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Old 12-21-2008, 09:46 AM   #21
chuckyboy
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ok musketeers, sorry if i started on the wrong foot , really would appreciate some help or advice on what to do .like all of you, we all spent alot of money on our coaches, just trying to make the ride as smooth as possible ,ir is it impossible ? again i will ask will the next size spring be too harsh of a ride?? is bigger better in this situation? with all the "extra " weight would the coach even notice abigger spring?
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Old 12-21-2008, 12:49 PM   #22
Texas TC
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IMHO, and I think someone mentioned this before, I would try air bags before I changed out the springs. Air bags would stabilize the rear and would cost a great deal less than changing the springs. If they do the trick, fine. If not, springs might be the next option. Also IMHO, I am a little concerned about changing to stiffer springs.

Back to my coach, the 34' is so light that I never compress the rear springs to get them soft. Loaded I only am putting 12,400# on the 17,500# capacity which I feel adds to the stiffness in ride at the rear of the coach.
Having said that, your numbers show that you have exceeded the capacity which may be causing the bad ride you are experiencing.

The decision is up to you. If it were me, I would try the air bag route first.
The opinions rendered are mine alone. No GS/International engineering opinions are stated.

Good luck and keep us posted on your decision.



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Old 12-21-2008, 02:24 PM   #23
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Chucky-

No worries, Mate! We're all a bunch of happy campers here. My foot feels fine-

RE: your post, there is a poster, Jeff Hiatt who lurks and has in the past posted a wonderful page of upgrades he has done on his 6372, which is my model, or at least the 37 foot version. With regard to suspension and ride, he has installed air bags, and states that when he did so, his problems seemed to have vanished. He has done lots of other things too, some with GS/International blessing, maybe some without.

I'm sending you a private message with the page attached, let me know if you got it.

We arrived here in Parsnippany, and the boys are out in the "snow" hurling snowballs at each other and getting soaked.

I'm the excited one, we're off to New York City tomorrow for a free day of doing the sites.

As TC said, keep up posted on what your thinking/doing, please, speaking for me, I figure that if we are a band of brothers, for better or worse, if we share information good and bad, we'll make the best of whatever comes up with our units together.

All Best, and Happy Holidays,

Jim Bob
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Old 12-22-2008, 10:01 PM   #24
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Well, I might as well add some fuel to this fire. We just got back from a 1000 mile round trip (first one) in our 6400. Coach was fully loaded with all our gear, wife, 2 kids, clothes, food, coolers, toys, etc. On the way out we ran with full fuel, propane, and full fresh water tanks, empty waste tanks. I thought the ride was very exceptable. It would bounce once or twice but only on really steep road transitions, but nothing I would consider even close to excessive. In general I thought the ride was fine, very comfortable. Set the cruise controll and with a finger or two on the wheel just sat back and relaxed.

On the way home we ran with all the same stuff minus some food and the water tank was about 1/4 full. Without all the water weight in the rear, I'll admit, it didnt bounce as much on the rough transitions, so I beleive the full fresh water tank does have some effect on the ride, but not enough that it would stop me from running with them full.

After stopping for fuel on the return trip I ran it across the scales. Here are the numbers for comparison.

steer axle = 8720 lbs
drive axle = 15640 lbs

gross weight = 24360
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Old 12-23-2008, 12:17 AM   #25
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PieEye,

Thanks for posting your numbers and experience with your SuperNova. As you said, that certainly adds fuel to the fire because your weights are so far off from Chuckyboy's. I don't understand how two coaches of the same model could have a difference of over 3000# on the rear axle.

Your numbers are certainly within the weight ranges for each axle while his are over capacity on the rear axle. This is certainly a strange situation.

I do hope Chuck finds a solution to his issues. Most of us are so happy with our coaches and his does seem to have some issues we are not experiencing. I hope GS and International work in tandem to find a fix.



