MORryde CRE/3000 & Wet Bolt Kit Installation - 2950RL

[Steven@147]

Well I got around to installing the upgrade to our unit. In another thread you can see all that I went through with the MORryde qualification guide in determining if this system would fit the Image 2950RL. It does and MORryde confirmed it.

It was a long day! It took about 3.5 to 4 hours per side to install the parts. A lot of time spent to jack up the RV, remove the tires and place the jack stands under the frame. Since the RV sets up really high and the jack stands were almost at their maximum height supporting the frame, I also used concrete blocks and wood spacers for added security.
Attached are pics of the parts involved and a list of tools I had to use to install the upgrade. You will notice the new wet bolts and the single hole in them for the grease to flow out into the bronze bushings. You can also see the knurled ends of the bolts next to the bolt head.

Edit: I also added a pic of the old shackles next to the new ones. You can really see the difference!

CRE2-35 Equalizers and U012-016 Wet Bolt Kit. Required for 35 inch wheel base and 2.25 inch shackle length.

Tools,
Straight slotted screw driver
Needle nose plyers
Torque wrench and 11/16, 9/16 impact sockets
1/2 inch drive Air Impact and 1/2 inch drive ratchet
13/16 and 11/16 boxed / open wrenches
Large "C" clamp
Pry bar
Big ball-peen hammer
vice grips
Two 6 ton jack stands
Two 3 ton jack stands
Two 2.75 ton floor jacks
One 12 ton tire changing jack and six 4x4 wood blocks stacked cross layered
Two wood 2x4 pieces
Also ended up using my hydraulic port-a-power spring jaws.
There really is no instructions that come with the Equalizer Kit. Just one page that tells you the nut torque of 40 foot pounds and 4 quick and dirty steps to install the kit. It is more involved than that!

[Steven@147]

Ok, now we have the RV up, tires off and properly blocked and supported, time to start removing the old parts. The Good, the Bad, the Ugly!
I found it doesn't really matter where you start first. R&R the equalizer first or start by R&R the very front and very rear spring bolts.

On the curb side of the RV I started on the front leaf spring, to remove the very front spring bolt and replace it with a new wet bolt and bushing. The work that you have to do follows the same procedure: You have one of your two floor jacks under the forward axle,
NOTE: I only used the air impact to loosen the nuts, it was faster that way but never used the air impact to install the new nuts on the new bolts.

Don't take the old nut all the way off. I left the nut on the bolt a few turns and smacked it with my big ball-peen hammer to force the bolt head out of the perch / hanger. Then remove the nut and now I can get a prybar behind the bolt head and start to pull the old bolt out of the perch. You'll find that sometimes the bolt doesn't want to come out. Adjust your floor jack to help relieve tension from the spring and bolt. In my case some of the bolts were stuck. I used a combination of a prybar to get it started out and then used vice grips on the bolt shank and tapped the vice grips with the hammer to get the bolt out.

Lower the floor jack under the forward axle just enough to disengage the front spring eye from the perch to get at the old plastic bushing, get your straight blade screw driver between the spring eye and the plastic bushing and collapse the bushing, grab it with your needle nose pliers twist and pull, it should come right out. Insert the new bronze bushing in the spring eye and use a "C" clamp to seat the new bushing centered in the spring eye. Raise the floor jack under the axle to raise the front of the spring eye back into its perch and insert the new wet bolt.

Now here is the rub. When the spring eye rises back into the front perch it may be off centered from the perch bracket hole. You cant get the new bolt in. The spring eye has to be perfectly centered with the perch bracket hole to get the bolt in. The new wet bolt shoulder will hang on the bronze bushing. DONT beat it in, you'll damage the new bronze bushing and you will never get the bolt in. You have to be patient and maneuver the center equalizer and shackle to in turn move the front spring eye fore or aft and the floor jack to raise or lower the eye to perfectly align with the hole in the perch bracket. This was my frustrating part. it has to be perfectly centered or the new bolt will not go in.

This is where my hydraulic port-a-power spring jaws came in handy. I could wedge the hydraulic spring jaws between the center equalizer frame perch and the forward edge of the equalizer shackle. A small pump on the port-a-power moved the front spring eye forward just enough to align the hole and slip the bolt in.

Now put the new nut on and slowly tighten it to draw the bolt head and knurled end into the perch. I had marked all the wet bolt heads where the grease hole was so I could align them to the 9 oclock position for efficient grease distribution. Once I had the knurled part of the wet bolt pulled into the perch I used a deep 9/16 impact socket on the bolt head over the grease fitting and smacked it with my hammer to fully seat it into the perch, then tighten the nut to 40 foot pounds.

