More on Mor/Ryde..

Well today I learned more about my Mor/Ryde IS.

My IS system is only 1 year old. Now this is not a complaint. I am posting this for the information of those that have Mor/Ryde and are thinking about installing Mor/Ryde.

In a previous thread I posted about the alignment of my Mor/Ryde suspension. My tires were wearing on the inside. One was wearing more than the other. Today I took my BH into Tampa Springs Co. in Ocala, FL. Tampa Springs is an authorized Mor/Ryde company. The Technician, Kevin, took a look at my IS and gave me the following results.

First, per Kevin, Mor/Ryde is about the best suspension available for trailers. It requires more maintenance than some others but it is still well above all other suspension system. Kevin has worked on trailer suspensions for over 15years and he believes all Mfgrs install a suspension that is just enough to support the trailers when they are manufactured. None of them provide a frame or suspension that will carry the majority of the things we end up loading into the trailer.

For those that have Mor/Ryde or are thinking about installing Mor/Ryde, follow the maintenance instructions to the letter and one other thing. When you go to grease the system, raise the trailer completely off the ground and then grease it. If you do not take the weight off the suspension you will not get the necessary grease on the upper part of the fibre bearing and it will ware the bearing out quickly.

Mor/Ryde states that the bearings are to be greased about every 6,000 miles depending on the mileage and load. They do not indicate that the suspension needs to be raised off the ground to get the proper grease on the top of the bearing.

With the Lippert Level Up and the Bigfoot Leveling system we can raise the trailer off the ground to preform this maintenance. Those that only have the landing gears, hydraulic or electric will need to find a way to raise each tire or the entire trailer at one time.

I will post more information about this after this coming Friday when I have the bearings replaced. Mor/Ryde is shippiing a new set of bearings to Tampa Spring Co and I believe will pay for the labor, but that part is still subjective. We will see.

FWIW
BC

Bob,,Your system is only 1 year old and you need new bearings??? Care to tell us why?? For the tire wear,,, are you needing to get an alignment already,,, was it not done at install???

Bob you quoted ""Kevin has worked on trailer suspensions for over 15years and he believes all Mfgrs install a suspension that is just enough to support the trailers when they are manufactured. None of them provide a frame or suspension that will carry the majority of the things we end up loading into the trailer. ""

This is what "HE" believes, is he an engineer or have a education that can provide proof of his claim? I feel sure Heartland, Lippert and other manufactures have engineers that have studied and worked out load limits that fit the units they design and sell for average use of an RV. Although we may not believe it, I am sure they can prove it or they would be opening them selves up to all kinds of legal claims.

Hey Bob, I thought the warranty was for 5 years???

For those interested, the fiberglass washers Bob referred to can be seen on page 2 of this pdf.

http://www.morryde.com/pdfs/New/6RidingOnRubberISTrailerLifeArticle.pdf

JimToo
I am not an engineer so I can not tell you if the Mfgr's are putting suspension systems that are properly engineered. However if I had a company that worked on suspension systems and I kept seeing the same problem with many if not all the various brands and I had been doing it for many years I do believe I would have a good opinion of what is happening to the trailers. Kevin seems to be very knowledgeable. If he has a degree or not I do not know.

I have worked on computers for many years and I do not have a degree or an MCSE license. I have known a number of MCSE's that had no idea how to build and configrue a computer or network. That does not mean I do not know what I was doing. A mutual friend of ours is probably one of the best computer techs around and he does not have a degree or MCSE license but I would put him up against anyone concerning computers.

I am not trying to start an argument. I was only trying to relay information that I was given and let anyone interested make their own decision as what to do. At least the information is available, how it is taken is up to each person reading it.

BC

TXBobcat said:

Kevin has worked on trailer suspensions for over 15years and he believes all Mfgrs install a suspension that is just enough to support the trailers when they are manufactured. None of them provide a frame or suspension that will carry the majority of the things we end up loading into the trailer.

Click to expand...

I would think that the design engineers have to design and test/prove that the suspension/frame can carry the GVW on the campers weight sticker. It may very well be true that a lot of the people he see's in his shop have overloaded their campers (that's why they're at the suspension shop)

John

Bob,, why are the bearings needing to be replaced and the alignment done??

From what Kevin told me and is going to show me, the bearings are wearing on the top. They have grease zerts to lubricate the bearings. Kevin said people may be greasing the bearings but they do not remove the weight off the fibre bearings so grease can move to the top. He told me to raise each tire off the ground or raise the entire trailer so the tires are off the ground when we grease the bearings.

I never knew that. I was also greasing the bearings twice a year. Looks like I need to do it more often.

Everything is a learning experience. Some are easy and some are difficult. I just want others to have this information so they can avoid this problem.

BC

Will the bearings cause the alignment to be out?

