Texas Sooner
RVF Regular
- Joined
- Aug 25, 2021
- Messages
- 6
Today, I had my suspension system upgraded to a MORyde CRE3000, along with their wet-bolt shackle components. I've been wanting to do this for a while now, since our trailer is getting some mileage and the original suspension (or lack thereof) is wearing down. Anyway, I was finally able to book one of the installation teams from Performance Trailer Braking, and they did a great job. I lube my own bearings when needed, and I'm pretty handy with a wrench working on trailers. However, I learned a few things today that I'd like to share. You might already be aware of this, but just in case some of you aren't... here you go.
First thing regarding the leaf springs - the edges of the spring pack should all be perfectly aligned. If they are not, then your leaf spring u-bolts are loose and not torqued properly, which allows the springs to shift. The little silver metal clips on the spring pack are not meant to hold them together once installed. They are only meant to do that prior to installation when there is no load on the springs. What holds them together and keeps them properly aligned once installed are the u-bolts and properly torqued nuts. Three of my spring packs were just fine - properly aligned and torqued. However, the last one had several springs out of kilter, and the u-bolts had to be loosened so that the springs could be pounded back into alignment with a hammer. Once that was done, then it was just a simple matter of properly torquing them to the correct pounds - in my case, it was 90 lbs on a 3500 axle. And yes, one of the u-bolt nuts had worked loose just enough to allow the springs in that pack to shift. Lesson learned, and something to now check the torque on every 6-8K miles.
Second, when putting my lug nuts back on, Chaiden showed me a crack on the side of one of them. It seems like the lug nuts that Grand Design/Lippert used were "clad" lug nuts. The inner core is solid steel, but the outer cladding is a thin metal with a chrome finish. What was cracking was the cladding, and he showed me a bag of cracked and split lug nuts from previous trailers that he worked on. On several of them, the cladding had sheared off, and the lug nut was ruined. In fact, one of the lug nuts still had part of a broken lug in it from when it broke while being removed. Obviously, that drum had to be removed, and the broken lug replaced. Not something that you would want to be dealing with on the side of the road in the middle of the night. He said to replace any clad lug nuts with full-steel ones. So, I'll be ordering a couple of dozen of those before our next trip.
Hopefully, this info might be a help to someone so please share. Safe travels!
First thing regarding the leaf springs - the edges of the spring pack should all be perfectly aligned. If they are not, then your leaf spring u-bolts are loose and not torqued properly, which allows the springs to shift. The little silver metal clips on the spring pack are not meant to hold them together once installed. They are only meant to do that prior to installation when there is no load on the springs. What holds them together and keeps them properly aligned once installed are the u-bolts and properly torqued nuts. Three of my spring packs were just fine - properly aligned and torqued. However, the last one had several springs out of kilter, and the u-bolts had to be loosened so that the springs could be pounded back into alignment with a hammer. Once that was done, then it was just a simple matter of properly torquing them to the correct pounds - in my case, it was 90 lbs on a 3500 axle. And yes, one of the u-bolt nuts had worked loose just enough to allow the springs in that pack to shift. Lesson learned, and something to now check the torque on every 6-8K miles.
Second, when putting my lug nuts back on, Chaiden showed me a crack on the side of one of them. It seems like the lug nuts that Grand Design/Lippert used were "clad" lug nuts. The inner core is solid steel, but the outer cladding is a thin metal with a chrome finish. What was cracking was the cladding, and he showed me a bag of cracked and split lug nuts from previous trailers that he worked on. On several of them, the cladding had sheared off, and the lug nut was ruined. In fact, one of the lug nuts still had part of a broken lug in it from when it broke while being removed. Obviously, that drum had to be removed, and the broken lug replaced. Not something that you would want to be dealing with on the side of the road in the middle of the night. He said to replace any clad lug nuts with full-steel ones. So, I'll be ordering a couple of dozen of those before our next trip.
Hopefully, this info might be a help to someone so please share. Safe travels!
