Leaf Spring Hanger Questions

[Papahoosh]

I am considering beefing-up the hangers on my 337RLS since I hear a lot of posts regarding hangers breaking.
Which hangers usually break the most the Ends or the one in the Center?
I have seen people add a small plate to the End hangers on one side.
How do you add a plate to the Center hanger since you may need access to the inside of it?
Why the manufacturer doesn't bolt the hangers to the frame on top of welding it?

[WhittleBurner]

We had 1 fall off due to a bad weld which caused failure (cracking in/on the weld) on the other side. Rear axle. All 4 are now braced, this was done and decided on by lippert mobile techs. We agreed quickly.

We also early on had a lift done which included a brace to the center with a beam going across .

If you are going through the effort and expence to brace, I'd do all of it

[Scramjet]

I am considering beefing-up the hangers on my 337RLS since I hear a lot of posts regarding hangers breaking.
Which hangers usually break the most the Ends or the one in the Center?
I have seen people add a small plate to the End hangers on one side.
How do you add a plate to the Center hanger since you may need access to the inside of it?
Why the manufacturer doesn't bolt the hangers to the frame on top of welding it?

On my 303 RLS one side of the rear hanger broke first. Then the other “ear” broke shortly after. The road repair was welding the hanger back on and boxing both the front and back side of that hanger.

When Lippert did the complete repair at their facility in Indiana they took out the road repair and welded in a new hanger. Then they welded in the “V” bracket piece in between the “ears” on all 6 hangers. If I recall correctly they then welded in 2 cross braces from one side to the other side of the frame. They also replaced all the hardware and equalizer.

There is a long discussion about this somewhere in the forum.

Brian

[leselmore]

We had hanger end caps welded on a year ago when we upgraded to 3500 lb springs; MORRyde SRE-4000 equalizer; wet bolt upgrade and MORRyde cross-member on the center hangers.

Recently we upgraded from 5200 lb axles to 7K axles; 8-lug hubs; 4400 lb 8-lug wheels and Sailun S637 trailer tires. I was concerned they had re-used the u-bolts but they assured me they were fine as the u-bolts were swapped out when they did the spring upgrade last year. Have not pulled it anywhere after the recent axle and tire upgrade. Hope the ride is not too rough; if so, I'll be adding the Roadmaster shocks.

[Indy Tim]

I am considering beefing-up the hangers on my 337RLS since I hear a lot of posts regarding hangers breaking.
Which hangers usually break the most the Ends or the one in the Center?
I have seen people add a small plate to the End hangers on one side.
How do you add a plate to the Center hanger since you may need access to the inside of it?
Why the manufacturer doesn't bolt the hangers to the frame on top of welding it?

I've been looking at getting the Lippert "V" supports welded in to be proactive. I've emailed Lippert and they gave me P/N 103727 which cost $5.95 each.

Tim

[Papahoosh]

I've been looking at getting the Lippert "V" supports welded in to be proactive. I've emailed Lippert and they gave me P/N 103727 which cost $5.95 each.

Tim

Did you order 6 of them?

[AZMike]

I've been looking at getting the Lippert "V" supports welded in to be proactive. I've emailed Lippert and they gave me P/N 103727 which cost $5.95 each.

Tim

Interesting that this drawing was made in 2003. Were they aware of problems back then? There have been many revisions recently fairly close together.

[goducks14]

I find it hard to comprehend how Lippert can't make a trailer frame that won't fail. 5th wheels frames have front over hang issues and their TT frames suffer from spring hanger failures. This has been going on since I 1st started to own RV trailers in 2010. Welding's not that hard. I've been welding in one form or another since 1970 in high school.
Is it cheap material or poor welding or both?

[Indy Tim]

Did you order 6 of them?

I'm buying 4 of these and a "X factor" MorRyde support for the middle hanger.

[jjbbrewer]

I find it hard to comprehend how Lippert can't make a trailer frame that won't fail. 5th wheels frames have front over hang issues and their TT frames suffer from spring hanger failures. This has been going on since I 1st started to own RV trailers in 2010.

Amen. I've had toy haulers since 1996 and it's been the same. And it's not just Lippert. And it's not just TT's with spring hanger failures.

The F-450 leaf spring suspension mounting is absolutely monstrous compared to my 349M suspension.
The 2 axle GVWR on both is 14K lbs.