All Trucks, Campers, Trailers, RV's and Motor Homes - 1997 Seaview suspension ?

A friend of mine bought a 1997 Seaview on a Ford chassis (F53?), powered by a 460 engine, it has about 114K miles on it. When he took it out, found that everytime he went to set up, the rear passenger jack would not come down all the way to the locked position. He would have to drive the motorhome up on blocks to allow the jack to come down and than level it from that position.

When he returned we unloaded and emptied all the tanks to get home to an empty state. Having it parked on a level surface, I measured the height of the body just behind the rear wheels. There is an inch and one half difference between the drivers side and the passengers side, with the drivers side being higher.

He is wanting to replace the springs as several mechanics have told him that is what needs to be done. However, I am bulking at this idea, I don't ever remember haveing to replace springs on any trucks unless there was a broken leaf or something like that.
I crawled under and looked at the springs and they look to be in good condition, no rust, cracks or anything. They actually were in really good shape, looked to be pretty clean for that year of a vehicle. I could see the stamp on them, they were made in Mexico and had a part number of: F7TDAA RPN 2907.
Here are my questions: Is there a way to determine if the springs are indeed the problem? There are no handling issues. If they do need to be replaced, where would one be able to get new ones? Approximate cost?
There replacement doesn't look like it would be bad, but I haven't been able to even come up with the replacements yet?
Would you have to do both sides, or just the passenger side? Could you maybe just add a leaf to the left side? I noticed both sides had about six spacers between the axle and mounts, but both sides had the same number of spacers.

Sorry so long, but wanted to give as much information as I could.

Was also wondering: If we were to take the MH to a weigh station and put only the drivers side tires on the scale, than the passengers side tires. Would this give a good idencation of the weight difference between the two sides? I don't know anyone in this area that has portable scales that would allow us to weigh each tire seperately.

Thanks for any input. :coffee:

Not sure why the difference, nor how to correct it, but just wanted to insert, going to a weigh station on the interstate, you can't "miss" the scales with one set of wheels. Most are digital and can possibly weigh it from side to side, not sure. You may want to contact the DOT in your area and see if it is possible and if they would be willing to give that kind of information.

In springs that undergo a constant flexing or compression, depending on the type, you have a cycling out of the spring = wearing it out. This actually occurs internally. The cheaper jobs can look new and be worn out. Sometimes those can be re-arced/tempered and other times they are done.

DOT in different states have different weighing devices. In Iowa the weigh stations have permanent ones, while the DOT cars carry portables. I don't know if you could count on them to weigh your motor home, though.

A possibility would be anywhere they have public scales, like a truck stop or grain elevator.

Most wheel and rim outfits have access to leaf springs and could either get yours for you or have something made to match.

Thanks for the inputs. I just got back from "looking" at the MH again. The owner isn't real concerned about it right now, as they are not going to be taking any long trips until after the winter. However, it has become kind of a personal thing for me. LOL I would like to figure out it is the springs or maybe just the way the RV manufacturer put the thing together.

Now that Chandler and Marbobj both have mentioned DOT, I got to thinking that the CHP station here may have portable scales. I seem to remember them mentioning it a few years back, might have to check into that.

There is a moving company here that owns its own scales and than a set out at the county dump, those were the ones I was thinking about going to. Just didn't know if they would give me a good enough reading to determine if the rear passenger tire actually has more weight on it than the others.

I will continue the search, and see if I can figure something out before investing in new springs that may not solve the problem.

Just an after thought....this MH has a rear anti-sway bar on it. Could a tweaked anti-sway bar cause the same thing?