Worn/broken spring shackles-word of warning

[donajohn]

If your rig is more than a few years old, crawl underneath and inspect the shackles that attach to the ends of your leaf springs. Check all the brackets for wear. I just replaced a sheared off spring shackle, and all three others which were either cracked or worn oblong. Pretty scary to think if the cracked one had sheared off also.
My rig is a 2007 Mountaineer 5th wheel. I'll be inspecting the underside at least yearly. (Yes, I know I should have been doing this all along.)

[chipw]

Jim@HiTek wrote:
Does anyone have a truck shop estimate on the cost of having the spring shackles and wet bolts replaced? How long should it take...

Yep just had mine done at a Flying J in Utah. On my way to Sturgis. Wet bolt shackles and new 6 spring leafs to the tune of 1400.00

[Bipeflier]

Jim@HiTek wrote:
Does anyone have a truck shop estimate on the cost of having the spring shackles and wet bolts replaced? How long should it take...

I just installed a wet bolt kit for a friend last week. It took anhour and a half, start to finish in his driveway.

I do it by lifting the rear of the 5th wheel with a steel cross beam on my 12 ton floor jack. Don't remove tires, just take the weight off so the bolts come out then replace everything. Takes a minimum of jiggling around to get the last bolts in. I install the pivot bolt in the center of the equalizer last.

[RAS43]

Hannibal,
If oil has worked for you then stay with it. However, most chassis components need grease which has an extreme pressure additive and does not wash out easily. That is what I look for and brand isn't critical.

[fj12ryder]

Whatever grease happens to be in the grease gun at the time.

[ACZL]

Amzoil, grease each spring. So far so good.

[Hannibal]

What do you guys lube your shackles with? I give mine a couple drops of Mobil-1 5w-30 before every trip while I'm lubing up the stabilizers. I don't know if it's right or wrong but I've been doing it for 25~ years.

[joebedford]

ACZL wrote:

joebedford wrote:
I did it on my driveway.

Just curious, no adjustment holes on spring shackles?

No adjustment on any of it. It's a bolt in replacement same size as the OEM parts.

[drfife]

Cougarnewbie wrote:
Lippert has a "never fail"Polyamide bushing kit. Dexter has a wet bolt kit with brass bushings. Any thoughts on which is better. 0 maintenance sounds like a good thing.

I installed the Never Fail bushings a couple of years ago.

I have not pulled one to check, but so far, so good.

[Allworth]

Mor-Ryde uses bronze bushings.

[Jim]

Does anyone have a truck shop estimate on the cost of having the spring shackles and wet bolts replaced? How long should it take...

[Cougarnewbie]

Lippert has a "never fail"Polyamide bushing kit. Dexter has a wet bolt kit with brass bushings. Any thoughts on which is better. 0 maintenance sounds like a good thing.

[Puddles]

There's a sticky on the travel tailer forum with good pictures and instructions on replacing shackles and installing wet bolts.

[richfaa]

we were alerted to that problem on the Montana Owners forum and although we could not see any wear we had them replaced with the wet bolt and heavy duty shackles on our 06 Montana 3400 at a MOC rally when it was just over one year old. the OEM shackles had already started to go oblong. We finally did away with the entire OEM suspension system and went with the Mor Ryde IS. Did the same with this 13 3402 Big Sky.

[ACZL]

joebedford wrote:
I did it on my driveway.

Just curious, no adjustment holes on spring shackles?