Motorhome Driving 101

[Cousin Eddie]

   
Sent: 7/19/2001 12:32 AM


The first time time you slide behind the wheel of a class A motorhome you may feel a little intimidated. You are perched on the left front edge of this huge box and the passenger side looks like its a block away. You start off and there is a symphony of strange noises all around you. There is a big steering wheel you cling to as you crowd the right shoulder. If you happen to be a  passenger with a novice driver you tend to throw your right shoulder up and lean to the left as trees, mailboxes and utility poles whiz past the big west coast mirror on your side.

Sound familiar?

The following tips are not ment to insult anyone's intelligence, they are offered for the benefit of those who may have never driven anything larger than a mini-van who may feel little intimidated at the prospect of driving the weekend cabin down the highway.

1. Don't try to watch both sides of the coach in the lane at the same time. If your side is in the proper place in your lane, then the far side won't be hittin' stuff. You can't monitor both sides at the same time. On lined highways you can check your distance from the center line down the entire side through the outside mirror.

2. Never steer with your hand at the top (12 o'clock postion). With the wheel held in this manner corrections will be over exagerated. Whip the wheel like that and you'll learn more about sway.

3. Hold the wheel with both hands at the middle or toward the bottom. This way you just kind of guide the coach along. The key word here is guide not drive. You can't really drive a motorhome. You guide it along and keep it out of trouble letting it bob, weave and sway. The main thing is not to try to correct the natural swaying of the coach. Sometimes people will try to correct for this action with the steering wheel which only compounds the problem. If you are holding the steering wheel straight and the coach sways, your front wheels are still staight and the coach will remain on course.

4. Accelerate thru the turns. That's an old basic rule but it works even better with an old basic chassis like the M series. Let off a tad before you hit the curve the accelerate thru. The push from the acceleration loads the front end so that both front tires are are working to pull the coach thru the curve. Merely drifting through a curve, letting off all the way through is scarey because you can't tell if its going to "stick" or not!

5.When backing into a space always make the cut on the drivers side.

6. Remember that every green light will change to yellow on your approach!