Now on to replacing the center equalizer. No big deal here, remove all the nuts with the impact, take the shackles off, smack the center bolt holding the equalizer in and remove everything. Pull out the old plastic bushings in the spring eyes, install the new bronze bushings.
The equalizers come with new bronze bushings already installed. Install the new equalizer with the center bolt clocked to 9 o'clock position. Draw the center bolt head into the perch, use 9/16 deep socket to smack the head and seat it into the perch, hook up the new shackles and torque everything to 40 foot pounds.

[wstcoaster07]

Awesome write up, thanks. Will keep it for reference when I finally get around to doing mine.

Did you run in to any issues with the LP gas line being in the way of jacking up the trailer? On my 2500RL the gas line runs right along the frame and comes out just forward of the axle. I think I will have to just remove the LP junction point to keep the line out of the way during the install.

[Steven@147]

Good morning, I lost my internet connection yesterday so I couldn't finish.
On the street side installation, yes the gas line is very close to being in the way and also the holding tank drain plumbing. I removed the gas line holding clamps from the frame and pushed the gas line out of the way to get the frame jack stands in there. I also used concrete blocks with small pieces of 2x4 wedged under the frame right next to the drain plumbing. Be very careful here and make sure you have everything placed right before setting the weight of the RV on the supports. the gas line is very , very close.

The street side installation went very much like the curb side. Again when installing the new wet bolts in the end spring eyes, they didn't perfectly align to the hanger holes to get the new wet bolts in so I had to place a small 2x4 piece of wood between the arm of the center equalizer and the shackle for that spring. Then use my hydraulic jaws wedged between the center equalizer frame hanger and the block of wood to push down on the shackle to get the axle to move forward and then jack under the axle to get it to move up or down. Its got to be perfect or the new bolt will not go in.

Also I found that the front and rear leaf spring end hangers on both sides of the RV are a little wider than the leaf spring eye from the manufacturer. What they did was put the stock bolt in and probably used an air impact on the nut and ran it tight pinching the hanger sides tight together against the spring eye. When you put the new wet bolt in, you'll find you will reach your torque value of 40 foot pounds before the hanger sides are set to the spring eye. There will be a slight gap between the spring eye and the hanger. If you try to use the wet bolt to pull the hanger together you strip the threads of the new wet bolt or end up with a false torque spec. Use your "C" clamp on the hanger sides to pull them together set to the spring eye, then torque the nut to 40 foot pounds.
Be very careful when crawling around under the RV, under the suspension, you have to get on the back side of the new suspension components to properly torque the the nuts, make sure you have the RV properly supported, tension / weight off the suspension components before you try to take them apart.

Here is a pic of the old plastic bushings.

A BIG thank you to my wife Tami, she was right there helping me, handing me tools, refilling my ice tea and was a great help! I'm 62, bad knees, it was 80 degrees, crawling around on the gravel drive made this kind of a miserable job. It isn't a complicated job, just time consuming and sometimes frustrating. Would I do it again, no, I would let someone else install the upgrade.
I hope it was worth it in the end! Jim said it made his unit ride and tow better. I haven't towed our rig yet with the new suspension, I'll let you know when I do.

The MORryde replacement equalizer has a built in wear indicator that will tell you when its time to replace it. I hope that will be several thousand miles down the road! There are pictures in the documentation that comes with the unit that show this.

[Steven@147]

Side note: The old spring mounting bolts and shackle bolts had the heads of the bolts facing out as the OEM installed them. I installed the new wet bolts and new shackle bolts in the same way that Lippert had done originally with the bolt heads facing out. This made all the grease fittings of the new wet bolts facing out and all of the grease fittings are easy to get to and accessible to grease them from the outside and there is nothing in the way. After installation all of the new grease fittings took grease fine.

I can not see where some dealerships say that the frame hangers on the Image are different and that this kit will not work. For the 2950RL the kit bolted right in.
Don't be concerned about how I had to use an hydraulic spring jaws to get the end spring eyes to align to the hanger holes. They were only off by mere fractions to get the new wet bolts in. There are several pivot points on the center equalizer and shackles and they will move when you lower the axle to get the end leaf spring eyes down out of the hangers / perches to replace the bushing and install the new wet bolt.

Now the hangers and perch dimensions may be different on other Imagine models like the 2800, you'll just have to do the measuring and go through the MORryde qualification guide like I did.

Steve

[Steven@147]

Additional comments: Someone asked me about "gluing" in the new bronze bushings as they had seen on a YouTube video. Yeah I saw that video as well.

