RvFNG76 wrote:
The springs i can see are almost perfectly flat on level ground there is a spring shop near me but after half the **** ive had to fix because of the PO im kinda leery about going the route of having them rebuilt on the other hand new springs are $350 a piece versus $300 for the spring kit.
Everybody -- Do
NOT use a torch on motor vehicle springs unless you have the knowledge, experience, and equipment to re-harden/temper them. (I don't.) People in the 60s sometimes did that to lower their hotrods and many "ate the pavement" when the springs failed catastrophically.
If you have to cut or drill them, go very, very slow and use lots of cutting oil/grease/wax. (I use CRC TrueTap Wax Stick ... I can sometimes use HSS cutters in operations that would normally require carbide or diamond cutters.) Horizontal bandsaws work best on spring steel but you can use bimetal or carbide hacksaw blades if you're patient and take your time.
A friend swaps out the pulleys for very low RPM on his drill press whenever he needs to drill spring steel. He also backs the drill bit out after a second or two of drilling and hits the steel and bit with compressed air to cool things. (It takes him four to six times as long to drill spring steel.)
To me, air bags seem like a Red Green repair. If, however, you choose to go the air bag route, make sure you get heavy duty bags made for medium duty trucks. Most readily available air bags are made for light duty trucks and will not last in a motorhome.
I hadn't thought about helper/repair leafs, mostly because they have a tinge of Red Green quick-repair/shortcut.
Early in my life, I often tried quick-fix shortcuts in spite of contrary advice from more knowledgeable people. It invariably resulted in a waste of time and money, quickly leading to a need to redo the repair ... over and over again. Now, I lean heavily towards "do it right or don't do it at all."
A lot of what everyone deals with in older motorhomes are undoing previous owners' quick fixes and temporary repairs.
Bottom line is I'd get new springs. A distant second choice is having the original springs re-arc'ed.
