Landing Gear Pins

wdk450

Well-known member
Gang:
I thought I would relate a little negative experience I had on a trip last week with my Bighorn. In previous outings the pins in my landing gear had gotten bent. At the beginning of a previous trip as I was leaving , after hitching up, I had to stop, remove the pin assemblies, try to hammer the pins straight on the asphalt. and re-install the pin assemblies. All of this so I could get the landing gear legs up.
After this trip I found some HEAVY DUTY pin assemblies at my RV servicer. I bought them, and put installing them in my "to-do" list, but didn't get it done. I did store the new pin assemblies in the trailer.
Well, pulling into our space on this current trip, I noticed that I had a tire hissing and going down. We had picked up a drywall screw. I setup normally, but apparently didn't notice that the left landing gear pin DID NOT GO ALL THE WAY THROUGH TO THE OTHER SIDE OF THE GEAR LEG. I called a tire service roadside repair, they came out and jacked up the right side of the trailer for the repair. We heard a loud BANG late in the jacking proceedure, but I didn't think too much of it. After the tire repair was done, I noticed that the left front of the trailer was sitting low. I found that THE LANDING GEAR PIN HAD SHEARED OFF, AND THE LEG COLLAPSED (SOME).
I hitched the truck up to bear the weight, removed the broken pin assembly, and found that the telescoping legs wouldn't come apart. A lot of repeated extend/retract cycles using wood blocks between the trailer frame and the landing gear foot eventually got the telescoping mechanism in better shape. I found that my heavy duty pin assemblies needed slightly bigger holes in the landing gear legs, so I had to do a lot of drilling. I had to also file flat the side of the leg at the old pin mounting site, as that had become deformed and would not allow the new pin assembly to sit flat, and thus the pin did not go straight through to the far side holes.
We have pretty heavy trailers. Comparing the original equipment pins to the heavy duty replacement pins is an eye opener. The side plates on our pins are about 1/16 inch sheet steel. The side plates on the replacements are 1/4 inch steel bar. The old pins look like regular steel, the new pins look heat-treated. No way could I reshape one of the new pins with a hammer.
Moral of the story: Now I make SURE the landing gear pins go all the way through to the far side holes, and I have upgraded both legs to the heavy duty pin assemblies.
 

cookie

Administrator
Staff member
Bill, I also replaced my landing gear pins. I used a heavy duty type and did not have to redrill any holes. As for the "loud BANG", I recall reading some where, to never jack up the trailer unless it is hitched up. I guess it puts too much strain on the landing gear.

Peace
Dave
 

caissiel

Senior Member
Me to I never do any work on the trailer wheels and axles without hooking the truck on it. It will prevent all the frame twisting.
 

Larryheadhunter

X-Rookies Still Luving it
I have had many problems with my clevis pins, as my rig is set up so that if I am not careful the brackets and clevis pins crunch into the frame when I am hitching up as the front end raises up. I kind of solved that problem by lowering my electric landing gears closer to the ground when unhitching, so that the whole rig is set up lower. As a result, I found out that the rig was much more stable that way as well. If you drop the inner legs too soon, you put a lot of pressure on the whole landing gear, especially the legs and the inside of the rig seems more bouncy.
 
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