Proper blocking to replace axles, and replacement sequence

[powerscol]

I am embarking on replacing my axles and wanted to run my jacking/blocking plan by folks that know. First my concrete driveway is slightly sloped, so step one will be to hook up the truck, and put tension on the king pin, set the E-brake and put in park, making sure the truck does not relax. Trailer landing gear will be up at this point.

Step 2
I plan to full crib the frame once raised. both in front and behind the axle set. Cribbing will consists or 2x6 blocking set in 2' by 2' bunks - all blocking screwed. I plan to have the cribbing be about 2" to 3" higher than the frame height as sitting in the drive. Before jacking I will have the frame parallel to the drive, so cribbing stacks are equal height

Step 3
Jack using frame on on one side set both cribbing stacks close to the hangers (leaving room to reset the jack to lower), then go to the other side and do the same. At this point the trailer is supported by the frame for an aft of the suspension and front kingpin on the truck. Tires will probably not be fully off the ground at this point, but close.

Step 4
Set the two jack stands I have at rear of trailer at the corners of the receiver hitch cross frame. Then lower front landing gear to make ground contact, but not raise the trailer. Then set the rear stabilizes jacks with slight pressure. Last lock in the Steadyfast system. At this point I should have the trailer solidly supported with zero movement anywhere.

Step 5
Jack the axles to remove the tires - do all 4.

Step 6
Remove existing axles starting at rear - do one at a time moving side to side. In removing the axle hanging hardware remove the nut and press or drive the knurled section out and make sure I don't spin the bolt in place, damaging the fitment. Be sure brake wiring has been disconnected and secured out of the way. During removal photograph each wet bolt and bushing noting location and condition. I have a complete Moryde heavy duty shackle kit to replace everything. With axles removed, finish removal of the EZ-Flex center system.

Step 7
Rebuild, and replace center assembly, installing the Morryde X-Factor cross brace. At this point inspect all hanger holes and be sure there are no issues. Torque the center hanger assembly bolts to specification.

Step 8
First check and torque the u-bolts holding the spring packs in place. Install new axles. starting with fix ends first, making sure axles are correctly oriented so brakes will work. Install X-Factor cross bracing at fix bolt locations at the same time, and be sure wet bolt grease holes are at the 3 or 9oc position. Fully seat the knurled band before snugging up the bolt. Snug up all bolts this way as I install. Once everything is installed double check and torque all bolts to specifications working side to side on each axle. Make sure the shackles are not flipped by bracing the new axles as needed during the install. At this point connect up the brake wiring. Last lube all wet bolts before tire installation. I should note I plan to inspect all the wet bolts by pre-greasing to be sure they work and clean out any manufacturing debris.

Step 9
Install tires by jacking axles under the u-bolts for clearance if needed. Be sure all lug nuts are tighten well, but not torqued fully.

Step 10
Unlock Steadyfast, raise rear stabilizer jacks, raise front landing gear to unload, then I can jack the rear slightly to remove jack stands and not endanger overloading a front jack leg. Then jack the frame and remove cribbing - one side at a time

Step 11
Torque tire lug nuts to final specification

Step 12
Not sure about this step, but sit back, get a cold ice tea and figure out how to celibate. I should also probably take the rig for a test drive before unhooking.

Am I missing anything?

Thanks

[geotex1]

Holy cow! Way more than you need sir! With your trailer leveled in the driveway on the jacks, block the frame and use hardwood shims as needed. Loosen all lug nuts, and jack each axle end to remove tires. How you then break down the running gear depends on what you have available and how many hands will help. It's usually me, myself, and I, so I simply pull the shackle and hanger from one side and lower the axle onto a dolly. Repeat on other side and roll out. Repeat. You bought yourself some much heavier axles, so mounting them you want the springs in the hangers first, and then jack the axle to connect the shackles at the equalizers. You want to keep your rig close to the ground or you'll get into a bind not having jacks tall enough to get the axle where you need.

