Leaf Spring eyelet bushing wear?

[SD McCart]

While replacing the SRE 4000 with the Alltrek 4000 after the rally, I noticed some unusual wear on the heavy duty shackle and leaf spring eyelets on one side of the camper. The wearing was on both sides of one spring eyelet and one side of the other spring eyelet, You can see the brass bushing wearing out. Please see attached photos. Any thoughts on what is causing this other than normal wear and tear? I had the SRE 4000 and heavy duty shackles installed in March 2020 on a 2019 Solitude 310. Is it possible to remove the bushing without removing the springs? Thanks for any advice. Scott

[TucsonJim]

Cate&Rob (Rob) is our suspension guru. But we've seen this many times. The spring eyes are not perfectly round like in the equalizer. How many miles do you estimate in that time? Also, I don't see any grease on those bushings. Did they have wet bolts, and if so, how often did you grease them?

JIm

[Cate&Rob]

Hi Scott,

The bushing wear is “normal” for the reasons described by TucsonJim. See pages 9 & 10 from my suspension seminar at the Rally. https://gdrvowners.com/rallies-aa/11...brakes-seminar

Worn bushings can be difficult to extract. This can be done by working around the end of the bushing with a punch and hammer without removing the spring, but it is usually easier to remove the U bolts so that bushings can be removed and replaced on the workbench.

The wear to the shackle likely comes from a slight misalignment of a hanger or a spring eye that is not square to the spring. Unless you have unusual tire wear, this is also “normal”.

Regularly greased wet bolts will help the new bushings last longer, but the tolerances in trailer suspension make bushing replacement a regular maintenance task.

Rob

[SD McCart]

Thanks for your responses. These bushings have about 26,000 miles on them. They have wet bolts and I grease them at least once a year and had greased them last December and again in March. I had cleaned them prior to taking the photo. My tire wear looks good, so I hope this is just another maintenance item to check. Sorry I was not able to make your seminar this year Rob. The attachment is very helpful. FYI, I sent the same information to MoRryde and they are sending me new bushings. Scott

[SD McCart]

Ok Rob, after further and closer inspection of the tires, there is uneven tire wear on the inside of the tires on the rear axle. This is the same axle with the most wear on the shackle. The front axle tires look ok as far as I could tell. Both tires on the rear axle are wearing very similarly, see attached photos. Could it be a pressure issue? After having our rig weighted at a rally, we keep them at about 95 PSI. Do you have any suggestions to correct this? The tires are Hercules tires and we had them installed in December 2021. Thanks for your help.

left side tires. First one is front axle.




The below ones are from the right side. First one is front axle.

[Cate&Rob]

Wow Scott . . . this a complex set of tire wear issues !

LF looks good.
LR is wearing both outer shoulders (indicating low air pressure for load being carried)
RF is wearing just the outer shoulder indicating an alignment issue (bent spindle?)
LR is wearing just the inner shoulder indicating an alignment issue (bent spindle?)

There is enough going on here that it might be a good idea to get trailer tire alignment checked. Commercial trailer repair facilities can do this. It is beyond the capability of RV dealers. Look for a facility that uses Hunter brand trailer alignment measuring equipment.

Rob

[SD McCart]

Very interesting. Its always something. I live in Southern Indiana and drive through northern Indiana to see the grandkids in Michigan on a regular basis. (with and without the camper) Would you recommend trying to get into a lippert facility, moRryde or just find a commercial facility like you recommend in your post? Not sure if one is better than the other. Thanks

[Cate&Rob]

At 26,000 miles on this suspension, the wear you see on bushings and tires is better than most. You can spend a lot of time and money on trying to “fix” what you have . . . or, just start over. New axles and springs will also get you new brakes and bearings. You could contract this to Lippert or MORRyde, but well within the capability of a good service facility. Comparatively less expensive and less hassle than the “fix the old stuff” alternatives. You could rotate those tires in an X pattern and run them for a few more thousand miles.

Rob

[ncitro]

SD McCart Hi Scott just to weigh in here, I was in a similar place a few years ago. I called a couple places that did trailer alignments on Hunter gear near me and neither gave me the warm and fuzzies. I decided to replace the axle (I had wear that indicated a bent spindle) and chose to go up a size and make the move to disc brakes at the same time. I had Performance do it at the Rally in 2021, but given your routing there would be a variety of options in the Elkhart area. Another option would be to do it yourself, its not complicates, but if you might have a hanger out of square that would require some more doing, and you might be better having it done. Given you are planning to do Alaska next summer I would probably lean to a replacement/upgrade. How do your springs look? Are they original? If so a new assembly with new springs is a good way to go. Yoda Just had a extensive write up on his axle replacement and upgrade process. https://gdrvowners.com/forum/operati...t-step-by-step

[SD McCart]

Thanks Neil. At this point, everything is on the table. They are the original axles and springs. The springs appear to be in good shape. They are not near flat. They are 7K axles. When we had it weighed at a previous rally, it was a total of 14,300 loaded, with 3,300 on the pin, leaving 11,000 on the axles. This is without water at the fresh water tank. Trailer GVW is 15,000.
Besides the obvious, what are the benefits of 8k axles since there is only about 11,000 on the axles?
Would they make the camper ride more rough with the stiffer suspension?
I currently have two spare springs in the camper in case of a emergency. Would I need to get new ones if I upgraded to the 8k axles?
I also have disc brakes, can I use those on the 8K axles or do I need new ones.

Neil, or anyone else who has upgraded your suspention, what differences did you notice after the upgrade?
Rob, thoughts please. Obviously I should have attended your seminar

Thanks again.

[ncitro]

If you're running that far below your axle ratings I would stick with the 7k. My upgrade was from 5200 to 6k, and I was running up against those ratings. Since you are already on disc you're good there, I do think they would move to an 8k,I believe both are an 8 lug wheel, but again I think it would be overkill for you.

[Cate&Rob]

SD McCart Hi Scott,

You have the numbers to show that you are within the capability of 7K axles. To go to stiffer springs would just mean that the trailer gets a rougher ride. If your tire wear was more even, I would say just replace the spring eye bushings and go with what you have. The “randomness” of you tire wear indicates that something else is going on. Getting the alignment checked would give you data to figure this out. You could still choose to align or replace depending on what the alignment check shows.

Rob

[SD McCart]

Thanks guys. I appreciate it. I'll update you in a few weeks.

[SD McCart]

Just an update: rear axle was well out of alignment (Bent). Replaced axle and all bushings along with some other repairs. Rotated tires to the front and across. Hopefully this will take care of everything until the next big pot whole. Going to ask a Sumo Spring question in another post. Thanks for all your help.