The idea of the bronze bushing is, that it rotates around the wet bolt and since it is greased, it rotates freely, instead of the spring eye trying to rotate around the bronze bushing or rotate around the securing bolt if the bushing is completely gone.

In my case I didn't think it was necessary. Our RV has 3000 miles on it. Three of the leaf spring end eye plastic / nylon bushings were already wore out, only one was really bad with some of the bushing missing. The center equalizer section of the leaf spring eye bushings were still fairly good. So the leaf spring eye nylon bushings did not have enough time to completely wear out, and the spring eye had not been riding and grinding on the securing bolt to wallow them down. All of the new bronze bushings I put in were snug and I had to use a "C" clamp to get them in. So I didn't see the need to "glue" them in.

Now on an old RV or trailer, that the suspension has been neglected, the new bushings may be really loose in the spring eye. In that case yeah maybe glue them in or better replace the springs or get thicker bushings.

Another question - press the wet bolts into the hangers instead of smacking them. Yeah, I saw that too on a video. You could use a couple sockets over the head and over the threads and use a clamp to press them in.

I have seen comments about e-Trailer wet bolts and how the grease zerks are loosely pressed into the bolt head and sometimes pull out and stick in the grease gun. I don't know if the MORryde fittings are pressed in or screwed in but they all seemed great to me. I suspect MORryde has a better reputation for their products.

By the way the wet bolts for kit U012-016 are 9/16 -7/16-20 by 2.90" long, the nuts of course are 7/16-20.

[Steven@147]

I'm going to add to this thread some discussion about the spring hangers. You can also go to the Reflection TT forum and read TucsonJim's post "Spring Hanger Concern".
All of my spring hangers on our 2950RL are as you see in the attached picture, somewhat "pinched" together. As I said installing the wet bolts, I advised to use a "C" clamp to pull the sides of the hanger together against the spring eye then torque the nut to 40 foot pounds.

Maybe what I should have done was realized this was not good from the beginning. I guess what we are realizing is the spring hangers as installed on the frame are a little too wide for the width of the leaf spring. Before I took everything apart to install the new wet bolts I noticed they were "pinched" together. I commented that they must have used an impact on the nut and kept running them down until the hanger sides met with the spring.

The new wet bolts I put in are 2.90" long, that is from the base of the head to the end of the threads. They match the original bolts I took out. See attached pics.
If I was to straighten out the hangers and then shim the sides of the leaf spring eyes to the corrected width of the hangers, the replacement wet bolts would be too short.

I dislike the thought of taking this apart again! I would have to get all new longer wet bolts.
Had I not done the wet bolt thing I would not have noticed the hangers were "pinched". Then I read Jim's post over on the Reflection forum. His hanger was really bent. I would have been off on my merry way ignorant.

Does anybody have any ideas? Advice? Should I be concerned?

Cotton-picken-tjhing keeps posting the picture upside down

Steve

[Cate&Rob]

The new wet bolts I put in are 2.90" long, that is from the base of the head to the end of the threads. They match the original bolts I took out. If I was to straighten out the hangers and then shim the sides of the leaf spring eyes to the corrected width of the hangers, the replacement wet bolts would be too short.

Does anybody have any ideas? Advice? Should I be concerned?

Steve

Hi Steve - This is exactly the problem. I went through the exercise of making shim washers to keep the hanger sides parallel and then realized that the standard bolts would be too short. The difference is very small, but I don't think wet bolts are available in incrementally different sizes. I did consider machining a slight recess into the thick MORryde shackle plates so that the bolt head would sit the required amount lower and allow for the shims between the hanger and spring . . . but have not done this yet. It is important to realize that the nut torques up against a shoulder on the bolt . . . not the hanger . . . so the assembled length is not adjustable. BTW, remember that you can only use the "crunched" torque retaining nuts once.

Rob

[Steven@147]

Thanks Rob. Yup, I'm just going to leave it alone. At least my hangers are pinched together evenly and not wopper-jawed. :-) On the nuts I did notice that some people also used red loctite and felt a little uneasy about the single use nuts. It's done, leave it alone, see how she rides now.

[Steven@147]

Towed the RV to the dealer for some warranty work this morning, approx 35 miles. One year old after 3000 miles. The RV rode much better ( smoother) after I did the suspension upgrade. It takes dips in the roadway much better, not near as much yanking on the truck.
Got to the dealership, the Service Writer and I walked out to the RV to discuss needed repairs, state trailer inspection and maintenance checks (axle seals, brake adjustment & tire balancing). As soon as we got close to the RV he said " Got some CRE's, great upgrade, I believe in MORryde products". That made me feel good!

The upgrade was worth the effort.