2014 Spring hangers

[jlb27537]

Hello Group, This issue is still in the figuring out stage so no correction has taken place. I post this only for information so others might look at their rigs.

I had Mor/Ryde X Factor braces installed by my selling dealer. I have had my rig about 3 weeks. I went to grease the wet bolts a couple days ago and found the 4 wet bolts that attached the braces would either not take grease or take it with way too much effort on the grease gun handle.

I crawled under it and discovered the outer flange of the spring hanger was bent inward on all 4 locations.

My rig has springs that are 1 3/4" wide and when you measure between the shackles at the LRE center support the distance is 1 13/16". This means the bushing in the end of the spring is 1/16" longer than the spring is wide. This provides 1/32" of clearance on each side of the spring when bolted up. OK, no problem.

Now the problem??? The spring hangers welded onto the frame when measured at the point of attachment is 2 1/16" wide. This would be the correct dimension for a 2" spring, but when you put a 1 3/4" wide spring in a 2" wide hanger and you have a X Factor brace in place it causes the outer flange, (which is 1/4" too wide) to bend inward when you tighten up the wet bolt.

I have measured, sent pictures to Mor/Ryde and have e mailed Keystone. Monday I'll call and see what the engineers @ Mor/Ryde have to say and will call Keystone for their take on the matter.

Mor/Ryde tells me he has never seen anything like this. It may be that Lippert somehow got the wrong info or Dexter provided the wrong springs. Like I said, this is still in the figuring out stage.

I'm not a engineer, but I feel a spring hanger that is bent is not a good thing.

[Chip]

I am surprised Mor/Ryde did not say something about it when they installed the brace.

This is interesting.

[1retired06]

Not Good!

[jlb27537]

quote:Originally posted by Chip

I am surprised Mor/Ryde did not say something about it when they installed the brace.

This is interesting.

Chip in my post I said my selling dealer installed them. Mor/Ryde did not install them. I am sure if Mor/Ryde did the install they would have caught the issue.

[DQDick]

Glad you caught it, hard to figure how and why it happened in the first place.

[Irlpguy]

Great pictures Jib27537 and yet another example of absolutely no QC right from the time the springs were put on the frame. Anyone with half a brain could see there was a problem and that is when the work should have stopped and the correct pieces put in.

Your selling dealer should never have put the X factor on those spring hangers, when they saw this they should have immediately informed you and stopped work. The wet bolts have been overtightened bending the hangers, albeit they are incorrect in my opinion. This might explain the difficulty in getting grease in the wet bolts.

There is a heck of a lot of not good things happening on your suspension, I would be concerned about the alignment of the axles as well and would be insisting on having that checked. The X factor has put additional stresses on the hanger rather than support it. Look at the third picture down in your post, terrible, just terrible. I would not tow this down the road until it was fixed.

Please keep us informed.

[Sheepdog]

Those black rubber Marabombs in the picture are also a problem you need to address!

[Irlpguy]

I was curious and went and measured my springs and hangers, I have 1 3/4" springs and my hangers measure 1 7/8" both at the top and bottom of the hanger, this gives the spring a 1/16th theoretical space on either side of the hanger for movement. I still had to remove 3 wet bolts and reinstall them to be able to grease them. All zerks were loose, three were missing altogether and I replaced all with 90 degree ones for ease of greasing.

Your selling dealer appears to do much the same kind of work as the one where I bought mine, poor workmanship follows all the way down the line. There is no way I would ever again have either yours or my dealer work on my RV.

[jlb27537]

quote:Originally posted by Sheepdog

Those black rubber Marabombs in the picture are also a problem you need to address!

Yes I am aware of that. Wife says I need to wait a month or so to get over the sales tax on a new truck and trailer. The spring thing is on top of the list right now. I towed it from Indiana to Michigan to Missouri so it has about 7-800 miles with the hangers like this so I am not worried about the safety issue.

My thought is remove the current wet bolts, using a all thread rod, push the outer hanger arm back out, (or bend it back out with a large crescent wrench)re-install the springs with a 1/8" washer/spacer on each side of the spring to make up for the 1/4" too wide hanger, install longer wet bolts and you are done.

