Solitude leaning to one side.

[klr650goldwing]

Our Solitude 369RL is leaning to the left. We are loaded up for a month long journey and our pantry, frig, Island, stove etc. is all located on that side of the 5er. We are 3 inches low on that side. Springs look okay. Is it possible to put air bags on a trailer?

[klr650goldwing]

Turns out we did have a broken spring, which caused the lean angle. Found a shop that just happened to have a used spring of the right size. That took care of it for now. Should at least get us home.

[fj12ryder]

The new springs, and EZ Flex equalizer are working great. We came down through Oklahoma/Texas on Hiway 69, and OMG, was it horrible. The trailer did well though, we forgot and left the fish in its small carry cup on the shelf in the kitchen area, and it was still there when we stopped. We had no jerking at bridge connections that we had with the Lippert Equaflex equalizers, and the old springs. We just never felt like the trailer was jerking us around like before. I'm very happy so far. Well worth every penny spent.

We do have our first ding though, Peggy was backing up the truck and forgot the tailgate was up. Oops. You can't see the tailgate with the toolbox in the way. Need a new skin looks like. Oh well, stuff happens.

[fj12ryder]

Your opinion, but not shared by me. I got along fine for 11 years with the exact system I have now. Done once, and no need to do again.

[TXiceman]

fj12ryder wrote:

GIB2 wrote:
To Fj12ryder :
"Oh Bosh" doesn't make you right and me wrong.
I bought a brand new Montana fifth-wheel. I took it from Buffalo NY to Florida and back and I also took it from Buffalo to California and back. On the way home it was dog tracking so badly I stopped to see if something was broken. I brought it home and had a local manufacturer make a new axle of 250 thousandths wall thickness. The original was a Dexter 188 thousandths thick. At same time I put brass bushings and wet bolt kits. I took it to Florida and with a high pressure grease gun couldn't get grease into them and that axle was bent. At that point I made an appointment with Mor/yde and had the problem corrected properly and installed Disc brakes. I will change my wording . Everything prior to Mor/yde was a band-aid and pissing into the wind.
PS:I also had an extra leaf added to each left spring and it still didn't sit right. AGAIN Mor/yde

Yeah, you found it worked for you, but I have no desire to go that route. There are choices, thank you very much. Yours isn't the only one that works.

If you are going to use the RV very much, the Mor/Ryde IS is money well spent rather than the Band-Aids on the spring suspension system.

Ken

[fj12ryder]

PButler96 wrote:

fj12ryder wrote:


FWIW Grand Design is notorious for undersizing the spring packs on their trailers.

Along with the frame, axles, so on and so forth. Buyers don't see any of that, they see all the junk plastic Lippert bling GD can install with the savings from the undersized important stuff.

Guess we'll just have to agree to disagree on this one. I'm happy with mine, not as happy as I would be if the OP had gone with the 8,000 lb. axle option, but c'et la vie.

[fj12ryder]

GIB2 wrote:
To Fj12ryder :
"Oh Bosh" doesn't make you right and me wrong.
I bought a brand new Montana fifth-wheel. I took it from Buffalo NY to Florida and back and I also took it from Buffalo to California and back. On the way home it was dog tracking so badly I stopped to see if something was broken. I brought it home and had a local manufacturer make a new axle of 250 thousandths wall thickness. The original was a Dexter 188 thousandths thick. At same time I put brass bushings and wet bolt kits. I took it to Florida and with a high pressure grease gun couldn't get grease into them and that axle was bent. At that point I made an appointment with Mor/yde and had the problem corrected properly and installed Disc brakes. I will change my wording . Everything prior to Mor/yde was a band-aid and pissing into the wind.
PS:I also had an extra leaf added to each left spring and it still didn't sit right. AGAIN Mor/yde

Yeah, you found it worked for you, but I have no desire to go that route. There are choices, thank you very much. Yours isn't the only one that works.

[PButler96]

fj12ryder wrote:


FWIW Grand Design is notorious for undersizing the spring packs on their trailers.

Along with the frame, axles, so on and so forth. Buyers don't see any of that, they see all the junk plastic Lippert bling GD can install with the savings from the undersized important stuff.

