Broken Spring Hanger!

**akcooper9** · 10-03-2020, 06:47 PM

Common on a lot of GD trailers. the 28BH forum is filled with failed hangers.

**Just Krusen** · 10-03-2020, 06:52 PM

Originally Posted by minnow101

You can apply that statement to just about anything involving a new RV. Look at it this is way, a new RV is about 90% complete when one buys it. Its up to the customer to finish the remaining 10%.

My BIL calls his trailer a $100,000 starter kit.

**Scott'n'Wendy** · 10-04-2020, 06:14 AM

Originally Posted by akcooper9

Common on a lot of GD trailers. the 28BH forum is filled with failed hangers.

Oh, ok. The thread I was reading seemed to be pretty much isolated to the 303. Makes A LOT more sense that other similar units would fail the same way.

**minnow101** · 10-04-2020, 06:23 PM

Originally Posted by Scott'n'Wendy

Oh, ok. The thread I was reading seemed to be pretty much isolated to the 303. Makes A LOT more sense that other similar units would fail the same way.

It depends on the floor plan. The 303 has the kitchen slide out with the 12 cu. ft. refrigerator, stove, pantry and entertainment center all on the drivers side. That's a lot of weight. A lot more then on the passenger side that only has a dinette and 2 seater couch. However, the leaf spring ratings are the same and the drivers side supports a hell of lot more weight then the passenger side.

**Scott'n'Wendy** · 10-04-2020, 08:09 PM

So why is the passenger side rear the most common broken hanger?

**minnow101** · 10-05-2020, 06:53 AM

Didn’t think it was.

**goducks14** · 10-05-2020, 10:21 AM

Originally Posted by Scott'n'Wendy

So why is the passenger side rear the most common broken hanger?

Shouldn't be. The rear tires get abused more than the fronts so there's more strain on the suspension components. Add in the extra weight on the slide side and there's even more strain.

**Scott'n'Wendy** · 10-05-2020, 07:35 PM

Originally Posted by minnow101

Didn’t think it was.

From what I've been reading...on this and...the other forum...by far the majority.

**Beachcamper** · 10-06-2020, 04:59 AM

My opinion from fulltime use in a 303rls and having the experience of dealing with a busted hanger is that the hangers are very long and flex too much. Lippert has offered the V Brace fix which helps strengthen them but still allows some movement. The brackets are welded on what Lippert calls a “crush tube”. It’s a spacer allowing larger tires and this is welded to the frame. If the 303 would have been made with a larger beam, it would not need this piece.

My solution was to take my rig up to Goshen IND where the Lippert techs could reinforce this area without going crazy with thousands of dollars worth of upgrades. My rig does have disc brakes while expensive, it’s a must have IMHO.

I had them add the V Braces per hanger and then had them weld 2 x 2 tubing above each hanger to span across so now it’s protected from longitudinal and lateral forces. I also had them beef up the shackles. So far, so good I put on 6,000 miles since and crossing my fingers it will continue to work.

**HighPlainsCamper** · Yesterday, 08:57 PM

Originally Posted by bruce.a.anderson

Has a problem attaching pictures to my post.

Sent from my LG-H810 using Tapatalk

I found this thread when I was searching how to reinforce the hanger bracket. I don't have a GD RV. Yet. I have a 2006 Fleetwood Gearbox 220FB toy hauler. It's a bumper pull with a GVWR of 11K. It's a beast. I pull it into some gnarly spots. I'll still do that but I'm going to try to make my turns less sharp to reduce the stress on the hanger brackets.

I recently had the rearmost street side hanger bracket fail. This was a very costly failure since it destroyed all four tires ($645) and a Mobile RV Repair service came to me ($630).

This was not the first failure in that position. A prior owner did the exact same thing that Bruce's welder did by leaving the old bracket plate in place. There are two reasons to NOT do it this way. First, it's not securing the hanger bracket to the frame. The welds shown by his pictures are sloppy. I'm not a professional welder but I can spot poor welds. I do TIG welding of aluminum here at home for non-structural projects. Second, by welding the new hanger bracket to the plate of the old one you're changing the height of where the leaf spring sits. That is going to throw off your alignment. I've had odd tire wear for five years and I think the goofy repair made by the prior owner is a large contributor to that.

My welder did a great job of removing all prior brackets and sourced the exact hanger bracket for my rig. Since the alignment may still be off I'm going to take it to a spring and suspension shop in the Denver area. I'm going to ask them to reinforce the hanger brackets so this doesn't happen again. I doubt that this is something new to them.