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  1. #1
    Site Sponsor Cate&Rob's Avatar
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    Broken Spring Hanger!

    Well . . . I was tempted to start this with one of those titles like . . . “Guess what happened to us!!” . . . but I will refrain .

    Not nearly as dramatic as TucsonJim’s story from a couple of years ago . . . but there does seem to be something about leaving this Indiana Rally . . .

    Pulling out of the Elkhart Fairgrounds this morning . . . we’re easing around the first turn with truck windows open and I hear a single odd clunk from the trailer suspension. Hmmm . . . nobody right behind us . . . I’m going to stop and take a look. The tires on the curb side that were the right distance apart when I removed the chocks 15 minutes earlier are now half that distance apart and the equalizer is skewed hard forward. Yikes! Both sides of the rear spring hanger had parted company with the frame rail.

    These are fatigue breaks adjacent to the welds. The welds still look perfect. 90% or more of the fracture line is rusted, so we have been running on maybe a 1/4” of metal on each side of the hanger, for I don’t know how long. In the picture, the hanger sides have flipped over. You can see the rusted fatigue break edge with a small amount of shiny steel that was all that was holding the spring in place.

    Back to the story . . . we aren’t even out of the fairgrounds, so we swing around and say hi to all the (now curious) folks that we just said goodbye to. Our route back to our site takes us past Emily’s trailer where she is sitting at the picnic table in her PJ’s (this is 7:30 in the morning of the Saturday after the Rally) By the time we get parked, Emily is over to tell us that the LCI techs are on their way! Then Jerry swings by to see if we need anything. Talk about being in the right place to have something like this happen! If I had not stopped to check that noise, we would probably still be sitting on the side of I94 in the middle of Detroit on a long weekend with a lot more damage to contend with. Sometimes you just get lucky.

    Back to the technical part . . . the LCI tech cut off the remains of the old hanger, welded on a new one . . . and this is the interesting part . . . inserted a V (piece of angle iron) welded inside the hanger to reinforce it. See pictures. This looks like a really good idea.

    Others on this forum have written about similar broken hanger experiences. When you watch these hangers flexing in the first part of this LCI video, this result really should not surprise any of us.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bp5iRVPwYZg

    I am confident that this new reinforced hanger is going to survive . . . but I have to admit that I am now wondering about the other 5 . . . hmmm

    Rob
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails IMG_2919.jpg   IMG_2925.jpg   IMG_2923.jpg  
    Last edited by Cate&Rob; 09-01-2018 at 07:10 PM.
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  2. #2
    King Pin
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    Wow Rob. I could not imagine a better place for a major failure than what happened to you this morning. That piece of metal welded between the hanger is very intriguing.
    I'll bet you're just a little concerned about the other five hangers now. I wonder if it would be worthwhile to inspect and modify the remaining hangers?

    Jim

  3. #3
    Site Sponsor Cate&Rob's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by TucsonJim View Post
    Wow Rob. I could not imagine a better place for a major failure than what happened to you this morning. That piece of metal welded between the hanger is very intriguing.
    I'll bet you're just a little concerned about the other five hangers now. I wonder if it would be worthwhile to inspect and modify the remaining hangers?

    Jim
    Hi Jim - Both the LCI tech and I inspected the other hangers and could find no visual indication of similar breaks. But, I don't know that I could have seen the break that did happen, with the two edges of the fatigue line pushed tightly together. I have been thinking about how to reinforce these hangers since we first saw that LCI video several months ago. This "V" insert looks like a viable idea. The major difficulty is that I think the entire suspension would have to be dropped to have these welded into place.

    Rob
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  4. #4
    Rolling Along TNFSolitude's Avatar
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    So, at 9:45 this morning when Nancy leaned out to wave goodbye she noticed Cate wasn't in the truck. We thought you were having it weighed. Were you taking a little test spin around the parking lot?
    Good grief, our little flat tire 2 years ago going home from the Rally was certainly mild compared to you and Jim.
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  5. #5
    Site Sponsor Cate&Rob's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by TNFSolitude View Post
    So, at 9:45 this morning when Nancy leaned out to wave goodbye she noticed Cate wasn't in the truck. We thought you were having it weighed. Were you taking a little test spin around the parking lot?
    Good grief, our little flat tire 2 years ago going home from the Rally was certainly mild compared to you and Jim.
    That was where the LCI tech asked us to move the trailer (to the paved area near the weighing activity) to do the repairs. Something about not wanting to lie in wet grass while welding . . . some guys are just so fussy. LOL (just kidding of course . . . he did a great job).

