Bent spring on 303RLS?

[Gyro Gearloose]

Nick,

My unit is used, and I have never seen that weight sheet. Would you mind sharing the weights on yours for a reference point? Maybe I can contact GD and get that information from them. Mine is a '15 also, I think 3/14 build.

Who made your springs and do you have a part number? 5 or 6 leaf?

[Gyro Gearloose]

Rob,

I'm with you on the one side 7k springs. I may try that and see what it looks like. So do these have 6k or 5.2k springs on them stock?

[notsosan]

I don't know who made them. We had just made our trek south for the winter when I noticed the contact. The shop in California that installed them also ordered them. The rig isn't home right now. I will have a look at them the next time we see it and take a photo. Probably next week. I'll also get the weight sheet and scan and post it. We took delivery of ours the end of May 2014 although they call it a 2015. It had come straight from the factory.

[Cate&Rob]

We seem to have a good cross section of 303 owners, interested in figuring this out !

Pat, the OE axles and suspension are 5200 lb. I was kind of thinking 5200 lb springs on the right and 6000 lb springs on the left.

But, this apparent spring deformation has me a little worried. LCI seems to design "to the edge", even putting smaller outer wheel bearings on the 5200 lb hubs than on the 6000 lb. I have been told that lighter axles also have thinner wall tubes. If the OE springs are showing signs of being overloaded . . . maybe other things are too ??

I am going to get under mine today to take some pictures and measurements. We have certainly pounded ours from Canada to Florida and back, twice now, over some incredibly bad roads. More info to follow . . . .

I would like to find some actual "data" on the differences amongst 5200/6000/7000 lb springs.

Rob

[webpilot]

Has anybody tried heavier springs on just the street side ?
It would seem to make some sense to match the springs to the load they are carrying.
If the street side is 1000 lbs heavier . . . why would we expect it to have the same springs as the curb side ?

Rob

Hi Rob,

i was considering it, but with the larger G rated tires, I was getting tire rub on both sides so decided to get 3500# springs on both axles on both sides. The first time around, they messed up and only put on 3000# springs. Even with those, the tire clearance was much better and the trailer had almost the same clearance on both sides. I had asked for 3500# springs and they are putting those on today so we will see how much clearance difference that makes. I think I should be fine. The 337 is 13995# gross max weight. My understanding is that the 6k and 7k axles are the same and only the springs are different, so now I should have 7k axles which is more able to support the 14K max weight of the 5th wheel.

George

[Gyro Gearloose]

Rob,

Agreed with "to the edge". My Reflection 303RLS has a GVWR of 11995. (5200*2) - (11995 - 1660) = -65 Hmm whats wrong with this picture 65# under rated axles if I use GD ave. pin weight. If I use 10% as pin weight then it's more like 395# under rated. 6000# axles would be ragged edge if they taking all the trailer weight.

Here is a link to a Lippert pdf on springs: http://www.lci1.com/assets/content/s...gs_Webpage.pdf

[Gyro Gearloose]

George,

Looking forward to the results of your 7k springs.

Interesting 6k and 7K axles being the same except for springs. I did notice when I was looking at the Lippert manual that 7k axles had 8 lug and 6k had 6 lug and I think the outer bearings are different.

[notsosan]

Pat, the website gives an empty weight of 9195# with a pin of 1660# which would put 18% on the pin. 20% is considered the norm for 5th wheels.

Keeping that 18% ratio for a GVW of 11995# would put 2160# on the pin and 9835# on the axles. The empty left right imbalance on mine is 600#. Using a 800# (conservative IMO) imbalance on a fully loaded trailer would put 4517 on the right springs and 5317 on the left side. The left hand springs would be right at their limit or overloaded on a grossed out 303 with 5200# springs. Originally this was my incentive to go to 16" wheels and I am very happy that also forced me to go to heavier springs as well.

[Gyro Gearloose]

Hey Nick,

Thanks for straightening me out on the pin weight, it thought I read 10% somewhere. Love the calculations you did. I think I will go with the 7k springs just because I want the clearance for 16" wheels and better tires. Now which 7k springs to buy? 5 leaf or 6? More research....

I still like the one side 6k solution but I want a tire rating comfort level also.

[Canyonlight]

Pat--when we were loaded more than how we normally are, headed for a family wedding and then vacation last summer we scaled our truck/303. The 303 axles were just over 9100 and the pin factoring in deducting hitch and other tow vehicle axle weights was just over 2300......still 600 #s under the GVWR for the 303 and more than 1000#s under the axle ratings.

Our 303 is not sitting perfectly level right now in our driveway but I have only about 2 1/4" -2 1/2" between top of tires and bottom of RV "wheel well." This does not seem to be enough clearance and I imagine this is not much different than when it was new. I never dreamed that it would be this close nor did I think it would be necessary to check. It is not loaded with much of anything inside right now either. I also see where the street heavier side has made slight contact with the bottom of the RV. There is no visible contact between tires and wheel well on the curb side.

This is quite disappointing and now I too am now concerned about this apparent design/build error/defect. For new and almost new RVs to be making contact with and damaging the bottom of the RV (and not being overloaded) is incredible. I am not sure what to do as there are various options being shared among several of you and while this is a needed discussion, it seems to me that GDRV is the responsible party to correct this.......not us.

Dan