Pic 3 does look like the hanger is rolled under but it is not, just the outer leg of the bracket is pulled in.

If I had not had the braces installed, I probably would have never noticed I had 2" brackets on a 1 3/4" spring.

Jim

[Irlpguy]

Jim I would caution you against doing anything yourself to solve this problem, that will do nothing but give those responsible the excuse to not warranty this problem. You have a brand new unit there, it should be repaired correctly under warranty.

I am certain the hangers and wet bolts are all part of what Dexter ship to either Keystone or Lippert to have mounted on the frame, they were wrong from the get go and I would be contacting Dexter as well as Keystone & Lippert. There will likely be a lot of buck passing going on, however for your sake I hope someone steps up to the plate and does the right thing. My guess would be they are installed at the Keystone factory, but very well may have been shipped with the wrong hangers from Dexter in the first place.

If that were my unit I would be insisting the wrong size hangers be cut off and replaced with the correct ones, I would insist the alignment be checked during this process or upon completion, do not settle for less than what it should be. If your alignment is out it will ruin any tire you have on the RV.

IMHO the "Marabombs" would be the least of my worries, contrary to popular opinion on this forum I have had no problem with mine and have over 8000 miles on them. When we purchase one of these very expensive RV's it should not become a money pit to make it right, unfortunately that seems to be a common necessity with Montana owners.

[jlb27537]

Hi Ed,

I am not sure who installs the spring hangers, but will know Monday. The engineers @ Mor/Ryde have been aware of this for a week. I'll call my contact there Monday for a update. If they are no where, I'm on the phone to Keystone. I E-mailed them last week.

I have no intention of fixing this my self. I will have it done. Cutting off the brackets may cause more harm than good. It may be just as easy to just shim, use spacers, longer wet bolts to keep everything square. Yes, a alignment would be in order after all this.

[richfaa]

Hold Keystone feet to the fire..This crap has got to stop.

[gregh9999]

My 2013 3100 (new design) has the same problem stock from the factory. My hangers are bent in to meet the springs.

[Sierra 117]

Mor/Ryde specs call for only a 50 pd/ft torque on the spring eye bolt, not enough to bend the hanger.

[jlb27537]

Nope, not so. The wet bolt is shouldered and 50lbs will pull the hanger in till the bolt bottoms out. A wet bolt is not shaped like a regular bolt. Go get a wet bolt and look at it.

Jim

[RJI47]

I'm surprised the dealer that installed the wet bolts didn't notice the problem. Or maybe they did, but just neglected to mention it to you.

[Tom S.]

quote:Originally posted by jlb27537

Nope, not so. The wet bolt is shouldered and 50lbs will pull the hanger in till the bolt bottoms out. A wet bolt is not shaped like a regular bolt. Go get a wet bolt and look at it.

Jim

And that is what is troubling me. Since the bolt is shouldered, how could they have collapsed the hangers that far, unless the bolts were the wrong ones, or the shoulder was cut too far back.

[jlb27537]

The wet bolt comes in different lengths. They are sized for spring width and hanger width. Dexter provides the wet bolts.

Dexter specs the hangers @ 1.82-1.94" wide inside. Lippert installed hangers that are 2.059-2.062" wide inside.

So if the hanger is 1/4" too wide, the bolt, when tightened, will cause the hanger to bend inward when the inner hanger is held square to the spring and pivot bolt.

If you do not have X Factor braces the hangers will be pulled in about a 1/8" on each side and you probably will not notice it. Get your digital gauge and measure hanger width at point of attachment to the frame I beam.

This is not rocket science. The hangers are out of Dexter specs and neither Lippert or Keystone will accept responsibility.

Jim

[richfaa]

Was under the Rig doing slide maint and took a look at the spring hangers. Mine are bent a tiny bit but nothing like what you show. The axle and spring assembly come into the plant fully assembled so Keystone installs them in the hangers. As I recall that happens at the first or second assembly station.