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Old 01-14-2009, 04:39 PM   #26
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We just returned from our annual Chicago to CA trip along Route 66. Our 6400 is getting air bags in the spring! We can not read or play cards, or board games. The MB bed is impossible to sleep in while on the road, my 15 yr. old got bounced to the ceiling on one bad bump. We have had problems with the slide bouncing up and down. We had an exterior crack in the fiberglass on the forward upper corner of the wall slide. We had it fixed under warranty and now it is back again. We were told to use the stablizing bars on the slide when we travel. Has anyone used these? Our dealer told us that we didn't need to use them. What a hassle it would be, everytime we stop for lunch or to sleep we pull out the slides, to have to remove and replace the stablizers would be a major pain. I will not travel a long distance again without changing to air bags. It feels like the whole motorhome is going to break in half. My husband installed air ride seats in the front and doesn't know what the problems is with the rest of us. I took over driving for about 5 minutes and he was back up front wanting to drive, no way he could relax in the back! All four kids, two dogs and myself were fighting to sit up front.
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Old 01-14-2009, 07:04 PM   #27
galena
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I have to add my 2 cents worth to this post. We just came back from a 1200 mile trip to Florida over the holidays and we are very pleased with our SuperNova 6400! Yes the ride is not an air ride, but I can only remember once or twice where there was more of a "bounce" than is desired. Our daughter travels on the couch/table and either watches movies or draws. I try to travel somewhere between 60 to 67 mph. I am comparing to our 5th wheel and our Seneca, and the ride is much better. My biggest complaint with the Seneca ride was on the highway when trucks passed, one would get blown to the side and it was always very intense in heavy traffic. I don't know what to add about your ride concerns and exactly what is the difference, but I "usually" travel with tank 3/4 full of water and we have the storage compartments full on "stuff". I have not weighted and probably will not as long as things are OK for us. Good luck on your decision.
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Old 01-17-2009, 07:43 AM   #28
cafseth
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Default Re: SUPERNOVA RIDE !!!

We have a 2008 SN6400, well it was sold as a 2008 but it is on a 2007 chassis?? Anyways we looked into the ride issue as well. This is what we found: The Rear Axel is good for 17500lbs and the Rear suspension is good for 18500lbs with a 4500lb Auxillary Rubber Spring. Empty our 6400 weighs 15500lbs on the rear axel. EMPTY the unit is riding on the rubber auxilary spring, so the suspension is close to its max, now put some water and clothes etc in the unit behind the axel, not only is the suspension maxed out the axel is also maxed out. International brought this to my attention and advised me to get in touch with Gulfstream ASAP. International will not touch the unit as they are concerned about the Axel and how much weight is hanging behind the axel. We will see what happens. Something is wrong here.
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Old 01-17-2009, 08:10 AM   #29
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We have our 2008 SN 6400 in the International shop right now. They are concerned about the weight behind the axel as well. Just weighed it yeaterday and empty the weight on the rear axel was 15500lbs...thats EMPTY.
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Old 01-18-2009, 06:28 AM   #30
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I agree with all your comments pchicky, my concern is the weight behind the rear axel and the axel only being good for 17, 500lb. if you put 1500 lbs (150 GAL) of water 5ft behind the axel you are putting allot more than just 1500lbs on the axel it would be more like 3500lbs on it. Our SN6400 Empty is 15500lbs on the rear axel so we are exceeding the axel limit with just the water.

I am not to sure, I am just looking for some advice on this to see if my concerns are valid. My international Dealer doesnt like the set up and they will even look at installing the air suspension because of the axel rating????
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Old 01-18-2009, 11:32 AM   #31
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Default supernovaride !!!!

