Suspension Problem

theracqueteer · 12-23-2018, 11:08 PM

Started out today on a 275 mile trip after doing about 700 miles the previous two days. About 20 miles down the road this morning my tpms monitor gives a high pressure warning on the right front coach tire. So, I pull over to check it out, thinking it might be a brake dragging or a bearing, even though I had just had everything checked out before leaving home. Well, the hubs, drums and rims were all the same temp. The tire that gave me the warning was about 5 deg. warmer than the next warmest tire. So, not seeing anything and the tire now out of alarm I headed down the road again. Not far along and it goes into alarm once more. So, I stopped again checked everything and took a pressure reading with my high accuracy gauge. The gauge showed the tire was a few pounds higher than the rest but not as high as the tpms was showing. So I thought maybe the sensor was bad. We get to the campground where we had planned to stop for the night and I started to check the torque on all the wheels as I normally do. I start on the left front and as I am torquing the wheel, it"s moving. I look closer and the front suspension bolt is broken off and missing and can see the axles not aligned. I don't think it is bent but not sure at this point. I go around and look at the tire that was going into alarm and now most of the tread is gone. I do a walk around each time we stop and I never noticed the tread wear on the tire during today's trip. Of course I don't know when the bolt actually broke. A lot the roads were pretty rough. I never thought to check suspension on the opposite side. It never occurred to me that that could be causing the problem. The only good thing is that because of my ignorance we are sitting in a campground in Meridian MS and not along the side of the road. I'll start making calls tomorrow to see about getting it fixed. I would like to upgrade to the wet bolts as I had planned to do that this spring. This unit is only two years old and less 8000 mi on it. I know this is a little long but thought I should post so if anyone gets a high alarm with their tpms, that this is one more thing to consider as a possible problem. If you are towing one of these heavier units, consider upgrading sooner rather than later. I will try to post a pic tomorrow.

Merry Christmas!

theracqueteer · 12-24-2018, 06:19 PM

Here are a couple of pics.

Cannon · 12-24-2018, 06:22 PM

Would not have worn thru in 8000 miles. Do you think nut came off and it backed out

TCNashville · 12-24-2018, 06:42 PM

That's pretty scary. I check my suspension every now and then and everything looks good but the wet bolt upgrade is high on the list.

2naEagle · 12-24-2018, 06:44 PM

Looking at the picture I can't see one, but is there any kind of crossmember on that?
Definitely time for heavy duty shackles and wet bolts.

theracqueteer · 12-24-2018, 07:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cannon

Would not have worn thru in 8000 miles. Do you think nut came off and it backed out

Not sure if it broke or nut backed out. I had checked the suspension before leaving on our trip and did not see anything that looked loose or worn, but I'm not an expert by any means.

theracqueteer · 12-24-2018, 07:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 2naEagle

Looking at the picture I can't see one, but is there any kind of crossmember on that?
Definitely time for heavy duty shackles and wet bolts.

No, there are no cross members. Just the standard CRE3000 suspension that comes stock on the unit.

2naEagle · 12-24-2018, 07:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by theracqueteer

No, there are no cross members. Just the standard CRE3000 suspension that comes stock on the unit.

I'm no expert by any means either. But looks to me you need some. My puny little 315 has cross members on the front and back shackle mounts from the factory and I add one in the middle.

Octane2Go · 12-25-2018, 07:41 PM

I can’t quite tell. Is it the bolt that holds the end of the springs that broke? How do wet bolts help this?

theracqueteer · 12-26-2018, 05:40 PM

The mechanic that came out feels that the nut backed off the bolt. There are indentations worn into the bracket where the bolt rests. We checked another bracket and it is wearing the same way. I am not sure if a wet bolt would help prevent it from wearing that way or not. Seems like it should be a heavier gauge bracket to hold up to the weight and pounding. The coach has not been overloaded but, has been loaded to within about 300# of max. I am always somewhat paranoid going down the road worrying about breaking down. This doesn't help give me a warm fuzzy feeling. Seems like I spend more time researching how to fix something or how to keep it from breaking than enjoying the trips. It definitely is not as enjoyable as we expected it to be.

2naEagle · 12-26-2018, 05:56 PM

I'm with you on the researching.
I think you should consider some Morryde x- factor crossmembers or something like it to help support it.
http://www.morryde.com/products/108-...ers-by-morryde

I'm also thinking pressure from turning could have contributed to the nut stripping.

theracqueteer · 12-26-2018, 08:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 2naEagle

I'm with you on the researching.
I think you should consider some Morryde x- factor crossmembers or something like it to help support it.
https://www.morryde.com/products/108...ers-by-morryde

I'm also thinking pressure from turning could have contributed to the nut stripping.

I'm with you. If I can get this thing back home in one piece in the spring I plan to do the wet bolt upgrade and add the cross members.

theracqueteer · 12-26-2018, 09:25 PM

I have to go tomorrow to a tire dealer to get the tire/s replaced. Not sure whether I should just replace the one that is completely destroyed or the one on the opposite side also. Considering putting the spare (which is new) mounted on the rim of the bad tire and the new tire on the spare rim. Running on them for a while to see how they wear to make sure everything aligned correctly and then replace them all. Looking for comments on this plan.

