Since my trailer is a toy hauler I thought this belonged in this forum.

Trailer weight: 8,200 lbs
Tongue weight: 1,350 lbs - not including WDH

Tow vehicle trailer capacity: 9,200 lbs
Tow vehicle tongue capacity: 920 lbs

Pretty sure the picture below the result of pulling my trailer from storage to my house and back a couple of times. Round trip is about 40 miles.

It's in the shop to get the leaf spring bracket welded. I have reinforcement brackets on the way and those will go on soon. No more pulling the toy hauler with my half ton. My Superduty can't get here quick enough.

 

I highly doubt being 400 pounds over rated tongue weight "a couple of times" broke your shackle. The crack looks rusted; it's been like that for some time.

I couldn't find data on a 2007 Titan, but the 2005 had a rear axle rating of 3800 lbs. Meaning, obviously, the rear axle was rated for 3800 lbs of weight. You put 1350 lbs on the axle via the trailer tongue (okay, a little more if you want to get super technical because the load wasn't placed directly over the axle) but still, it never came close to 3800 lbs.

Exceeding the tongue weight will damage your hitch/receiver LONG before it damages any axle components.

 

that shackle was on its way out before now. See all the rust that has been working it over.

 

Not trying to make a statement suggesting it is good to go over truck limits, but I agree with AKHunter93 and Senix.

Steve

 

That damage was certainly pre existing too much rust. It does seem like a strange area to have a split though.

 

I've been driving on it for a good 600 miles. I've been trying to figure out what my clunk was. I thought it was the shocks so I aired them up but that didn't help. The clunk is fairly recent, within the past 6 weeks which is right about when I pulled my trailer into town to winterize it.

 

If you typically drive it unladen, then you probably wouldn't have noticed anything. Those shackles don't see much stress at all when the truck isn't loaded. You can see the steel flaking at the crack, that takes a lot longer than six weeks to occur.

 

Thinking a bit more about this, my overall cargo weight wouldn't have been exceeded when I was towing my trailer. So the suspension shouldn't have been completely stressed out.

 

No it wouldn't have, I explained that in post #2. Something else happened that caused your shackle to break.

 

I agree with the posts above. I have a 2006 22' Gearbox also and it is HEEAAVVYY. I towed it with a 2010 F150 for a bit before my F250. The tow hitch itself should've failed before one of those, especially when the weight should be spread out among the rearend components.

 

I hear what you guys are saying. The appearance of the bracket failure and when I last towed the trailer seem to be very close. So I thought the trailer might have been the culprit.

Anyhow, the bracket has been welded back up and I have a set of aftermarket reinforcing brackets that will be installed soon.

 

That was most likely a stress crack from the forming process, rare but it does happen, it just took a while to show up. I have seen those on brand new trucks when I twisted wrenches at a dealership, happened on 3 new GMC's that had been special ordered and had sequential serial numbers.

 

FWIW, I tend to agree. Looks like a factory flaw. There's hardly any rust...just enough to show it's been broken for several months or more.

 

Interesting ..
What's the year and make of this tow vehicle ? Did you buy it new ?

 

'07 Nissan Titan that I bought new.