Broken Springs and Poor Coverage from Star

cjbearden

Visitor
Yesterday, we were enroute from Oklahoma City to St. Joe, MO. We had only made it to mile marker 202 on I-35N when another driver flagged us that we had a problem. Smoking tire and smell of rubber, not a good sign. DS rear axle had all three springs broken after hitting a bump in a construction zone. Sat on the side of the road for 9 hours!!! During this time, Good Sam's Emergency found MS Road Service near OK City to come diagnose the problem. One of our new GY tires had a small gouge but the big problem was the broken springs. He removed them and found they were made in China (so now we have three more sets of China Bomb Springs to worry about) and the bolts were incorrectly sized for the springs. The springs were sheared off and showed at least 3/4's rust throughout! Service man said it looked like whoever installed them "just made them fit and they were improperly filed down".

After removing the springs, he then drove back to OK City to find replacements and drive back to us. Getting the new (better made and made in Houston, TX) springs on was a quick job and the spare tire was put on to replace the damaged tire. Now we have to locate a replacement GY spare. Our big question, how long before we are faced with same problem on other three sets of springs?

Prior to beginning work, serviceman got prior approval from Star extended warranty as stated (we have Platium Plus plan) and then after work completed, he called back with final billing. The shouting began. Star wanted to renig on previously approved mileage and parts costs. It seems the bolts, part of the mileage, and shop supplies are "not covered by our policy". In addition to our $100 deductible, we also paid an extra $80 after MS Road Service owner said he would be willing to split the balance of costs not paid by STAR. The serviceman was still arguing with them when we left. Apparently what they approve is not always honored. Making us think twice about changing extended warranty companies.

At least we got on our way and although it was a late stop, we managed to get a few hours sleep before heading out today. We are in some heavy winds tonight and pray the slide toppers survive. Getting our SD driver's licenses is becoming more expensive by the minute!!!! Thank God we will only have to make the trip once every 5 years.

Of course, DH is using this as a stronger argument to upgrade to one of the newer BHs with better suspension and no springs.
 

leftyf

SSG Stumpy-VA Terrorist
If it was me, I'd be putting some questions to Heartland about the springs. I've only seen one broken spring or shackle...and that was in Vietnam. Normally, springs don't break. Heartland ought to be liable for at least part of your costs.
 

htneighbors

Unbelievably Blessed!
jdwigley,

Sorry to hear about your breakdown! :( By the sounds of things, it could have been worse. You nearly made it out of Oklahoma! I worry every day about these roads - and I drive them about 1200 miles a week. Every time I haul the Cyclone it is definitely a shakedown trip! :eek: Good luck with the repair/replacement of your other springs. Where is MS Road Service from? I may need to call them someday. I hope the remainder of you trip to SD is uneventful - emergency-wise!
 

jbeletti

Well-known member
CJ,

Sorry to hear about your broken springs. Must have been some bump!

Did you save the springs? I'm pretty sure Heartland would like to examine them. If there is a material problem, they will want to know about it and work with their supplier on it.

Thanks,

Jim
 

grizzlygiant

Well-known member
I am suspicious---it sounds like there was some previous spring work done because I don'
-t think Heartland (Lippert) would have the "incorrect size" bolts, would have to "file down" the springs to fit and would not have tightened the bolts correctly. Are you sure it is an OEM spring; perhaps it was replaced at some other time???
 

Uncle Rog

Well-known member
Get a hold of Lippert, they did a great job of replacing my suspension, pretty stand up I thought..........
 

cjbearden

Visitor
Thanks for all the replies regarding our Spring problem

Jim, I hate to say it but we did not keep one of the defective springs. We have one of the bolts and that is it. We were so happy to finally be on our way that DH forgot to ask for the parts. The bump wasn't what we consider a really big bump; however, a state trooper who stopped to check on us told us we were the third fifth wheel to have that happen in that area over the past two weeks. God forbid it should happen again, we will be sending the parts to HL.

The service provider is MS Road Service, 9200 Hazybrook Dr, Newala, OK and tech's phone number is 405-823-4251 (Stephen Bun? can't read the writing). I will call them to contact you Jim and hopefully get the parts sent to HL for evaluation.

The only work done under the RV was when Lippert replaced our hubs at the 2007 Goshen Rally. Nothing has ever been done to suspension by anyone.

Speaking of bumps - we made it to our destination of Mitchell, SD at the KOA today just ahead of some possible rain/snow showers predicted for Friday. We traveled up I-29 in Iowa toward Sioux Falls and let me tell you, there were bumps that had us hopping 2 feet off the truck seat! We had to pry our cats off the ceiling!! You know the prayers were going up hot and heavy that the other springs would hold. This bumpy section of highway was 10 times worse than the little bump we went over in OK. Hopefully, we won't have to go through this saga again before we can make an upgrade.

Thanks everyone for your well wishes and resonses. We are hanging tough and praying for the best until we can get to Colorado for the summer.

Happy Travels everyone.
 
Broken Spring

I also had a spring brake on May 3rd, leaving Sacramento for Sedona,AZ. I was able to pull over into a dairy farm and jack up the trailer and replace the sping after finding a 1 3/4" by 25 1/4", four leaf spring at a local horse trailer supply store in Galt, CA. I'm not sure if the springs broke first or if the u-bolt nuts loosend up which caused the spring to break. On the other axle the nuts were loose, so I tightended them and I put jam nuts on all the u-bols also. The nuts put on the u-bolts are not locking nuts, so I recommend gettting under the trailer to tighten the nuts every couple trips depending on your road conditions, or do as I did and tighten them and put on jam nuts. My old spring was made in china, but as I stated I'm not sure if the spring broke on its own or the u-bolts nuts being loose could have caused the spring to break?
 
Broken Springs

I also had the smoking tires, but no damage to my Michelin xps ribs. After installing the spring the tires moved back into the correct spacing, but I noticed the on divers side the tires line up correctly, but on the passenger side the tires are off from each other by 3/4". It almost looks like the axle is bent, but I can't see that the shorter axle has excessive camber on that tire. Anyone ran into a problem like this?
 
Top