etrailer | SumoSprings Maxim Rear Helper Springs Installation - 2018 Forest River FR3 Motorhome

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Full transcript: https://www.etrailer.com/tv-install-s...
Hi there, Forest River owners. Today, on your 2018 Forest River FR3, we're gonna be taking a look at and showing you how to install SumoSprings for the rear axle. And this is what our SumoSpring looks like when it's installed. Our SumoSprings are designed to provide additional support for the weight of your motor home and to also help smooth out the ride quality and reduce sway. It does this by placing our dampener here in between the frame on the bracket here and our axle on the bracket here, sitting on top of the leaf stack. These springs can compress up to 80%, providing you with support throughout the suspension travel.

These springs have about a 3,000-pound load carrying capacity at about 50% compression. And that doesn't increase the amount that your vehicle can carry, just how much that it can help to support. And the main purpose of these really, again, is to just help the suspension that you already got operate with a little bit smoother operation and not so much, just kind of take everything and put it in control. 'Cause that's kind of our goal here is when you get these motor homes, oftentimes, there's just so much weight and so much gear installed on top of these chassis that the suspension that's there, while it's enough to support the vehicle and, you know, allow it to drive around, it is quite unruly and it might feel dangerous in some situations, depending on your motor home. So to tame these big old beasts here, the SumoSprings work with the suspension by providing that support throughout its travel.

And just for an example of some benefits you'll get is with the anti-sway on it. When our vehicle, maybe a heavy crosswind hits or a semi passes by and it goes to rock to the left or to the right, our axle's always gonna be on the road, and our vehicle kinda pivots on the suspension on top of it. So for example, this is our motor home here, this is our axle, we get a heavy crosswind on this side over here and it pushes us this way, this is gonna be kinda lifting up away from the axle a little bit, and this side's gonna be pushing down a little bit towards the axle. So we're gonna be compressing our spring on one side and stretching the SumoSpring on the other side. And these Springs want to stay in their normal resting position, so that spring on the one side that's getting compressed is gonna push back.

And the one on the other side is gonna pull to return to its normal position. With the rubberized urethane that's here, it also dampens any impacts. So if you maybe we're getting, you hit a big old pothole and hit your suspension, normally, it would just travel down all of your, you know, your metal suspension components here, transfer into the frame, and into the cab of the vehicle. Here, we can now absorb a lot of that impact into the spring here, reducing what you feel inside. Of course, you're still gonna feel something, but where it might have been a boom before, it might just be a bump now that's a lot less jarring and easier for you to maintain control of your vehicle once you hit it.

SumoSprings are one of a full line of suspension enhancements you can get here at etrailer. I recommend a set of Sumos for both the rear and the front axle. Here on our test course and in the parking lot, this is the single upgrade that I noticed the biggest improvements with. But in addition to that, I'd also recommend a set of sway bars from Roadmaster. You can get an additional sway bar for the rear and a replacement sway bar for the front. That's gonna be a larger, heavier duty sway bar than your factory one. This can also help reduce sway and just give you more control over your vehicle, so you're not fighting so hard, keeping it going down the road. To further reduce how much fatigue and energy you're gonna spend driving your motor home, I'd also recommend a steering stabilizer. A lot of newer motor homes are coming with them, but they don't all have 'em. And many of your older ones, just that wasn't even a thought at the time. The steering stabilizer is a gas-filled dampening device, kinda similar to like a shock absorber. And it also has a large spring on it as well. And it's installed on your vehicle at the center of your suspension or your steering travel, so if you we're to hit a pothole and it jars the wheel to the left or to the right, that steering stabilizer, the shock absorber would dampen that impact, reducing how much it throws that wheel. And then, the spring mechanism that's on there will help pull the steering wheel back to center. So it's not just you as the driver alone doing all of the