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Friday, 6/26 went camping with 2 other families, Pedernales State Park, Johnson City, TX, 140 miles from home. Beautiful scenery.
I follow my buddy because it is easier to keep up with his 6.0 chevy then it is for him to keep up with me. Our travel trailer is just shy of 10,000lbs GVWR, we're probably around 8,500 loaded. Made 1 stop 1/2 way, and as is habit, checked all the hubs and tires...good to go. Got to the park and went to check in, 1 person at a time, so everyone was standing around outside. I came out and was shown this:
Well that ain't good. Had no idea it was gone, have no idea how far I drove this way. The axle is bent, not repairable. The damaged axle is obviously low on this(right) side, because of the angle the load on the other side in not ideal for the tire or bearings I would think. The good axle is waaay overloaded on the right side. Tires are Goodyear Assurance, load rate E and 2 years old, load rating is 2800-ish. What would you do?
Bummer. Buy a new axle, 2 new brake assembly's, bolt it all together, repack all wheel bearings, go camping. (looks like a failure do to lack of bearing maintenance)
Typical example of being used too much when it was new!!!!!! (Satire)
Yup, replace axle and brake assembly, repack all wheel bearings, etc. Heck of a way to go camping; but it can always be worse. Or be doing it along side the road someplace bad.
Trailer service locations often have axles in stock. Find a local one and see if they'll put the brakes and everything on it, plus a new wheel/tire.
I have to LOLZ on that one. Out of the more than dozen shops I called, one had axle assemblies, and it was over 100 miles away. And most everyone is either closed on weekends or close at noon on Saturdays. You can forget Sunday.
I know what to do to fix it, the question is, what would you do upon discovery? How do you plan to get home?
And for bearing maintenance, it was done 3 years ago, almost to the day.
I have to LOLZ on that one. Out of the more than dozen shops I called, one had axle assemblies, and it was over 100 miles away. And most everyone is either closed on weekends or close at noon on Saturdays. You can forget Sunday.
I know what to do to fix it, the question is, what would you do upon discovery? How do you plan to get home?
And for bearing maintenance, it was done 3 years ago, almost to the day.
If the shop 100 miles away has an axle, I'd be loading up to go get it and get a tire/wheel combo while I was there or in town somewhere. Jack stands/jack and wiring parts will help. I carry lots of tools with me so I'm not too surprised by needing something.
I swapped out the springs on all axles two years ago and the only thing I wished was I would have been 40 instead of 60 at the time. LOL..Big pieces of cardboard are nice to lay on too.
You could ask the campground host. Many times there are local Mobile RV techs that can come and fix it on site. You're not the first one to arrive at a campground with a serious issue. Good luck, that stinks for sure.
You could ask the campground host. Many times there are local Mobile RV techs that can come and fix it on site. You're not the first one to arrive at a campground with a serious issue. Good luck, that stinks for sure.
I would offer the same advice. Call and explain the situation. If you can't keep it where it is ask the campground host or owner if there is some place to park it while you work on it.
This park is normally packed and it takes 6 mos. or more to get a reservation. When I presented the situation and asked if my site was available Sunday night, the answer was a definitive "NO". Not exactly sympathetic.
As it turns out, it's doubtful anyone has this axle as it is a Lippert basterd. It's a #4400 axle. 3" tube and 6 lug hubs but smaller #3800 bearings, or so that is what I have learned. I don't see why they would put #4400 axles under something with a #9900 GWVR, but it is what it is. In short, fixing it is going to drawn out, I need to get home.
So longhaultransport and I think alike. Maybe that's scary for me, maybe scary for you, lol.
Here's what I did.
Not ideal angles for the load, but all i had.
Drive 10 miles SLOW, check poor overloaded tire and hub. Heat was ok. Got on HWY and went 55MPH and stopped after 10 miles. Everything still OK. In the back of my mind if that tire blows this could be disastrous...I have 120 miles to go. Checked it several times more and it and yes it was hot, but not getting any hotter, and we made it.
If I ever get down to GA, I'm going to stop in Goodyear and shake those folks hands, that tire performed tremendously. It's an Endurance, not Assurance, the pic tells that story.
I'm 54 and this may have taken a few years off. It was a beautiful place and I didn't enjoy it at all, completely stressed out.
Friends got me liquored up Sat night and enjoyed playing cornhole, but that's it. God bless my wife and friends. The chevy followed me home and we both got great MPG!
However the story doesn't end there. You see one of guys in our little group just happens to be plant mrg. of a 600 employee DJIA company mfg plant where I am a process engineer. First production meeting Monday (today) and he tells everyone to call me "tripod" and offers no other explanation. So that will have to happen tomorrow. BTW his camper is a Freightliner, yes, it's nice.
I wanted to share my story because it can happen to anyone of us. You can't prepare for everything, but it's important to keep a clear mind and THINK. (Praying doesn't hurt either)
When you get the new axle, consider upgrading the suspension to have stronger shackles and wet bolts. The plastic bushings in my suspension were shot and making quite the racket. The new wet bolts make a lot less noise and should last a lot longer.
Might be a good idea to check the rest of the bearings by disassembly, clean, and inspection. The original bearings on our camper started fretting...likely due to lower quality. Luckily I caught it when I cleaned them. My drums were still good so I knocked out and pressed in new cups in the drums and put in all new timken bearings. I imagine when a bearing starts to fail they go to crap in a hurry.
Some people just push new grease through using a bearing packer but don't clean and inspect. It's a pain but I use a parts washer and brush to clean the bearings and hub. I like the synthetic timken grease. It doesn't seem to break down like some other greases. It looks good enough to eat.
That is some nasty failure...lose the drum and everything when the spindle nut is still in place.
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