We have had continuing problems with handling characteristics of our 2010 PleasureWay Excel TS since we purchased him in 2024. The saga started with our first trip. The main problems are described there. These Ford Econoline based wide body camper vans are known for these handling problems and much has been writting about this, with a miriade of fixes. From researching these I found the likely culprit to be inadequare rear leaf springs. I'm convinced this is one of, if not the major cause.

We had WeldTec in San Diego put a 4" lift kit on our rig. The complete journey is documented here. That included much stiffer rear leaf springs and new shocks. The result was a quantum leap in handling. Sway in cross winds, and passing trucks, is nearly gone. We're making progress.

However, the wandering was still there. WeldTec put on a steering damper. I believe this is just a Fox Shock damper (shock). They assured us this would solve all our steering problems and be necessary with larger wheels/tires. It was still a pig to drive. It wandered excessively. After pondering this characteristing for all of our 6 week Lost Coast Trip I came back with a few ideas. It seemed the Fox damper was damping steering motion, du. Like this damping overroad wheel caster, Ziggy didn't feel any inclination to go straight. This is what a damper would do, correct to the right, Ziggy goes right, release correction, Ziggy continues going right, correct back left, Ziggy goes left, release, Ziggy continues left, etc for 6 weeks. When we got back from that trip I removed the Fox damper and handling was markedly improved. Let's restate that, I removed the Fox damper and handling was markedly improved. Not great but a lot better than with the Fox.

Hmmmm. After some Googling I found most "steering stabilizers" seemed to just act as a damper. This will damp out pot holes and other off road obstacles. I think that's what WeldTec had in mind with the Fox shock. However, two from RoadMaster provide some damping but mainly steering centering. They tend to push the steering back to straight ahead. RoadMaster's Reflex uses a coil spring for centering and their Exact Center uses gas shocks. The ReFlex looks suspiciously like the one installed on Ziggy when we bought him. Too bad we lost that one during the WeldTec upgrade, should have held on to it.

So the question became, should we try a new steering centering stabalizer from RoadMaster? Not inexpensive. We figured it was a move in the same direction as removing the Fox, an additional improvement. Also, for rough roads with the larger wheels/tires it seemed prudent to have some steering damping. We decided to try a RoadMaster Exact Center unit.

E-Trailer supplied an Exact Center unit with brackets for our E350.

Hard to get good pictures when mounted but. The first above shows the bulk of the Exact Center unit and drivers side mounting. The next two shows the passengers side mount. This is the stock mount however mounted differently than the directions call for. The Exact Center was to use existing threaded holes in the frame rails. Besides being partially obstructed by the WeldTec lift kit those holes on our E350 were not threaded. I decided to drill new holes through both sides of the passenger frame rail and bolt through. The last pictures above shows the bolts coming through the frame rail in the wheel well. I used a plate as seen to beef up that area. All in all a clean installation, but not as simple as the directions lead one to believe. At least not in our case.

We've taken no long trips with this new set-up. Actually no long trips without a stabilizer or with the Exact Center. But around the block, and up and down the local highway, it seems to help. The Exact Center wasn't as big a change as removing the Fox but it does seem to be an additional improvement. So, a final evaluation will depend on a few longer trips but we may have the problem solved or atleast greatly damped down.