Axle problem?????

[JeremyN]

TeJay, I understand what you are saying. My GVWR on my trailer is 6900lbs. With (2) 3500lb axles, I would get within 100lbs of the axle weight. Per my research, many people out there believe that 3500lb axles should not be used on a 30ft and over trailer. I just really hope these new axles don't do the exact same thing.......

 

[danemayer]

How much of your GVWR is carried by the hitch? 15% maybe?


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[TeJay]

Dan, Jeremy
Most realize that the 5-ers do carry a lot of the weight but the bumper pulls don't. Our tongue weight might be 600-900#'s but I don't know how that translates to the weight being carried by the axles of the TT or the TV. It's also been mentioned that the static weight is a lot different then the weight being exerted on those axles as they hit the roads. There has to be ways to determine the actual overload that these axles can handle. I've mentioned this before in regards to what the auto/truck industry does. They have years, and years of data to fall back on so they can rate a vehicles weight capacity knowing that from time to time they will be overloaded. I don't know what the TT industry does to determine which axles to put on a particular unit. But it does give the consumer food for thought when a 6,900# trailer comes with 2-3,500# axles with a 7,000# max rating. Either rate the TT higher based on the fact that the unit has a good cushion of safety margin or mention to the buyer that even though the ratings are close great care must be used when loading or we can upgrade the axle. I've priced the Dexter Tor-Flex axles. The price between say a 3-K and 4-K axle is not but a few hundred dollars. Most buyers if given the option would probably spend the dollars for the extra safety margin. I know I would have liked to have gotten 15" wheels and tires and a 4,500# axle but it was not offered and when I asked I was told that they are at another plant and they didn't want to upset the assembly line. That may not be true with all manufacturers.

TeJay

 

[JeremyN]

Dan,

Per Heartland's website, my hitch weight should be 482lbs.

 

[danemayer]

Dan,

Per Heartland's website, my hitch weight should be 482lbs.

That would correspond to empty weight and would normally be higher when related to GVWR,

If I'm not mistaken, I think you would expect the axles to carry GVWR less loaded hitch weight.


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[wehavefun]

Could someone post some secrets to getting warranty and axles and springs?

I have two flat axles, been over CAT scales more than once and never have exceeded the 14K rating, truck tows the fifth very level going down the road. I have 3 tires showing severe wear issues and the forth some slight issues. I have been dealing with Mike Rogers at Heartland and he basically told me tough s--- !

Certainly not happy with Heartland customer service right now.

Help please !!!

Brian

 

[JeremyN]

Could someone post some secrets to getting warranty and axles and springs?

I have two flat axles, been over CAT scales more than once and never have exceeded the 14K rating, truck tows the fifth very level going down the road. I have 3 tires showing severe wear issues and the forth some slight issues. I have been dealing with Mike Rogers at Heartland and he basically told me tough s--- !

Certainly not happy with Heartland customer service right now.

Help please !!!

Brian

Brian, I delt with JD at Heartland Customer Service. He told me that my unit was out of warranty and there is a chance that I would need to call Lippert's about my issue. I talked to a woman named Wendy in Customer Service at Lippert's. She got me in contact with Dave, an axle technician. He told me I had to get specific pictures for him of the tire wear, axle bend, and axle ID tags. He gave me very precise suggestions on how to take the pictures to get the most accurate info back to them.

Honestly, the people at Lippert were great to work with. Very easy to talk to and more importantly, listened to my concerns and delt with them on a situation by situation basis.

I have attached some examples of the pictures they had me take.

Thanks.

 

[cookie]

Could someone post some secrets to getting warranty and axles and springs?

I have two flat axles, been over CAT scales more than once and never have exceeded the 14K rating, truck tows the fifth very level going down the road. I have 3 tires showing severe wear issues and the forth some slight issues. I have been dealing with Mike Rogers at Heartland and he basically told me tough s--- !

Certainly not happy with Heartland customer service right now.

Help please !!!

Brian

I see that you have a 2011 model that is most likely out of warranty. And to be fair, the axles are warranted by Lippert, not Heartland.
Somewhere along the line the engineers at Lippert determined that they no longer needed a severe arch on the axles. So your axles, if they are in good shape will have only about 3/16 arch.
If your axles look like that and your springs are in good shape, I would suggest taking you rig to have an alignment.
I just replaced my springs and had an alignment. I moved up to 8 k springs.

