Upgraded wetbolt sheared!

Hi all. Two years ago I installed a morryde wetbolt kit in my 2016 Bighorn, which is equipped with Correct track. After about 15000 miles of travel on these regularly greased wetbolts, we experienced a failure on the rear doorside wetbolt.

Upon arrival at our destination, after a 300 mile day of travel, we were setting up and noticed the entire bolt and both yellow correct track adjustments plates gone. The spring had collapsed and bent the shock and both shock mounts. There was no other damage. We felt lucky to have arrived at our destination!

Amazingly, we didn't notice this while traveling, and the tire showed little to no unusual wear. On a previous shackle failure on a Carriage Cameo, the failure was immediately apparent. I assume that this must have happened when we were close to our destination. We replaced the missing parts and the axle shock mount, along with the shock. We were able to bang the upper shock mount back into usable form.

Now for the question.....these are pretty robust bolts, and were regularly serviced. There was no obvious sign of wear. The brass sleeve was intact and looked good. I know that anything can fail, but has anyone experienced a similar failure when using wetbolts and correct track adjustment plates?


Celt

I don't have the Correct Track but I have had two wet bolt failures.
The week spot on these bolts is the hole that is drilled for the grease.
I found both broken bolts during my regular inspections before they had fallen out so I know where they broke.
I carry spares.
On edit I found and added a couple pics of the broken wet bolts.

Peace
Dave

Getting ready to install these on my rig. I think I'll just change the bushings and shackles and use grade 8 bolts without the ability to grease. I thought the problem was with overtorquing the bolts. Apparently not.

Typically, wet bolt failures are due to over torquing the bolt.
That puts stress on The grease output hole and breaks at the weak point.
Anyway, that's one possibility.

We experienced both rear spring hanger wet-bolt failures (two different days) on our rig last summer (June 2018). Bolts were installed by MorRyde and were less than a year old. MorRyde sent replacements for free, but we still had the expense of buying a complete correct-track kit to get the yellow plates and bolts we needed while on the road.

One was lost, one failed right as Tony backed the rig into an rv park site. Broke in-two like Cookie's post.


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I replaced the original nylon bushings with Neverfail bushings on our Big Horn shortly after buying the unit new. After nearly five years full time travel from Florida to Washington to Arizona and back several times, we never had any problems.. tire wear was normal and we sold the unit in like new condition... Neverfail worked very well for us..

Purchased a kit from Dexter at the Goshen Rally. Great rally price. Installed them at home and torqued as specified. No problems with them. The bronze bushing replace the never fail. I found three never fail bushings split in half and the others worn very thin. Three of the original bolts had the shaft near the heads worn 1/8" through.

Stories like these make me question if these "upgrades" are really worth it.
Maybe the OEM engineers know what they're doing?

Fox said:

Stories like these make me question if these "upgrades" are really worth it.
Maybe the OEM engineers know what they're doing?

Click to expand...

For sure the upgraded shackles are a must in my book, but having some thoughts on the wet bolts. Just not sure whether grease is more critical than strength.....

We were out over Memorial Day weekend when I found the 2 of the stock bolts missing with the plates. I spent tge money and ordered a wet bolt kit with tge much heavier shackles. This upgrade for me is a must and I can only hope this will last me (with regular service) for the remaining life of the unit.