Tips and Tricks - Wet Shackle Kit

[broark01]

No more squeaking and much more robust hardware BUT am I the only one who struggles with actually getting grease to flow into them?

While laying under the 5th wheel, trying to get leverage on the grease gun, I imagine I look like a monkey making love to a football. The reason for this challenge is probably that some of the grease holes in the bots are facing down and not up.

Anyway, here are some of my tips and tricks if you find yourself (which will probably never happen) in the same position:

1) Researched and obtained a "high pressure" 10,000 PSI manual grease gun (there are standard and high pressure). Not all pneumatic grease guns are high pressure and most manual grease guns are less than 5000 PSI. Learned more about grease guns than I wanted to know.

2) Found that the "high pressure" grease gun did not solve the whole problem,of course. So, drug my 20 ton jack under the trailer with me and "incrementally" jacked each of the frame welded shackle mounts (spring hanger) until enough pressure was removed from the bolt to allow the grease to flow.

3) The hotter the grease the better as far as flow-ability so left the "high pressure" grease gun laying in the sun. Be sure it does not get too hot to hold because this will make you look like a frantic monkey making love to a football.

Anyway, I am sure no one else has this challenge and just wanted to vent. Feel better now 🙂

[broark01]

woodsmitch wrote:
If you remove the bolts, how difficult is it to get it lined back up to install a new bolt?

In my specific case, and this is why I had the dealer do it, it means:
1) Parking the 35ft 5th wheel in the street in front of my house
2) Jacking the frame up to release the 14k lbs of weight on the shackle bolts
3) Removing the new old bolts
4) Testing the new old bolts to be sure grease flows
5) Obtaining new bolts if grease does not flow
6) Reinstalling the bolts
7) Dealing with the city ordinances against parking the 5th wheel on the street

And after doing all of the above I am guessing that the problem would still exist.

[woodsmitch]

If you remove the bolts, how difficult is it to get it lined back up to install a new bolt?

[broark01]

Hey all, some good suggestions and I feel better to know I am not the only one who struggles with these.

RV dealer put on my shackles. I did not think I would have to read them the instructions or baby sit them...wrong again. Pretty sure all the bolts take grease (I hope because bad bolts did not even cross my mind). As many have mentioned, have to get the trailer weight off the bolts.

The high pressure grease gun did lock on to the zerks to the point that after I performed the monkey business with the gun, I had to roll it around and around the zerk to release the pressure to get the gun off the zerk.

[samandtheduck]

I put the kit on and had 3 grease fittings that wouldn't take grease. I took a the fitting out of one that would take grease and swapped it into the three that wouldn't and they took grease. I put the grease fittings in a vice and put the grease gun on them and they were blocked. I contacted MorRyde to send me new fittings and they sent me three whole wet bolts and they all took grease.

[Lynnmor]

I mentioned several times about cutting a figure 8 inside the bushings before installing.

[craig7h]

When I installed mine I was told make sure the outlet holes are in the 10 and or 2 position. Have never had a problem.

[time2roll]

I filed a relief or chamfer around the exit hole to allow more surface area for the grease to wedge itself out of the hole. Also verified all bolts were fully drilled before inserting the zerk. No trouble yet with getting grease to flow.

[DSDP_Don]

"broark01"......Here is a great product that someone recommended on another forum. It's a grease gun tip that locks on so that you can use both hands or just one to operate the grease gun, instead of trying to hold the grease gun end onto the zerk.

It eliminates the monkey business with a football!

Grease Gun Tip

[dodge_guy]

On mine, I have a grease fitting that is almost fully blocked. when I put mine in I couldn`t get grease into one. all the holes are horizontal. I ended up swapping a grease fitting over to put grease in. I have a new fitting to install this spring. sometimes its simpler than you think!

And yes, its nice sneaking into a campground after dark and all you here is an engine idling through!

[ralphnjoann]

therink wrote:
Have you tried jacking up the trailer to take pressure off the shackles. I know you have to do that with heavy duty trucks.

That's what I do and I've never had a problem.

[scottykrug]

Had one shackle on my last trailer that had to be jacked up to grease. The hole in the wet bolt somehow lined up wrong with the bushing and the pressure of sitting normally on the ground stopped up that hole and stopped the grease. Solution was to either remove the bolt and rotate it 90 degrees or simply jack the trailer and grease. Due to simplicity I chose the latter for the short term. Sold the trailer before I was able to rotate the bolt.

[therink]

Have you tried jacking up the trailer to take pressure off the shackles. I know you have to do that with heavy duty trucks.