Yes... I forgot to indicate that also. The worn bearings will not keep the suspension tight and in line. I don't know how to explain it, but as I understand if the bearings become worn the suspension will move and allow the alignment to loose the proper setting. I will post some photos of the bearings when they are removed and some of the new ones.

The two problems is that I did not grease them often enough and did not raise the entire suspension up when greasing. I am very happy that Mor/Ryde is taking care of it under warranty. For those that are intrested, I asked what the approximate cost would be to change out the 4 bearings. About $700 at Tampa Springs.

As I understand this is not so loose as to make the tire wobble but enough for it to loose the alignment.

BC

There are millions of trucks on the road with leaf springs, they are simple and are forgoten maintenance for most RVer's. And still perform well with minimum wear to tires.
Every independent Suspension system need alignment arms, bars, joints to make it go straight down the road.

We had Rosta Bearings that are the original design of the rubber bearing at work, they were constant trouble, I ended replacing them with roller bearings that rotated only 1/4 turn for years and outlasted the Rubber Bearings under millions hits per months.
I still believe that steel springs outperform rubber springs anytime.

TXBobcat said:

For those that are interested, I asked what the approximate cost would be to change out the 4 bearings. About $700 at Tampa Springs.

As I understand this is not so loose as to make the tire wobble but enough for it to loose the alignment.

BC

Click to expand...

The more I think about it the more I believe it just doesn't make sense to use fiberglass parts with all that steel underneath.
A bronze bushing seems like a better idea.

Guess I ought to plan on the Level Up offer so I can jack the wheels off the ground,

Another plus for the hydraulic option. But I think I have already talked myself into that - just have to work on the logistics.

So, what's the moral to all of this? Is it that you can spend thousands to replace the OEM suspension and still end up sitting on the side of the road with a failed suspension because of a manufacturer's weak link?

JohnDar said:

So, what's the moral to all of this? Is it that you can spend thousands to replace the OEM suspension and still end up sitting on the side of the road with a failed suspension because of a manufacturer's weak link?

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I think the "moral" is that maintenance is required no matter what you have. I don't remember this as a sitting on the side of the road broken down issue.

Alignment needs to be correct no matter what type of axle you have or whether your springs work with steel, rubber or air.

We had a Morryde IS suspension on our previous trailer. Never did any maintenance, including alignment, on the system. We traded our traier in and told the guy who bought it the tires were 6 years old and he should probably get new ones. He didn't believe us..

We are planning to put the suspension on our new Heartland.

I know of many people who have the suspension and never heard of problems like this.

We do go to Morryde to have the suspension put on and if we feel we ever need an alignment we would go back to them.

Wharton said:

We had a Morryde IS suspension on our previous trailer. Never did any maintenance, including alignment, on the system. We traded our traier in and told the guy who bought it the tires were 6 years old and he should probably get new ones. He didn't believe us..

We are planning to put the suspension on our new Heartland.

I know of many people who have the suspension and never heard of problems like this.

We do go to Morryde to have the suspension put on and if we feel we ever need an alignment we would go back to them.

Click to expand...

Something for you to check into when it is installed. I was not told that I have to lift the wheels off the ground to grease the axle tubes.

This makes me glad I decided against Mor Ryde, and went with 8K springs and Trailair Centerpoint instead...more than a year old and no more issues...

I was not told to lift the wheels to grease either. Mor-Ryde did tell me about greaseing it though

Mor/Ryde did not tell me to raise the tires of the ground when greasing the suspension. The place I had the bushings replaced said they have seen this many times and the way to reduce the amount of ware is to lift the tires off the ground when greasing. Mor/Ryde told me to grease it every 6k miles.

I am not knocking Mor/Ryde. I like my IS. I am just submitting this to let others to know about what I found out.

I am posting two photos.
The first is a new bushing. It is one of the narrower bushings.
The second one is a bushing that was removed and it is the wider one.



There are two narrow bushings and 1 wide one on each IS.

There are a lot of places that are authorized to align and work on Mor/Ryde systems. Here is a link to their Service Centers.
I was also told it would be better to use the High pressure and High temperature grease rather than the regular baring grease.
I got the grease at Harbor Freight.

I have scheduled on my calendar to grease my trailer on the first Saturday of every other month.

I hope this helps someone, but this is what I am and will be doing.

BC

This is good info Bob and glad you passed it along.

If all goes as I am planning I will be in Goshen next month for the Level Up system. May as well plan a stop at MOR/Ryde and have them do an inspection. I will have a discussion about this while waiting.

I still think though that a bronze busing would have been a much better material though.
Everything is so heavy duty under the trailer now that "plastic" just doesn't seem to make sense.

The grease would not go through 3 of the grease fittings until I took the complete trailer weight off of the suspension system, using a hand held grease gun.
I'm using "Pro-Ma" grease which was designed to be used in the gold mines of Australia, in the conveyor belt bearings that are moving 24/7 and underground equipment where there is a lot of moisture.
I'm also using it on the front suspension of the TV.