Your experience with leaf spring failures

[MtnGoat]

Originally Posted by crockettlarry

........ Now comes along potential issues that should have been over engineered at the factory.

Exactly my inspiration for this thread.

[Hollander Mutthaulers]

I had a leaf spring break which caused the trailer to fall onto the tire and create a lot of white smoke fast but no real damage. I was in the middle of nowhere on I-90 in Minnesota but right where the people who could help lived. Borntrager Auto in Trimont did an exceptional job of replacing both side springs with heavier duty springs. When I returned home I went to a spring shop where they parked my little rig between a semi-tractor and a huge dump truck and checked it out and touched up a few things. All the work was reasonably priced and the peace of mind is priceless.

[bushflying]

Had right rear axel leaf spring fail, the spring broke about 4 inches from the aft attachment point to the trailer. I parked in Toad River BC Canada on the ALCAN Highway. They did not have a spear spring at the local garage so I had to drive down to Fort Nelson BC to find a replacement 117 miles one way. I found a 2500 lb spring which would get me home. The springs on the camper are rated at 2250 lb per side and the spring I got was a 2500 lb spring. The tech at Dexter Axel said I need to replace with same weight, so when I got home I replace the springs on the rear axel. A 2500 lb spring cost $65 and the 2250 lb spring cost $120, the tech at Dexter said if I replaced with a higher rating I could do damage to some other part of the trailer due to a stiffer ride.
2015 Jayco 28BHBE about 16,000 miles to Alaska. 4x to Ketchikan a 1x to Homer. The Highway between Glenallen AK and Haines Juction YT has many frost heaves and you dont see them untill you are about to hit them. Highway to Prince Repuert is good and the ALCAN Highwas can be hard on trailers and cars. Would be wise to carry a extra spring and tools to change it.

[hikerjohn7]

Originally Posted by Mopar_Earl

Never had one fail, but had to replace them due to flatting out. Cheap china steal springs. Had bushings fail.


Earl

Not to change the subject but... instead of trailer, I have a Jayco class A. After driving it up north from Florida for a month on vacation, the highways were so bad that I had to replace the bushings in my front leaf springs which cost over $2000. Fortunately I had an extended warranty.

The highways in the northeast are so deteriorated that the rear wheels on semi's can frequently be seen bouncing all the way off the pavement. The wear and tear must be costing the trucking companies a fortune. And when the road states make repairs to overpasses, it's so poorly done that they might as well have added speedbumps.

[MQuick]

I have a 2019 385THWS. I just had the passenger side shackle hanger on the back axle break 24 miles into our trip to Florida. It chewed up 2 tires before I could stop. Dealer said it’s not covered under warranty. 2 days later back on the road. 116 miles from Fort Pierce Florida the driver side shackle broke. Now that I’m back home i noticed the front springs are starting to flatten.

[crockettlarry]

Originally Posted by hikerjohn7

Not to change the subject but... instead of trailer, I have a Jayco class A. After driving it up north from Florida for a month on vacation, the highways were so bad that I had to replace the bushings in my front leaf springs which cost over $2000. Fortunately I had an extended warranty.

The highways in the northeast are so deteriorated that the rear wheels on semi's can frequently be seen bouncing all the way off the pavement. The wear and tear must be costing the trucking companies a fortune. And when the road states make repairs to overpasses, it's so poorly done that they might as well have added speedbumps.

I spent a few months moving the new units from the manufacturers to the dealers. By far the roads in Michigan were the worst. I saw a large cube truck get air on all 6 tires at the same time. It's a bit nerve-wracking when you are responsible for the first $1,000 of damage to a new unit.

One time I arrived at General RV Center and I was missing a hubcap. I figured that was going to completely drain me of the little amount I was getting paid for that particular delivery. Fortunately, General RV blamed it on the roads and not on me so I didn't get charged.

