Bronze Bushing Wear

[Cate&Rob]

In the "nothing lasts forever" category . . . I just replaced the springs on one side of my Reflection 303RLS (the reason for this is a longer story for another day) and I was rather surprised at the condition of the spring eye bushings. These are regularly greased wet bolts in bronze bushings after about 20,000 miles.

While the bushings at the centre (equalizer end) were worn but not too bad, the ones at the outer fixed ends of the springs were destroyed. Tire wear is even all around, so there are no alignment causes for this. The message is that even if you have "upgraded" to what is considered the best for standard suspension . . . this still needs bushing replacement in something less than 20,000 miles.

Rob

[familytruckster4]

That just doesnt seem right ?

[Cate&Rob]

That just doesnt seem right ?

Agreed. The pounded out break in the bushing was aligned with the gap where the end of the spring comes back around to the spring. This "eye" is not very uniform or round. It appears that the bushing was unsupported in this gap in the spring wrap and that was where it failed. There are no witness marks to indicate that the bushing ever rotated in the spring eye, even though it (and the new bushing that replaced it) are a loose fit in the spring eye. None of these parts appear to be built to accurate tolerances.

I have never seen steel trailer spring bushings . . . but I wonder if properly greased steel bushings, pressed tightly into the spring eye, might be a better idea than the relatively soft bronze.

Rob

[flyfshrockies]

Cate&Rob That wear is certainly alarming for the milage in service. While I have never removed the the leaf springs from the rear of a pick-up I have also never knowingly had a wear problem in that area after upwards of 200,000 miles on one truck. What comes to mind is why are r.v.s so prone to this type failure? Are the dynamics and actions so different between the two applications that there are tremendous loads in that area? Is it the tandem axel stresses that cause the problem? Perhaps some one on here is the right kind of engineer to explain this. After all these years one would think that there is a possible solution available other than constant service and replacement. I would think that materials of a more like hardness would play better together as well as a light amount of stone finishing on the inside radius of the spring ends could help with movement and rotation much as a valve in an engine. I see lots of discussion on this subject but very little explanation of the cause. I am very curious to hear some info on this subject.

Dave

[JCR GD]

There is a better choice... "Never-fail" bushings.

[familytruckster4]

I think your point about the spring eye being out of round is likely the issue, sounds like a sloppily made part.

[OurNewEra]

Thanks for that info JCR GD. In ALL my exhaustive research for my suspension upgrade I NEVER ran across the Never Fail Bushing. Which I find surprising since they are made by LCI and I installed the Road Armor Equalizer. Says you can't use them with wet bolts, you can't/shouldn't grease them. I'll have to wait until I need to do work on mine. There is no way the DW will approve another suspension change.

Cate&Rob amp; it looks to me like the bushing wore from the outside inward. So no amount of greasing will help that. It would seem that the bushing did not turn freely in the spring eye causing it to where in that one spot.

[Cate&Rob]

There is a better choice... "Never-fail" bushings.

I bought a set of "Never Fail" bushings directly from LCI at a Rally (guaranteed to fit the rest of the LCI parts on my Reflection). Discovered that they barely fit the spring eyes and didn't fit the equalizer at all. I ran them (dry as instructed) in the spring eyes for about 5000 miles and then replaced them with the "better" bronze bushing and wet bolt kit from MORryde. They were a little beat up when I took them out, but only 5K miles so difficult to say what they would look like after 20K miles. They are definitely softer and more flexible than the bronze.

Rob

[Cate&Rob]

flyfshrockies

The problem is the poor fit of everything to everything else in RV trailer suspension. 1.75" wide springs in 2" wide hangers with spring eyes that are out of round to begin with. Then, backing the trailer significantly twists everything in every direction. The only way around this is to step up to a completely new and better built suspension system such as the MORryde independent . . . which is an expensive alternative. Otherwise, regular maintenance including replacement of bushings should be the plan if you travel lots of miles.

Rob

[Cate&Rob]

Cate&Rob amp; it looks to me like the bushing wore from the outside inward. So no amount of greasing will help that. It would seem that the bushing did not turn freely in the spring eye causing it to where in that one spot.

