Hanger weld good or bad?

[Beachcamper]

I recently had my rear leaf spring hanger bust open on my way back home. I found a mobile welder and also a hanger and bolt. The welder removed the broken hanger and welded the new one in place. I made it home safely two weeks ago and yesterday was under the rig to clean up the hanger, prime and paint it. I was shocked at the quality of the weld, sent the images to GD to confirm if good or bad weld. GD states “No that does not appear to be a very good weld; only looks like it was hit with heat on the one side and still see some cracks.” So now I am looking to once again have to leave my winter site and go find a good welder here in Florida. I did prime the hanger as rust does not sleep. Curiously, I sent these pictures to Lippert and they said the weld was fine and should be good enough to get me from Florida to Goshen for service. Who is right and what would you do?

A - leave it and head up to Goshen with it.

B - have a welder scrape off that weld and re weld existing hanger or replace hanger and start new?

[Country Campers]

This is not a very good welding job , in my opinion. You should be able to make it to Lippert , unless you can find a better weld shop. I also think that a new hanger should be used and properly welded. Lippert should do this as well as install the "v-clip" extra support.
Sorry for your inconvenience.

Brian

[Country Campers]

As an add on. The 2" square tube that the hanger attaches to may be compromised as well, to much welding and grinding in one spot. It may be a good idea to have this replaced as well.

Brian

[Cate&Rob]

Beachcamper

These welds are definitely not the best, but look worse because the weld “slag” has not been chipped or wire brushed off. Clean them down to the metal weld bead and we can have a closer look. Even though these welds are not “pretty”, if they have good penetration, they are probably secure.

Rob

[Beachcamper]

I was afraid you were going to mention the 2 x 2 compromised. After I get back tomorrow afternoon will get some mineral spirits to wipe down the coat of primer I put on. Have not painted it yet. Thanks guys, I really appreciate your chiming in. What's worse is that neither GD or Lippert can recommend a place here in Florida to help me out before making the long drive to Goshen. Don't want to end up with another mediocre welder or an accident on the highway due to this issue.


Vivian

[Beachcamper]

Beachcamper

These welds are definitely not the best, but look worse because the weld “slag” has not been chipped or wire brushed off. Clean them down to the metal weld bead and we can have a closer look. Even though these welds are not “pretty”, if they have good penetration, they are probably secure.

Rob

well, what do you guys think? Looks like a lot of veneer cracking. Don’t know the correct term but it is a crust over the weld. Will this hold? Like I mentioned, I have an extra hanger and when I find a welder can get this one totally removed and start again or keep this one and just scrape all that off and reweld.

[Cate&Rob]

Hi Vivian,

None of those welds are particularly good. The ones in the left pictures are “OK”. The ones in the right pictures are not. In the lower right picture, it looks like the weld is beside where it should be. The crust over the weld is a normal part of the welding process but is usually chipped and wire brushed away by the welder to inspect his welds.

You can look at the end of the square tube to get an idea of the original wall thickness. If it is thin (1/8”?) then Brian is probably right that removing the broken hanger has likely compromised the strength of this part. If it started out as 1/4”, it may still be OK.

There are lots of heavy truck/trailer repair facilities in Florida. You are looking for one of these places to make this right. This kind of repair is typically beyond the capability of most RV dealers.

I would be concerned about towing very far on the welds in the right pictures.

Rob

[Guest]

Agree the welds are poor. Looks like the welder used an arc welder or a MIG with flux core wire. Its hard to make a call on the trip to Goshen but this work should be re-done at some point. You can use a small hammer to gently chip off the flux then hit it with a wire brush to get a better look.

Jim

[Beachcamper]

He took off the two legs of the broken hanger and left the top part. This is why it looks like it’s lower. He is a welder from a pretty large truck fleet service provider in central Florida. I assumed if they worked on big tractor trailers they knew about welding. His machine did not work well and he ended up having to come back with another truck that had a mobile welder on it. It then was night time and he was exhausted from the driving and setting up we were far from his place.

Jim, I have been asking around about a welder here on the island. There are a couple of them and one welds airboat frames so I assume that an airboat would be something that is exposed to some serious pounding. Maybe will check him out this weekend. Should I just have them scrape off old and redo weld?

vivian

[Beachcamper]

Hi Vivian,

None of those welds are particularly good. The ones in the left pictures are “OK”. The ones in the right pictures are not. In the lower right picture, it looks like the weld is beside where it should be. The crust over the weld is a normal part of the welding process but is usually chipped and wire brushed away by the welder to inspect his welds.

You can look at the end of the square tube to get an idea of the original wall thickness. If it is thin (1/8”?) then Brian is probably right that removing the broken hanger has likely compromised the strength of this part. If it started out as 1/4”, it may still be OK.

There are lots of heavy truck/trailer repair facilities in Florida. You are looking for one of these places to make this right. This kind of repair is typically beyond the capability of most RV dealers.

I would be concerned about towing very far on the welds in the right pictures.

Rob

Rob, I finally found the picture of what the welder left on the 2 x 2. He took off the two ears and left this top portion that attaches to the 2 x 2 then welded the new hanger to it. So, if I were to remove the new hanger would also need to remove this old hanger top. I guess that would be the correct way to ask the welder to tackle it?

[Cate&Rob]

Hi Vivian,

This latest picture helps to explain why the earlier pictures look different than what we are familiar with. With my broken hanger, the LCI tech removed the piece of the broken hanger that remained on the frame. The good news is that leaving the base of the original hanger on the frame square tube probably means that there has not been any damage to the square tube wall.

The welds are not pretty, but I can’t see any cracks in the weld beads. Cracks are a sign of stresses in the weld that can be caused by incorrect welding procedure. It is very difficult to tell whether the weld penetration is adequate from a visual inspection.

Given that the situation is now understood to be that the new hanger is welded to the base of the old hanger which remains well attached to the frame . . . changes my perspective. There will be good metal thickness on both sides of the weld. You might want to consider having the poor weld beads ground down and a proper weld bead used to secure the new hanger to the original hanger base.

Rob

[Beachcamper]

Hi Vivian,
.

Given that the situation is now understood to be that the new hanger is welded to the base of the old hanger which remains well attached to the frame . . . changes my perspective. There will be good metal thickness on both sides of the weld. You might want to consider having the poor weld beads ground down and a proper weld bead used to secure the new hanger to the original hanger base.

Rob

That is great news that the 2 x 2 is not compromised! You think I can have Lippert do this correctly when I get up there instead of doing it here in Florida then? If so, will finish priming and painting to avoid rust (I live on an island) due to salt air. Really stressed out about this after having this happen on the road. I know you also barely escaped a busted hanger on a highway. Very dangerous and not at all pleasant.

I will be taking mostly interstate to Goshen and have one state park in Florida and the rest are stops along highway. Traveling no more than 300 miles per day.