Inspect your MORryde IS

[Sauced Hog]

This post is in NO WAY meant to bash any company or process. The MORryde IS is a beautifully designed system and I have zero regrets getting it installed. My intent is to inform owners of the MORryde IS to inspect their system and keep an eye on a potential hazard.

We had the 7K MORryde IS with disk brakes installed last November. Except for the trip home from Elkhart, the fiver sat in slumber for the winter. We took a 4000 mile round-about trip the the Keys in April. Our last day, a quarter mile from leaving the campsite while entering the onramp I noticed smoke coming from the back of the camper. After I pulled over, the car behind me stopped and told me the right rear tire had locked up. It was about 10 seconds later the tire blew. Long story short, the caliper had broke loose and wedged itself between the disk and the inside of the wheel. With much gnashing of teeth, I removed the removed the caliper, pinched off the hydraulic line and tied it up then put on the spare allowing us to get home.
The upper tab on the caliper mounting plate had broken off. For whatever reason, the bolts retaining the caliper failed allowing the caliper to travel inside the wheel. Upon inspection of the right rear and the other 5 IS systems, I found a total of 4 with broken upper tabs (3 on the right and 1 on the left). 4 of 6 shocks were also wet or leaking (3 on the left 1 on the right).

Both MORryde and Hydrastar (brakes) were great to work with and I have been sent all the replacement parts and etrailer.com had the tire and wheel. I'll begin the repair process today.

What happened? I was informed by Hydrastar the caliper mounting plates "do not just break." I agree with them. It is possible in the extreme, for the wheels to travel to an extent the plate or caliper bolt can strike the frame. I was not able to locate an obvious strike point, but if the bolt heads retaining the caliper hit anything solid, it could crack the metal on the mounting plate. 2 days before the incident I slow rolled over a curb damaging the lower bolts on the right side shocks and thought that may have been the issue? The 376THS was NOT overloaded, though my Harley was in the garage during the trip. I personally believe the highways did it. I travel 5 MPH under the posted speed limit with a max speed of 65. Especially on bridge transitions, 65 is too fast and I believe the system bottomed out with the 900 lbs in the garage. I don't know how to avoid the extreme bumps and dips on the highway to keep the truck or camper from bouncing. I do know however, what to look for afterwards to hopefully not have this problem again.

If you have the MORryde IS, I recommend keeping a close eye on your shocks for any leaking and replace ASAP if they are. Regularly inspect your caliper bolts for damage, and ensure the torque stripes are lined up. If not, remove, re-apply loc-tight and re-torque. There also may be an alignment tab above the caliper on the I-beam frame. Mine didn't have them, but sometimes they are left on and the location might interfere. I'd take them off. better safe than sorry.

[ajg617]

Might want to read this thread also.

https://www.mygrandrv.com/forum/show...hlight=morryde

[Sauced Hog]

Might want to read this thread also.

https://www.mygrandrv.com/forum/show...hlight=morryde

Thanks. I saw it before I posted. Mine didn't have the tabs installed. If they were, they popped off on impact? I also didn't have any obvious strike damage on the frame.

[LMagelitz]

I had 8k axles installed in January. Doesn’t look like I have any conflict. They cut off part of an overhang circled in yellow.

[ajg617]

My intent was to have IS installed this year, but really, the 8K factory axles took a lot of punishment. Last year the bridge expansion joints on every road we traveled were pathetic and left us wondering what we would find inside when we got to the next campground. The worst joints occurred where no construction was taking place - impossible to tell how bad they were in advance though even the semis were hitting their brakes before some joints because the jolt was just plain violent.

[kb0zke]

One of the advantages of the Foretravel was that I sat up high, even with the semi drivers, and those bumps are a little more obvious from a greater altitude. I'm maybe two feet closer to the ground in the truck, but I still assume that there is a big bump coming and I slow down. I assume that every railroad crossing is rough unless I can see that it isn't. Even then, we're still learning how to stow stuff inside the trailer so it doesn't go where it shouldn't.