2024 Jay Flight 274bh getting suspension upgrade

[RRS 274bh]

I'm a new guy on the block here on the Jayco forum but have been around travel trailers for 20+ years. You may ask, why I would be doing anything on a new trailer before putting any miles on it? If any of you watch any YouTube videos, you probably know that frame flex is one of the big topics lately. Although most of this seems to be aimed at big 5th wheel trailers, frame flex, spring hanger and leaf spring brakeage and a-frame breakage have been around for several years now and more related to pull behind trailers.

So what is it I'm doing?
I am installing MorRyde Xfactor crossmembers on my 3 sets of spring hangers, replacing the steel equalizer with Lippert EquaFlex shock absorbing equalizer, replacing all of the stock plastic spring eye bushings with greaseable brass bushings, and upgrading the stock shackles to Heavy duty MorRyde greaseable shackles.

Why am I doing this?
I want this camper to last a long time and want many trouble-free miles without worrying about getting stuck on the side of the road, maybe in the middle of nowhere.

For a little background about some of the frame issues, it seems it's starts back in the early 2000's. My old Sunline 2670 was built on industrial 5" c-channel. These were very thick and heavy metal frames. Sunline and other RV manufacturers started using thin I-beams that were first used on modular homes. I'm not going to get into the details or history about this other than to say the beams can take a high vertical load, this isn't the issue. The horizontal forces put on the lower beam flange by tandem axles is a problem.
If you want these thin RV I-beam frames to last without future frame cracking in the axle area, the spring hangers need reinforcement to help prevent excess flexing of the lower flange and web section from cracking as the miles add up. Adding the MorRyde braces is a preventive action. They help stiffen the I-beam lower flange area and web section where the spring hangers attach to reduce the added stress from tandem wheels turning and uneven ground maneuvers. I will update this as I have time to install the new components.

A friend at Sunline club forums has given me the permission to give you a link to a thread that he has started to talk about some of the issues mentioned and how to inspect your trailers for potential problems. This is a work in progress, but there is a lot of information available about some of these topics in many other threads if you are interested. Note: this is probably over the top for some people, but if you're a curious information junkie, this is a good thread for you. Here's the link:

https://www.sunlineclub.com/forums/f71/trailer-frame-inspection-where-to-look-picture-heavy-20776.html#post159603

 

[Shokyle1]

Welcome to the forum. Very smart move doing these upgrades.

 

[RRS 274bh]

I have started working on doing my suspension upgrade mentioned above and wanted to update people about the potential poor-quality control of the newer Jayco trailer suspensions with LCI axles and springs.

The 1st pictures shows how it looked when I removed shackles, notice missing bushing on equalizer.
The 2nd and 3rd pictures show the rear eye of the front leaf spring on curb side. The eye wasn't formed correctly and shouldn't have been used. Look how the nylon bushing was extruding through the opening on the eye, that gap should of been closed and tight. This trailer including the trip from Elkhart factory to the dealer only has ~1000 miles on it total.
When you get to the last 2 pictures, this is the other side where the rear eye of the front street side leaf spring was missing the bushing, below that is the bushing that was extruding between open eye end that should have been tightly formed.

To summarize this, there were two bushing missing and to leaf spring eyes that were defective. Even with the brass bushings that I am replacing the nylon with, the 2 eyes were so sloppy of a fit, the bushings would wear out very quickly.

Since I was doing this upgrade myself, I wasn't sure if I should contact Jayco, as this 2024 TT is under warranty until Mar 2026, or go directly to Lippert. I decided to call Lippert since the axles and spring are from Lippert. I am very happy with Lippert customer service. The asked for the trailer Vin and pictures of the problem and immediately sent me 2 new springs and hardware to replace the defective springs.
I also was curious where the axles are installed since the frame and axles are from Lippert. They said the frames are sent to Jayco with no suspension. Jayco installs the axles to the frame at the Jayco factory. I'm assuming there was some misalignment problems, and the bushings were probably left out for extra clearance to get things together.

I think it is important to check your leaf spring bushing sooner, rather than later. Dexter says to check for bushing wear at about 6k miles, not sure about Lippert. I think you'd probably be lucky to get 3 or 4k miles before those nylon bushings wear through when properly installed. But if you have missing bushings or poorly formed leaf spring eyes that cause excessive bushing wear, you could eventually have a catastrophic failure if you don't check these for a long time.

I'll have more on this suspension upgrade at some point. I am adding a fabricated I-beam support at the middle hanger for the new Equa-Flex equalizer.