Hanger weld good or bad?

[Beachcamper]

No help from Lippert or GD about trying to find a welder here in FL. Lippert said it was ok to go up to them in Goshen with those welds. Maybe they are right, I don’t know.

[goducks14]

Now that you cleaned them up and even they don't look pretty, they do look sufficient enough to get to Goshen. Even ugly welds are strong. A couple welds look like he made a couple passes to get enough weld to give a good connection.
I'm guessing you're traveling on mostly Interstate roads with not a lot of back and forth curves. Shouldn't be that much stress on the hanger as opposed to heading up and down curvy mtn passes.
I would trust them for a trip to Goshen after seeing the slag chipped off.

[harell]

We also had a spring hanger break in the middle of nowhere Alaska. The mobile welder that came to our rescue welded a new hanger in place and then proceded to reinforce each of the hangers by welding plates on each side of the hanger from about mid hanger to about 2 inches up the frame. This reinforcing should take some of the flex out of the hanger and prevent any broken hangers in the future. Sorry I don't have any pictures. The welds in your pictures look very rough and if it was my trailer I would redo the welds

[Beachcamper]

We also had a spring hanger break in the middle of nowhere Alaska. The mobile welder that came to our rescue welded a new hanger in place and then proceded to reinforce each of the hangers by welding plates on each side of the hanger from about mid hanger to about 2 inches up the frame. This reinforcing should take some of the flex out of the hanger and prevent any broken hangers in the future. Sorry I don't have any pictures. The welds in your pictures look very rough and if it was my trailer I would redo the welds

I can’t imagine how scary that must have been in the middle of nowhere. Did it happen on the highway? I will be visiting Lippert in Goshen to get hangers reinforced with the V Braces. It is not like what you had done but apparently helps with these longer hangers. Search for V Brace here so you can see what they look like.

[livinthelife]

We also had a spring hanger break in the middle of nowhere Alaska. The mobile welder that came to our rescue welded a new hanger in place and then proceded to reinforce each of the hangers by welding plates on each side of the hanger from about mid hanger to about 2 inches up the frame. This reinforcing should take some of the flex out of the hanger and prevent any broken hangers in the future. Sorry I don't have any pictures. The welds in your pictures look very rough and if it was my trailer I would redo the welds

Ours broke a year ago about 25 miles out of Whitehorse, Yukon Territories. We were able to limp back to Whitehorse to a welding shop. We only had the original hanger welded back on, and it looked good. We've driven another year on it and took in for reinforcement work on the hangers, and they found a second hanger was cracked now. Original broken hanger still good.

We had it done at a manufacturing company recommended by our repair shop, and he suggested steel tubes across the bottom of the trailer at each hanger location and pieces of the tubing inside the hangers and a plate on the outside. That's what we had done. Seems to be good, we've traveled an additional couple thousand miles since then and everything is good. The work probably voids any warranty we may have left on our 3 year old trailer, but it's worth the piece of mind.

Got another 10,000 mile trip planned next summer. Not counting the monthly trips where ever.

[Beachcamper]

Now that you cleaned them up and even they don't look pretty, they do look sufficient enough to get to Goshen. Even ugly welds are strong. A couple welds look like he made a couple passes to get enough weld to give a good connection.
I'm guessing you're traveling on mostly Interstate roads with not a lot of back and forth curves. Shouldn't be that much stress on the hanger as opposed to heading up and down curvy mtn passes.
I would trust them for a trip to Goshen after seeing the slag chipped off.

Thank you, being a welder yourself I appreciate your input. I found a picture of the piece he left on the 2 x 2 of the original hanger. That one had the wing snap off so he removed the other side, left the top and cleaned all up before welding the new hanger to it. This explains the weld being thicker and not as neat (I would believe) than pictures I have seen of good welding technique.

[minnow101]

I’m sure if you ask around; RV park office, truck repair shop or even google, you’ll easily enough find a mobile welder who will come to you. Most likely the other hangers need reinforcement as well. No way would I chance it driving all the way back to Indiana when you got plenty of time to get it fixed where you are at.

Edit: I see you posted this issue on another site. Seems you are hell bent on getting this repaired back up in Goshen. As Lippert was the entity that originally welded this which failed causing your current problem, I’m at a loss as to why you feel they will do a better job next time ? And why you want to risk a 2000 mile trip on faulty welds?

[Beachcamper]

They want to add V Braces and reinforce with side to side 2 x 2 tubes similar to the moryde X factor (maybe). As I am not happy with this suspension for the trips I plan to take my rig to. But I have to look at how that would affect removing tanks for repair. I would love the IS suspension but not going to keep this rig long enough to warrant that expense.


I have to go to Indiana to get a slide out issue taken care of over at GD headquarters. Lippert has always done my bearing maintenance annually since I visit family up there anyway. The prices at their shop are not bad, cheaper than dealer. They also added disk brakes to my unit. I have had no issues with the Lippert techs that have taken care of me in Goshen. All work is documented and photographed as a report back to me.

All rest of the hangers are in good shape no cracks or rust. I have cleaned and inspected each and every one of them. This one failed not at the weld but on the shoulder. My issue is the weld done on the road by a mobile tech. If anything else happens, they will be paying for the repair as they paid for this one.

[livinthelife]

They want to add V Braces and reinforce with side to side 2 x 2 tubes similar to the moryde X factor (maybe). As I am not happy with this suspension for the trips I plan to take my rig to. But I have to look at how that would affect removing tanks for repair. I would love the IS suspension but not going to keep this rig long enough to warrant that expense.


I have to go to Indiana to get a slide out issue taken care of over at GD headquarters. Lippert has always done my bearing maintenance annually since I visit family up there anyway. The prices at their shop are not bad, cheaper than dealer. They also added disk brakes to my unit. I have had no issues with the Lippert techs that have taken care of me in Goshen. All work is documented and photographed as a report back to me.

All rest of the hangers are in good shape no cracks or rust. I have cleaned and inspected each and every one of them. This one failed not at the weld but on the shoulder. My issue is the weld done on the road by a mobile tech. If anything else happens, they will be paying for the repair as they paid for this one.

Ours didn't break at the weld, either. It broke at the shoulder.


Here it is welded



And the second one was cracking at the shoulder.

[Beachcamper]

Ours didn't break at the weld, either. It broke at the shoulder.


Here it is welded



And the second one was cracking at the shoulder.

Interesting, you are second person I see with hanger busting same area. Lots of 303 models with hanger failures from my research which is why I don’t trust the suspension on this RV. One thing the welder told me when he was checking out the other hangers he asked, “did you have this hanger replaced before”? He noticed the hanger that broke was not centered on the 2 x 2 as were the other 5 hangers. It was as if one person did those and another person did the one. Here are what the others look like



Position of where one that broke attached