The bushing got "pounded" into the gap where the spring end comes around and meets the spring . . . so it was not well supported in that area. The bushing did not rotate in the spring eye . . . but, it is not supposed to. Ideally, the bushing would be a press fit into a cylindrical eye and would rotate on the greased bolt.

Rob

[TucsonJim]

Rob, your report is so discouraging. The first modification I did to my trailer upon purchase was to replace the stock suspension components with MorRyde parts, including their bronze bushings. When Brian and I were at MorRyde a few months ago, I specifically sought out one of their technical staff and asked them how long I should go before replacing the bushings. His answer was "as long as you keep them lubricated, they should last the life of your trailer". I'm near the 20,000 mile mark on my trailer now, so I guess it's time to disassemble, inspect, and replace the bushings. I'll wait until it cools down some (107°F today) before I get started on this project. So I'll probably do this in the late fall, and I'll report my findings to see if they correlate with yours.

Do you suppose there is any source for better quality springs available? If I'm going to disassemble everything, I may as well replace the springs at the same time.

Jim

[Cate&Rob]

Do you suppose there is any source for better quality springs available? If I'm going to disassemble everything, I may as well replace the springs at the same time.

Jim

Hi Jim,

The key to this bushing failure seems to be the quality of the eye formed in the end of the spring. I have yet to pull the aftermarket springs on the other side of my trailer, but as I recall, the eyes were better formed. It will be interesting to see if these bushings fared better.

If looking for new springs, I would pay particular attention to how the spring eyes are formed. If there are springs out there with inserts in the spring eyes, this would be even better. When we were searching for springs way-back-when there did not seem to be any way to gauge this from the sales literature. I did learn that every production spring sold under any marketing name . . . was made in China. There are still custom spring manufacturers on this continent. This might be worth researching further.

In any given spring weight category, there's seem to be springs with one to 5 or more leaves. It seems to me that more leaves means less stress per leaf, which would be a good thing.

Rob

[Gyrogearloose]

I did learn that every production spring sold under any marketing name . . . was made in China.

Rob

Hey.... you know I can't stay out of a suspension conversation. Hope everyone is doing well!

@Cate&Rob I would look at mine but it's in Idaho heading som where with the new owners. I think I will suggest they have the bushings looked at when they get back.

I called Rockwell American sometime before I sold my GD and they told me that their springs were made in Texas. Their web site says made in USA. If I would have known that before I had changed my springs I would have bought from them and tried theirs. TucsonJim , I think they have a distributor in Phonix that I have talked to before when I was helping someone out with a GD 29RS?. https://www.rockwellamerican.com/manufacturing/springs

Unfortunatly I think most of the dynamic force is focussed where the spring eye gap meets the spring. My thinking is that the vertical weight force and in combination with the horizontal force of spring compression lengthening the spring puts a pounding at some angle somewhere near that spring eye gap. Just my guesstimate.

I wonder if filling the eye gap with JB Weld would help. I also had a strange thought of a stainless steel or powdered steel bushing would work. Depending on the stainless it would work harden and maybe hold up.

Shoutout to @JD JCR . Well that sucks, only my tag for TucsonJim worked.....

Pat

[Cate&Rob]

Gyrogearloose
Hi Pat,

Welcome to the conversation!
(For those new to this discussion, Pat is one of the "originals" on this topic.)

BTW . . . we are having problems with multiple tags in the same post . . . particularly if you are working from a Mac/iPad device.

Rob

[Jlawles2]

Cate&Rob Gyrogearloose flyfshrockies Too bad they cannot follow the auto industry where the spring bushings are encapsulated in a steel sleeve with rubber between the sleeve and the bushing. This helps act as both a load spreader for the eye end and additional spring / torsion damper.

If someone with access to a lathe were to fit a set of steel bushings into the eye then a bronze wear surface in side that (only needs to be 1/16" or so thick) it would probably help the bronze survive a lot longer. Other than that a steel sleeve with a poly bushing (graphite filled nylon, PTFE, or UHMW) would be icing on the cake.