[GIB2]

To Fj12ryder :
"Oh Bosh" doesn't make you right and me wrong.
I bought a brand new Montana fifth-wheel. I took it from Buffalo NY to Florida and back and I also took it from Buffalo to California and back. On the way home it was dog tracking so badly I stopped to see if something was broken. I brought it home and had a local manufacturer make a new axle of 250 thousandths wall thickness. The original was a Dexter 188 thousandths thick. At same time I put brass bushings and wet bolt kits. I took it to Florida and with a high pressure grease gun couldn't get grease into them and that axle was bent. At that point I made an appointment with Mor/yde and had the problem corrected properly and installed Disc brakes. I will change my wording . Everything prior to Mor/yde was a band-aid and pissing into the wind.
PS:I also had an extra leaf added to each left spring and it still didn't sit right. AGAIN Mor/yde

[ford_truck_guy]

klr650goldwing wrote:
Thanks everyone, I really appreciate your input here. We found a local repair shop and they got us back on the road. So now we can finish the trip. When we get home we can install heavier springs all around etc.

What did they do to "get you back on the road" ??

[klr650goldwing]

Thanks everyone, I really appreciate your input here. We found a local repair shop and they got us back on the road. So now we can finish the trip. When we get home we can install heavier springs all around etc.

[MFL]

^A good personal experience from Spoon!

Interrupting your trip, wasting a day for repair, will be frustrating. Waiting until you have a roadside emergency, will be even more so, and could cause damage, beyond just replacing springs.

I'd contact a reputable repair shop, in the area you are, to at least inspect the suspension, that can better advise, needs immediate repair, or just need heavier springs, when you get home.

Jerry

[fj12ryder]

JMO of course, but I would replace, at the least, the springs on the low side. The trailer leaning will put a lot of stress on the hangers, and you don't want one of those to break.

I think you would do well with 3,500 lb. springs, which should be easy to source. A decent trailer shop should be able to do the job easily, and shouldn't really cost that much. Figure $100-$150 for 2 springs, and labor to install, and you should be able to get it fixed for less than $500 easily. JMO of course. It would give you peace of mind that you'll be able to finish the trip without something breaking along the way.

FWIW Grand Design is notorious for undersizing the spring packs on their trailers.

[spoon059]

klr650goldwing wrote:
What are the odds we can go that many miles without something breaking?

I can't answer what the odds are, but it does happen and it can be troublesome to repair on the road.

We took a trip from MD to VT last year. We were on the NY Thruway towing at 68 mph for several hours. Pulled into the campground, which had some large potholes. Hit a decent size pothole, heard a loud bang and I saw smoke from the passenger side wheels of the trailer. Thought I blew a tire, pulled over immediately. I saw that the rear leaf spring bad broken within a couple inches of the eye. The weight was resting on the top of the tire.

Limped the trailer about 1000 feet to my campsite. Spent the next 2 days finding a trailer shop, buying a replacement leaf spring (which had an additional leaf and 800 or so lbs of load carrying capacity. Just my luck, I had helped a friend grease his wheel bearings a couple weeks earlier and left my bottle jack at home in my carport, so I had to go find a bottle jack as well.

Eventually I jacked up one the side of the trailer with the broken spring, used my 4x6 levelling blocks as cribbing and swapped out the one broken spring. I noted that the stock shackles were getting ovalized and the plastic bushing was pretty destroyed. Rest of the trip was nerve rattling for sure!

Got home, replaced the other 3 springs and installed wet bolt kit with wider shackles. It was hot at home so I did one side at a time. It was very easy with appropriate jacks and jack stands. I'd imagine that a leveling system would make it much easier to do.

It's my opinion that the OEM springs are mediocre at best. They are designed to be at the upper end of their capabilities, which makes it more prone to failure in my opinion. It cost me about $400 to replace the springs with a higher weight rating AND the wet bolt system. It gave me substantial peace of mind...

[ford_truck_guy]

klr650goldwing wrote:
Thanks everyone. When I said the springs looked good, I just meant nothing appeared to be broken. The springs on the low side are flat. As far as leaf springs go, they look incredibly small for the size of the load. What are the odds of a catastrophic failure and the trailer leaving the roadway? We are in AZ on a trip to CA, OR, MT SD and back to MN. What are the odds we can go that many miles without something breaking? We bought this trailer used. It may have been leaning all along and I just noticed it. I need a quick education on suspension parts. If you have personal experience, please help.

This just MY OPINION . . . If they look flat and your leaning 3-1/2", I would search for a spring shop in an area you will be in, check the reviews and get new springs all around.. It can be done quickly ( same day ) and travel with a peace of mind....