Peace
Dave

 

[TeJay]

I believe what Dave is alluding to is the fact that the axles may be OK but will need to be aligned if the camber is out. Camber is the tilt of the wheel in or out as determined from the side using the top as the indicator. Tilted away from you is negative & tilted toward you is positive. If the axle is OK as far as it's ability to carry the load it was designed to say 3,000#, 4,000#,4,500# etc then it is necessary to make sure the camber is correct. The angle is set by bending the axle cold not heated. That's OK if done correctly. If it gets overloaded then it will probably bend again. The camber angle on a fixed axle will not change much if at all as it is loaded down with our stuff. The axle it self may be designed to flex some kind of like a spring but I'm not sure. If it is it can't be much. Steel leaf springs are designed to flex but they will resume their original shape when unloaded. If you exceed their designed limits the arch becomes fixed, you have spring sag and the springs are ruined. So again if the axle is OK then the camber angle should be set to be zero degrees tilt or straight up and down. I believe you can also see that if you add an extra leaf to your springs it won't help the load on the axle. The axle housing has to be rated to carry the extra load. I hope this helps those that are interested to understand the suspension system a little better. If anybody has other questions ask and I'll try to explain.

TeJay

 

[wehavefun]

Thanks for everyone for the assistance, I have been persistant and realized that keeping a level head prevails. I did not do this in the beginning.

This unit was a very late 2011, I actually traded in a year old 2011 on this camper. Lippert and Heartland have been wonderful, I need to extend a HUGE public apology to Mike Rogers and Heartland, I was a bit upset at the time of my first post. As a matter of fact I have offered to take Mike to lunch when I am in Elkhart later this week!

Brian

 

[CanadianAV]

I have a 2011 28BRS. It also has bad tire wear on the insides but also overall wear for only 2 years old and maybe 2500 miles on them. I think the problem is also because of 1-- the cheap offshore bias ply tires and 2-- the spread on the wide trax axles. I believe they make the trailer alot more stabe while towing but cornering with the wider spread has to be harder on tires Ill have to get under mine and check the axles with a level. Its just over 2 years old so Im probley out of luck for warranty.

 

[lwmcguir]

I have a 2011 28BRS. It also has bad tire wear on the insides but also overall wear for only 2 years old and maybe 2500 miles on them. I think the problem is also because of 1-- the cheap offshore bias ply tires and 2-- the spread on the wide trax axles. I believe they make the trailer alot more stabe while towing but cornering with the wider spread has to be harder on tires Ill have to get under mine and check the axles with a level. Its just over 2 years old so Im probley out of luck for warranty.

Your axles shouldn't be straight. They all have a bow in them. You want to check the tires/wheels with the level to determine is they are way off. Best thing to do is just take it to a good trailer alignment shop.

 

[Manzan]

I had BAD tire wear problems with 3800 miles on trailer, down to the cords on one tire. Ended up with Lippert replacing both axles and gave a credit for 5 new tires. New axles and tires now have 4750 miles on them and now wear on the tires so I don't think the wide track has anything to do with wear. Dealer dealt with Heartland and Lippert on the axle replacement and I dealt with Lippert on the credit for replacing 5 ruined tires. Spare had only 1200 miles on it (limping home after discovering the extreme wear) and showed a lot of wear.

 

[daynawide]

I just had bent axles replaced on my 2012 north trail 30QOK. the warranty expired in april. Flag rv in ma. contacted lippert and they replaced the axles and tires for free.Took two months to get axles made. when flagg got them they did repairs in two days. Used trailer for two seasons with bent axles,lucky no problems. Just kept close eye on tire wear. Flag RV was great!.Lippert also replaced 3500# axles with 5200# for nothing. Thanks to flag rv and Lippert.

 

[daynawide]

Just bought a over to under kit. Did the install myself .best Thing i ever did gained 5 inches in height and pulls great. 30QOK 33' 10" long.


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[RDJohns]

Our problem was with the Lippert axles. After many tries with new pads, magnets etc it was determined that the Lippert axles were defective. We did replace them with another brand and the brakes work fine. Don't expect any technical help or advice from Lippert. Their stock answer is 'your warranty is gone and we know nothing about axle issues'. 😝

 

[danemayer]

Our problem was with the Lippert axles. After many tries with new pads, magnets etc it was determined that the Lippert axles were defective. We did replace them with another brand and the brakes work fine. Don't expect any technical help or advice from Lippert. Their stock answer is 'your warranty is gone and we know nothing about axle issues'. 

Hi RDJohns,

I don't know about Lippert axles and brakes, but based on Dexter axles, I don't know why a new axle would be required to fix brakes. Dexter often recommends changing the entire brake assembly rather than replacing individual parts. The cost is only slightly more than the cost of the various parts and the labor cost should be quite a bit lower. And of course, it avoids the problem of bad diagnoses.

 

[wdk450]

An alignment shop will back your trailer on to an alignment bay, attach laser reflectors to your wheels, attach a large air bottle jack to your axles with a l_l shaped steel rig with hooks to hang it on the axle at the end of the vertical sides of the jack rig, check your wheel alignment in several axis with the computerized laser system, and use the air bottle jack in vertical and horizontal positions on each side of your axle to bend the axle so your wheels are correctly aligned in all axis. The shop that aligned my rig says that they even do this on new axles from the axle manufacturers, which are often found not to be in correct alignment.