Forum Discussion

rsgs's avatar
rsgs
Explorer
May 20, 2019

5th Wheel upper Shock Mount

Anyone have an upper (attached to frame) shock mount on a Lippert frame fail? Brought the rig home from storage yesterday. Turned onto my street and drove over the bombed out crater surface and felt something funny at one point only to get to my house and find out I had a flat. Got the rig in the drive and after removing the tire, discovered that the upper mount had come off and cut into the side wall of the tire until it went flat. On inspection, I can't see any evidence of the mount ever having been welded to the frame. In addition, both surfaces (the bottom of the frame and the top of the mount) were rusty. Now I worried about the remaining shock mounts. If anyone had this experience, I would appreciate any shared experience and what you did about it.

I've seen some ads for the new equalizers and on the videos they show the frame/axles don't have any shocks. Could this be used to replace the shocks?
  • wantabe351's avatar
    wantabe351
    Explorer
    May 20, 2019
    I would have a welder come to your house a reweld the upper shock mounts and see if he could even and a tab to give it a little extra strength, just look in your phone book or google it looking for a local welder....enjoy your summer...and yes it happened to my Cedar Creek many years ago, but I welded it myself.. also for got I would replace that shock in case the shock is damaged,
  • rsgs's avatar
    rsgs
    Explorer
    May 20, 2019
    Thank you for your response. I have all the metal tools I need to do the repair (welder, torch, steel chop saw, etc.). I was curious how others handled the same situation.
  • hornet28's avatar
    hornet28
    Explorer
    May 20, 2019
    I wouldn't worry about it and being you have a welder just weld it up. As long as you're doing the one check the others out and reweld them if you think it's necessary
  • laknox's avatar
    laknox
    Nomad
    May 20, 2019
    rsgs wrote:
    Anyone have an upper (attached to frame) shock mount on a Lippert frame fail? Brought the rig home from storage yesterday. Turned onto my street and drove over the bombed out crater surface and felt something funny at one point only to get to my house and find out I had a flat. Got the rig in the drive and after removing the tire, discovered that the upper mount had come off and cut into the side wall of the tire until it went flat. On inspection, I can't see any evidence of the mount ever having been welded to the frame. In addition, both surfaces (the bottom of the frame and the top of the mount) were rusty. Now I worried about the remaining shock mounts. If anyone had this experience, I would appreciate any shared experience and what you did about it.

    I've seen some ads for the new equalizers and on the videos they show the frame/axles don't have any shocks. Could this be used to replace the shocks?


    Welds fail on an LCI frame?! Shocker.......NOT! First I've heard of that particular failure in the nearly 15 years of reading here, and elsewhere, though. FWIW, weld it up and check all the other shock mount welds.

    Adding a shock-dampening equalizer doesn't, IMO, alleviate the use of shocks. Just depends of if the mfr wants to spend the extra $100 to actually mount a set. My KZ has a MorRyde equalizer, but didn't come with shocks and there've been times that I wish it =did= have them. My old Komfort had a standard equalizer, and had shocks, though they weren't all that effective due to their lousy geometry.

    Lyle

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