Montana Owners Club - Keystone Montana 5th Wheel Forum - View Single Post - Use Dexter on AL-KO

azstar · 05-08-2005, 05:41 PM

Hi All,

PBD,

I have about 15K on mine. It can be difficult to see the wear without pulling the Shackle plates off. Your right about the potential for disaster here. Looking at mine, I might forsee a scenario like this; (1) One set of Shackles fails, the spring goes up and rides on the frame, the RV'er sees their rig leaning and discovers the broken Shackle. Scenario; (2) One set fails goes up against the frame, then the RV'er takes a turn putting a side load stress on the worn Shackles on the other side of the Axle and causes a failure of that Shackle, allowing the Axle to move sideways and out from under the Coach. Now picture that in your mind. Not pretty. If not already, it's going to happen, for sure. So many of these Shackles out there, from all sorts of Manufacturers. Your right NTSB might just want to know about this.

Steve,

If you look closely at HamRads pics. you will see where the bolt has a wear pattern at the very end, right where the Shackle plate was attached. There are bushings in the Tri-Angle Equilizer but not in the Shackle plates.

mgdg,

Yep, China has the Steel Mills. What they don't have is the Raw Material. We in the US were and are blessed with this and we ship it out of the Country to them. The Chinese also buy all the scrap Steel they can get their hands on, ship it to their Mills and make all sorts of products like Shackles and Ship them back to us. There's no telling what your Shackles use to be, maybe an old Refrigerator.

05-08-2005, 05:41 PM	#18
azstar Montana Master Join Date: Dec 2003 Location: Chandler Posts: 624 M.O.C. #740	Hi All, PBD, I have about 15K on mine. It can be difficult to see the wear without pulling the Shackle plates off. Your right about the potential for disaster here. Looking at mine, I might forsee a scenario like this; (1) One set of Shackles fails, the spring goes up and rides on the frame, the RV'er sees their rig leaning and discovers the broken Shackle. Scenario; (2) One set fails goes up against the frame, then the RV'er takes a turn putting a side load stress on the worn Shackles on the other side of the Axle and causes a failure of that Shackle, allowing the Axle to move sideways and out from under the Coach. Now picture that in your mind. Not pretty. If not already, it's going to happen, for sure. So many of these Shackles out there, from all sorts of Manufacturers. Your right NTSB might just want to know about this. Steve, If you look closely at HamRads pics. you will see where the bolt has a wear pattern at the very end, right where the Shackle plate was attached. There are bushings in the Tri-Angle Equilizer but not in the Shackle plates. mgdg, Yep, China has the Steel Mills. What they don't have is the Raw Material. We in the US were and are blessed with this and we ship it out of the Country to them. The Chinese also buy all the scrap Steel they can get their hands on, ship it to their Mills and make all sorts of products like Shackles and Ship them back to us. There's no telling what your Shackles use to be, maybe an old Refrigerator.