws backed off only a quarter of a turn rather than half a turn from bottomed out. I wouldn’t recommend going much tighter than a quarter of turn out from bottomed out, but you could probably do one-eighth of a turn from bottomed out and still be okay.

 

[Joe Hogan]

Yes, I've been speaking with Barry at JoSams in Orlando. His shop will do the work on June 5.

For any alignments, I suggest consider places that have a full alignment rack. Alignment attempt on shop floor, IMO, is fraught with issues and problems. The rack would be long enough to drive the entire coach over, to perform the alignment properly. If you are in Florida, Josam comes to mind where I used to hear many other owners would go for alignments. Perhaps others in the area can comment on them.

 

[team bradfield]

I've never noticed any slop, I will have to pay closer attention next drive

 

[Jabber Jaw]

Yes, I've been speaking with Barry at JoSams in Orlando. His shop will do the work on June 5.

Josam Equip't is top notch. Barry will help you et it corrected! Good Luck!

 

[Notsotalltexan]

Yes, I've been speaking with Barry at JoSams in Orlando. His shop will do the work on June 5.

Hello Joe--
I just read this thread and was wondering what your result was on the Spartan steering issue. I have a 2020 DS which I've noticed similar annoying play that I did not experience with my 2017 Ventana on a Freightliner.

Thanks,
Laurent Perron

 

[Notsotalltexan]

Hello Joe--
I just read this thread and was wondering what your result was on the Spartan steering issue. I have a 2020 DS which I've noticed similar annoying play that I did not experience with my 2017 Ventana on a Freightliner.

Thanks,
Laurent Perron

Curious if the adjustment recommended to correct your steering helped.

 

[Joe Hogan]

Spartan replaced the steering via local dealer. Steering is much improved. Very little free play now. Vehicle maintains lane much better. Not as hard to drive.
Yesterday 25 gust 30+ and was able to maintain lane without too much input.
The new steering box makes all the difference.

 

[Notsotalltexan]

So you didn’t have them do Larry’s adjustment to the steering box? I’m going to try that before I have a new steering box replaced.

 

[Joe Hogan]

The RV was subject to a recall for the steering box. Replaced under warranty.

https://newpar.newmarcorp.com/instance1Env99NEWMAR/html/images/BLTN609R.pdf