I'll also add that their parts guy sold me one of those fancy lithium jump starters at a discount price. My toad was my Chevy Sonic and space was at a premium. I didn't have room for a big jump box. So shout out the General RV Center even though it's a few years late.

Larry

[Jaybird123]

I have a 2017 NORTHPOINT 42 ft. I brought it to the dealer in the fall of 2020 for a Suspension recall. They replaced all the leaf springs, assemblies, equalizers, wet bolts and shackles. We took off and headed for Florida, from Minnesota.
Within 700 miles my rear axle slid back along the spring and caused a tire to blow out. The dealer never tightened the u-bolt shackle nuts properly!
Torqued to 40 ft lbs instead of 90 ft lb.

I made the necessary repairs and continued on our trip. Once back home (4000 miles later), I noticed the shackles were wearing prematurely. The dealer never installed all the keeper straps on the leaf springs. So some of the main helper springs moved sideways and was rubbing on the shackles, on every bump. (Shackles we’re cheap ones, only a 1/4” thick.)
The 1/16” thick brass shims on the equalizers were already wearing out!
I also found one wet bolt through the spring assembly was never installed correctly, holding on by only 2 threads!

I installed new spring keeper bands on both ends of the spring assemblies, replaced the two equalizers with heavy duty ones, installed new thicker shackles (3 times as thick as the ones replaced by the recall!), replaced all the brass bushings with thicker ones and installed new wet bolts.
2 Lessons Learned: Check ALL work done by dealers and don’t assume a factory recall uses better quality parts!

[crockettlarry]

As I said in a previous post, this thread makes me really concerned about my suspension although I am unlikely to take a trip farther than 150 miles from home anytime soon.

But the thing that is very concerning and confusing is that so many of you have used heavier-duty parts or different parts or something otherwise not clearly defined. If I have a failure or I want to prevent something, it feels like it would be hard to know if I really did any kind of upgrade. I guess I'll cross that bridge when I get to it.

Edit: I'm not complaining about the input here. It's all good. My frustration lies with the under engineering of the chassis and trailer manufacturers. And of course I don't want to deal with something on the side of a road or in a parking lot when it is so hard to get vacation time anyway.

[spark of insanity]

School buses for as long I have been driving them never heard of a leaf spring failure. So going out on a limb here is that unless it is in bad shape, rusted or faulty I am going to say you should never experience a failure on your RV or what ever you are driving. We check them but to us they still look good to us. So IMO? I wouldn't about it. Just do your inspections before you head out. Good luck.

[crockettlarry]

Originally Posted by spark of insanity

School buses for as long I have been driving them never heard of a leaf spring failure. So going out on a limb here is that unless it is in bad shape, rusted or faulty I am going to say you should never experience a failure on your RV or what ever you are driving. We check them but to us they still look good to us. So IMO? I wouldn't about it. Just do your inspections before you head out. Good luck.

With all due respect, this is apples and oranges. Liability is FAR greater with a school bus. They are designed to have passengers, and to keep them safe in case of catastrophe; trailers are not. Our stupid trailers just aren't built the way we think they are.

[MtnGoat]

Originally Posted by crockettlarry

With all due respect, this is apples and oranges. Liability is FAR greater with a school bus. They are designed to have passengers, and to keep them safe in case of catastrophe; trailers are not. Our stupid trailers just aren't built the way we think they are.

More like apples and rocks.



RV trailers have notoriously under-designed and under-rated suspensions. The fact that we hear of others failure experiences confirms that these areas need attention. Imagine driving your truck or car without shocks! Every bump would be magnified and the springs would be working continuously. Shocks can help IF the springs/axles are properly rated to begin with.

[crockettlarry]

Yeah I might have to crawl under there and see if there is already a way to add shock absorbers. I doubt it. If they didn't spend the money on decent Springs in the first place, why would they have an available option under there?

Larry

[Backwoods Brian]

So far no spring failures on past or present trailer but I just noticed several broken welds on the sway bars for my triple axel 385THWS NorthPoint.