Trailer spring mounts failed

lizzymit

Member
Good morning,

We have a 2011 Big Horn 3610RE. Recently when the trailer was in for service they found one of the spring support brackets had failed and was broken. The other bracket hole were oval due to wear.

It appears there are two brackets for each spring and 2 springs on each side of the trailer. I am concerned that this wear was caused by the axles being out of alignment.

Should I have the dealer remove and check all support brackets for wear? And who can check my axles for alignment?

Thanks for any suggestions.

Tom
 

lwmcguir

Well-known member
Any large trailer shop will have alignment equipment. Most of the hangers are broken/bent from trying out the HL 88 degree turns on hard pavement. Holes or curbs don't help either. An axle being out of alignment will wear out the tires but not likely to break off a spring hanger. These trailers have very light weight brackets that cant stand twisting. The oval holes are usually after 6-8 thousand miles of towing without having installed wet bolts and it is aggravated if the spring bolts are tightened to tight and the bolts turn in the brackets instead of the nylon bushings. Any one towing more than a few thousand miles better get wet bolts installed properly.
 

kakampers

Past Heartland Ambassador
Wet bolts are bolts with a Zerk fitting that allows grease to be inserted to lubricate the bolt and reduce friction...
 

cookie

Administrator
Staff member
Lizzymit, I would call Heartland, with VIN in hand. There was a transition period for coaches made, I believe somewhere around mid August, 2010. They were switching from Lippert suspension to Dexter. It seems that the spring mount spacing required for each is a little different. A few Dexter suspensions were put on using Lippert specs. If yours was built in that time frame it may have contributed to your problem.
When was your coach built?
One other thing to be aware of is that if you decide to take it to an independent alignment shop you will void any remaining axle warranty.
I agree with the above comment by lwmcguir that if you were out of alignment you would see tire wear.
Please come back and let us know how you resolved this problem.

Peace
Dave
 

convert

Reginald Hromek
lizzymit
I have the identical rig purchased last Aug and delivery in Sept. All my springs failed due to having Dexter axles,equalizers installed on Lippert spring hangers, some leafs on the spring also broke. Heartland took care of the problem for me by sending the new parts to my dealer. They consisted of new springs and equalizers from lippert because the dims are different from Dexters. Also installed wet bolts at the same time. Hope this solves the problem
 
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