    Rob
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  6. #6
    Site Sponsor livinthelife's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Cate&Rob View Post
    Well . . . I was tempted to start this with one of those titles like . . . “Guess what happened to us!!” . . . but I will refrain .

    Not nearly as dramatic as TucsonJim’s story from a couple of years ago . . . but there does seem to be something about leaving this Indiana Rally . . .

    Pulling out of the Elkhart Fairgrounds this morning . . . we’re easing around the first turn with truck windows open and I hear a single odd clunk from the trailer suspension. Hmmm . . . nobody right behind us . . . I’m going to stop and take a look. The tires on the curb side that were the right distance apart when I removed the chocks 15 minutes earlier are now half that distance apart and the equalizer is skewed hard forward. Yikes! Both sides of the rear spring hanger had parted company with the frame rail.

    These are fatigue breaks adjacent to the welds. The welds still look perfect. 90% or more of the fracture line is rusted, so we have been running on maybe a 1/4” of metal on each side of the hanger, for I don’t know how long. In the picture, the hanger sides have flipped over. You can see the rusted fatigue break edge with a small amount of shiny steel that was all that was holding the spring in place.

    Back to the story . . . we aren’t even out of the fairgrounds, so we swing around and say high to all the (now curious) folks that we just said goodbye to. Our route back in to our site takes us past Emily’s trailer where she is sitting at the picnic table in her PJ’s (this is 7:30 in the morning of the Saturday after the Rally) By the time we get parked, Emily is over to tell us that the LCI techs are on their way! Then Jerry swings by to see if we need anything. Talk about being in the right place to have something like this happen! If I had not stopped to check that noise, we would probably still be sitting on the side of I94 in the middle of Detroit on a long weekend with a lot more damage to contend with. Sometimes you just get lucky.

    Back to the technical part . . . the LCI tech cut off the remains of the old hanger, welded on a new one . . . and this is the interesting part . . . inserted a V (piece of angle iron) welded inside the hanger to reinforce it. See pictures. This looks like a really good idea.

    Others on this forum have written about similar broken hanger experiences. When you watch these hangers flexing in the first part of this LCI video, this result really should not surprise any of us.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bp5iRVPwYZg

    I am confident that this new reinforced hanger is going to survive . . . but I have to admit that I am now wondering about the other 5 . . . hmmm

    Rob
    Here's our spring hanger on our Canada/Alaska trip:Click image for larger version. 

Name:	P1180770.jpg 
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ID:	14865

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  7. #7
    Site Sponsor Cate&Rob's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by livinthelife View Post
    Here's our spring hanger on our Canada/Alaska trip:Click image for larger version. 

Name:	P1180770.jpg 
Views:	356 
Size:	93.4 KB 
ID:	14865
    livinthelife - Interesting that you experienced the same break in the same location on a hanger also attached to a 2" square tube spacer below the frame rail. Coincidence? . . . I wonder?

    Rob
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  8. #8
    Site Sponsor livinthelife's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Cate&Rob View Post
    livinthelife - Interesting that you experienced the same break in the same location on a hanger also attached to a 2" square tube spacer below the frame rail. Coincidence? . . . I wonder?

    Rob
    Don't know, but our rig is 3 years newer than yours, and "smaller". My husband discovered it after a lunch stop on one of our travel days on our trip. We were 30 miles outside Whitehorse, Yukon Territories. It wasn't all the way broken by then, it was tearing off. By the time we got to the welding shop (after a stop at an RV repair facility) it broke when we moved it from in front of the repair garage door.
    Here's the repaired hanger:

    Click image for larger version. 

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  9. #9
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    When I did the bushing/Mor Ryde CRE3000 upgrade, I also added the XFactor cross bracing:

    Click image for larger version. 

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    Click image for larger version. 

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    Click image for larger version. 

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    The 3rd picture is not my rig but representative of an installed Xfactor cross brace.

    I only added one Xfactor between the middle spring hangers. I'm wondering if it would be a good idea to install 2 more so all three spring hangers have side-to-side bracing. Thoughts ?
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  10. #10
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    It looks like that is just a butt weld against the bottom of the frame, I can see how it could break. It only has a few inches of weld holding all that force. Those spring hangers should extend up the sides of the frame then be welded on, it would be a lot stronger. I know you said the weld is not what broke, but the heat from the weld probably weakened the part which broke, it the spring hangers were overlapped on the sides of the frame I don't think this would have happened.
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