WIBLAZER · 12-30-2018, 02:50 PM

Last year we traveled through Indiana in March and our suspension bracket snapped off. We were quickly flagged down by a passing car, as our two axles came together and started burning the tread off of each tire. This happened 1/4 mile from an exit that had two truck stop repair centers. Although they were both almost empty of customers, neither one would weld the bracket back on as they don't work on RV trailers. Luckily we were directed to a tow company that was 3 miles away. We drove 10 mph and made it to them with no tread left. Although this was on a Sunday, they strengthened the bracket while I got two new tires. 3 hours later we were back on the road. The owner that did the work, said that he regularly sees this happen during pothole season and strongly advised me to have the remaining 5 brackets strengthened with additional tube stock. It cost me $250 dollars when I got home, but should be well worth it. The tow company said to flat bed a 5th wheel would have cost me $1,000-1,500 if I wouldn't have been able to limp it to him.

theracqueteer · 12-30-2018, 07:32 PM

That's a good reason to have some kind of roadside assist insurance.

I had to have the alignment "shims" (the yellow octagon pieces) made up as they got lost where ever the bolt came out. I am going to attach a picture of the bracket that shows how the bolt deformed it. I am not sure how to beef it up and still have the spring fit inside and the alignment "shims" work. I would need to add to the flanges for the "shims" and get longer bolts. Beefing up the attachment area of the bracket and frame is the easy part.

theracqueteer · 12-30-2018, 07:51 PM

Not the best picture but, if you look close you can see the deformation in the bracket flange. We pulled the nut off the opposite side and there is deformation on that flange also. So, I am not too confident in how well everything will hold up.

P25ct · 01-01-2019, 09:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by WIBLAZER

Last year we traveled through Indiana in March and our suspension bracket snapped off. We were quickly flagged down by a passing car, as our two axles came together and started burning the tread off of each tire. This happened 1/4 mile from an exit that had two truck stop repair centers. Although they were both almost empty of customers, neither one would weld the bracket back on as they don't work on RV trailers. Luckily we were directed to a tow company that was 3 miles away. We drove 10 mph and made it to them with no tread left. Although this was on a Sunday, they strengthened the bracket while I got two new tires. 3 hours later we were back on the road. The owner that did the work, said that he regularly sees this happen during pothole season and strongly advised me to have the remaining 5 brackets strengthened with additional tube stock. It cost me $250 dollars when I got home, but should be well worth it. The tow company said to flat bed a 5th wheel would have cost me $1,000-1,500 if I wouldn't have been able to limp it to him.

Do you by chance have a picture of what the beefed up mount looks like? What and how would the tube stock look and work to beef it up? I’d like my dealer to perhaps see if they can’t do this in the spring. I’m going to purchase the moryde crossmembers and wet HD Shackle upgrade kit. I’m in the Northeast and man, the potholes and roads through Westchester NY on way home to CT from south are just savage.

bgelyhome · 01-02-2019, 02:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by theracqueteer

Started out today on a 275 mile trip after doing about 700 miles the previous two days. About 20 miles down the road this morning my tpms monitor gives a high pressure warning on the right front coach tire. So, I pull over to check it out, thinking it might be a brake dragging or a bearing, even though I had just had everything checked out before leaving home. Well, the hubs, drums and rims were all the same temp. The tire that gave me the warning was about 5 deg. warmer than the next warmest tire. So, not seeing anything and the tire now out of alarm I headed down the road again. Not far along and it goes into alarm once more. So, I stopped again checked everything and took a pressure reading with my high accuracy gauge. The gauge showed the tire was a few pounds higher than the rest but not as high as the tpms was showing. So I thought maybe the sensor was bad. We get to the campground where we had planned to stop for the night and I started to check the torque on all the wheels as I normally do. I start on the left front and as I am torquing the wheel, it"s moving. I look closer and the front suspension bolt is broken off and missing and can see the axles not aligned. I don't think it is bent but not sure at this point. I go around and look at the tire that was going into alarm and now most of the tread is gone. I do a walk around each time we stop and I never noticed the tread wear on the tire during today's trip. Of course I don't know when the bolt actually broke. A lot the roads were pretty rough. I never thought to check suspension on the opposite side. It never occurred to me that that could be causing the problem. The only good thing is that because of my ignorance we are sitting in a campground in Meridian MS and not along the side of the road. I'll start making calls tomorrow to see about getting it fixed. I would like to upgrade to the wet bolts as I had planned to do that this spring. This unit is only two years old and less 8000 mi on it. I know this is a little long but thought I should post so if anyone gets a high alarm with their tpms, that this is one more thing to consider as a possible problem. If you are towing one of these heavier units, consider upgrading sooner rather than later. I will try to post a pic tomorrow.

Merry Christmas!

I had a similar incident on my 2016 Pinnacle. Had just returned from 2,000 mile trip and decided to grease the wet shackle bolts on the Pinnacle. As I began, I noticed the right rear spring bolt appeared to be at an angle in the shackle. When I touched the bolt, the back half with nut fell off on the ground. Don't know how long it had been like that or what caused it. Did not recall any bad or rough roads. Tires still looked great. I purchased the MORryde LRE12-001 Heavy Duty Shackle Upgrade Kit for $125 and installed all new Shackle hardware. I could see the better quality in the upgrade parts over the standard MORryde parts.

hyperactive · 01-02-2019, 06:02 PM

I was told that the wet bolts are more likely to fail because they are hollow so the gease can get thru. I installed the lippert correct track system ,it has sguare tube inserts the go between the hangers that box the hangers in . They also allow you to align your axles.

theracqueteer · 01-12-2019, 08:27 AM

My unit has the Morryde CRE 3000 suspension using the Lippert Correct Track hanger system. It is the oem bolt that goes through the Lippert hanger that I lost.

I climbed under yesterday and checked the the bolts. I found one that the threads have apparently stripped on the bolt or nut as the nut would turn but not tighten (no the bolt was not turning).

It would seem that the weight needs to be taken off the axles to be able to replace the bolt and get everything lined up, am I correct? I have jacks but no stands or cribbing to safely support the rv while working underneath. So, if it needs to be raised, I'll have to call a service tech.

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