[powerscol]

Holy cow! Way more than you need sir! With your trailer leveled in the driveway on the jacks, block the frame and use hardwood shims as needed. Loosen all lug nuts, and jack each axle end to remove tires. How you then break down the running gear depends on what you have available and how many hands will help. It's usually me, myself, and I, so I simply pull the shackle and hanger from one side and lower the axle onto a dolly. Repeat on other side and roll out. Repeat. You bought yourself some much heavier axles, so mounting them you want the springs in the hangers first, and then jack the axle to connect the shackles at the equalizers. You want to keep your rig close to the ground or you'll get into a bind not having jacks tall enough to get the axle where you need.

Thanks Rob
My concern is the slope of the drive (over 30' it drops about 2') and the trailer shifting on the shims, thus wanting the full cribbing supporting the frame. I do agree on keeping it low though.

Thanks for your thoughts.

[Redapple63]

If you have it connected to your truck and those wheels braked and chocked, you should be able to use jacks and jack stands in conjunction with your manually deployed landing gear.

Bring your landing gear down manually just enough to hit the ground at each point.

Use the jacks and jack stands to lift the frame high enough to get the wheels off the ground ( after breaking torque on lug nuts). Then secure frame with jack stands. Then use additional jack stands to support the axle as you prepare to remove it.

Bill

[geotex1]

Thanks Rob
My concern is the slope of the drive (over 30' it drops about 2') and the trailer shifting on the shims, thus wanting the full cribbing supporting the frame. I do agree on keeping it low though.

Thanks for your thoughts.

There's nothing wrong with being extra cautious. I don't have any way to sketch a free-body diagram of forces here, but if I did you'd quickly see there's no concern with scaling back.

Here are the meaningful tips:

- To unseat the knurled shoulders, loosen the nut so that it's still biting a thread or two. Use a ballpeen hammer and squarely smack the nut till the knurled should is free. Should you have the circumstance where the wet bolt has hogged out the spring hanger and you're not a welder, your only driveway recourse will be to reverse the wet bolts. Inconvenient for greasing, but you'll be back together the same day. There are no alternate profiles in the 9/16" bolts, so the only other option is filling the hogged out hole with weld, drilling and opening to spec. Make sure new bolts go back in clocked to match the cuts made by the prior bolt's knurls. If you do not, you can be most assured you will strip out when you torque.

- Given the age of your Reflection, you likely don't have clipped spring hangers so you may find them bent from vertical. This is the time to straighten them. Do not pound on them to do so. The need to be bent. I normally use my old iron worker's adjustable wrench, which is ~24" long because the jaws can grip the hanger legs for ~3/4 of their free length allowing for a nice, uniform bend back into vertical. I have fixed some so bad that I need to break out the hot wrench and my portapower, or just cut them off completely and weld on new... So, I do encourage a good, thorough look before you begin breaking things down just in case. When you are broken down and things straightened, measure the distance between each set of hangers to make sure things match. From the factory, one of my hangers was 3/16" off and one was rotated about 4 degrees, and the latter was the source of my early suspension failure.

- This is up to you, but I recommend you pull the hub-drums and service the bearing even though these are new axles. I have received excellent complete axles from Dexter and those that were the exact opposite.

- Torque fasteners final after the rig is sitting on the axles. You do not want suspension components in a bind. After torqueing, mark all fasteners with a torque marker for a visual queue for future inspections.

All in all, if the hangers are in good shape, this will be a straight-forward R&R with the biggest obstacle being jockeying the axles to align and rehang. This is where having drift pins will be very helpful and well as extra hands, but still doable yourself.

[FT4NOW]

When i replaced all the springs on my 399, I used the leveling system to raise the RV and then I placed 2 10T jacks up front at the frame near the landing gear and 2 20T jacks near the rear on the frame rails and lowered the RV on the jacks with the leveling system. The jacks are pretty beefy and the rear ones are huge since the frame rails are about 30" off the ground. I felt pretty confident how the RV was supported and it worked out great.

I found it helpful to have a standard pair of 3T jack stands to hold the axles while removing, and a floor jack to raise and lower the axle as necessary when aligning everything back during installation.