AND YOU GUYS THOUGHT I WAS NUTS !!
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Old 01-19-2009, 06:05 PM   #32
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Chuckyboy......nah, we didn't think you're nuts and we always believed you....just trying to make some sense out of why some have this problem and why some don't. Unless they did something different (either Gulfstream or International) between the '08 and '09 models, you would think they would all exhibit the bounce problem.
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Old 02-09-2009, 06:52 PM   #33
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My 2008 Endura 6362 rides like a truck, but definitely does not ride rough enough to throw anyone off the master bed. My two dogs (90 lbs and 15 lbs) ride on the couch without being thrown off. I live on Long Island and have traveled through New York City on the Cross Bronx Expressway and on the New England Thruway. No real problems. My 37 ft coach had a ccc of 3500 lbs with gear, food, full propane & full fresh water. Gulfstream will fix something if your bother them enough. I wish Chuckie best of luck. Do not let Gulfstream tell you no, maybe a trip to the factory might be helpful. I had an old Class A Diesel Pusher on Freightliner chassis which only had a ccc of 800 lbs and the air suspension ride was teribble when loaded. I only had this unit for approximately one year because when I check it on a scale, it only had 75 lbs to spare! I traded the unit in on a second Class A Diesel Pusher Freightliner chassis unit with a ccc of 4500 lbs and loved it. Same as I love my current 6362 Endura. Coach manufacturers should only supply motor homes with sufficient ccc. What does your Gulfstream posted weight rating sheet show as capacities? My unit's sheet was fairly close ~420 lbs higher on ccc, which I atributed to the weight of my loaded gear and food.
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Old 03-09-2009, 11:34 AM   #34
t0951
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We have an additional problem that I think is directly related to the weight issue on the back axle. Our two rear power gear jacks have given way and are bent at an angle, it seems to be a combination of weight and bad weld joints. Gulfstream is trying to tell us that we dragged the jacks on something and that caused the bent jacks. We also had a previous crack in the fiberglass at the top of the wall slide behind the driver's seat which was fixed under warranty just before our last trip. The company that fixed the crack told us that Gulfstream was not letting him fix the crack the way he wanted and we would probably be back again. Now that the crack has reappeared in the same place, Gulfstream is saying that because we dragged the jacks it caused the crack to reappear and they will not fix it. I am fighting with them now. We did not drag the jacks, the weight and lack of proper welding joints caused the jacks to give. I would check your jack welding joints.
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Old 04-14-2009, 12:59 PM   #35
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I've been following this thread since my husband and I would like to improve the riding comfort of our Supernova.

Has anyone has installed an air suspension system or updated the rear suspension of their Super C to help smooth out the ride? We are researching if this is worthwhile on our Supernova.
BTW, I couldn't find Jeff Hiatt's post about his mods/upgrades.
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Old 04-14-2009, 04:34 PM   #36
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I, too, did a search for Jeff's information and it appears it has been deleted from our forum. I wish he had left the information on here because he had done more suspension work on his International chassis than anyone I have seen. I talked to him on the phone on a few occasions and he really liked working on his coach and trying some out of the box ideas. I cannot find his phone number in my files to try to contact him again.



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Old 04-14-2009, 09:51 PM   #37
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Jeff apparently chose to remove his posts, for whatever reason. I cannot even locate his username. I recall his detailed posts, but have no record of them.

Sorry I cannot help.
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Old 07-05-2009, 08:42 PM   #38
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Default Super Nova Mods

I too was interested in the mods Jeff did and was able to get a copy of those mods from Jim Murray, who posts to this forum. You could ask him to forward Jeffs list of mods (637K -12 Pages in PDF). There are several good (And Costly) ideas there but some are still open as Jeff sold his unit after buying another make, boy someone got a deal on his coach after he spent $20k + on his mods. The transmissions are programable to be 6 speeds, with a second overdrive, but Allison won't program the 2nd overdrive with out Internationals blessing and GS did't buy that option, so we all know where that leads to. After warranty is up I'm going to try and get the local shop to do it and pay for the privilage as it would drop cruising (65mph) rpms to 1900 from 2300. When cruising on the flats of Nevada and the other Great Plains areas I think it would be handy, any one done a overdrive mod to get the rpms down at cruise?
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Old 07-05-2009, 09:02 PM   #39
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Default Super Nova Mods

Jim Murray , AKA "JimBob" was kind enough to send me the mod info, hopefully he won't be overwelmed with requests for that info.
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Old 12-01-2010, 06:18 AM   #40
chuckyboy
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installed the air ride, still not happy ,ride is worse in the front end of coach, trading it in!!!! the 6400 is apiece of s*^%@#t !clutch fan noise ,fuses melting, slides work,slides don't work ,cabin noise ,passengers not comfortable,bed motor not strong ,body cracks,abs lights, turbo farts and lastly driving on eggshells ,not knowing when injectors or turbo will blow out !! 99.99% 6400's have allthe same issues. they are all JUNK , please anyone thinking of buying one , GET IT OUT OF YOUR HEAD , THEY ALL SUCK :P
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