Friendly reminder to check your suspension wet bolts

[jjbbrewer]

While waiting for a flush to finish at a dump station, I did a quick look under my 349M at the suspension mounts. I found an empty hole where there should have been a bolt/nut.

Fortunately, I only had to go about 1/4 mile to the campsite. Today I pulled this out of the backside of the hanger.

I'm not sure why this happened, but I'll be checking these more often.

 

[Riverbug]

Wow, good catch. Good reminder to regularly inspect things underneath. Glad it didn't cause any other issues on the road.

 

[Scott'n'Wendy]

Wow. From lack of rust on the shear face it looks like you caught it early. Glad it didn't happen to you at hwy speeds somewhere.

 

[ajg617]

Been there twice now. I'm also shocked that the break is as clean as it is and no rust. The snapped one we removed had a course cast texture at the break line - yours is really smooth. And of course at the grease hole. Curious if that was on a rear hanger?

 

[jjbbrewer]

I'm also shocked that the break is as clean as it is and no rust.

Probably because of 2 things ..

1. I'm under there a lot and while there, I look around a lot. I have no idea when the bolt actually broke but I'm pretty sure the nut side of it ejected sometime in the last 400 miles.
2. I've been travelling around the Arizona desert so there's no rain and practically zero humidity.

And of course at the grease hole. Curious if that was on a rear hanger?

Yep, it was on the left rear hanger.

 

[ajg617]

Probably because of 2 things ..

1. I'm under there a lot and while there, I look around a lot. The bolt may have broken a while back, but I'm pretty sure the nut side of it ejected sometime in the last 400 miles.
2. I've been travelling around the Arizona desert so there's no rain and practically zero humidity.

Yep, it was on the left rear hanger.

Well, we have a lot of humidity but most of our travels have been high desert. My RR bolt disappeared somewhere in Montana and LR was broken at the grease hole but it looked a lot different than yours. The character of metal and break surprised me. It looks like the head of your bolt is black and I sourced some replacements in MT - black heads were a Dexter PN, silver (what we had) were MORryde. Not that it matters, but I like the look of your broken bolt better than mine

 

[Scott'n'Wendy]

Yep, it was on the left rear hanger.

Yup...the rear hangers take all the abuse when you brake. I'm thinking of just swapping out the two rear bolts and bushings each spring just to reduce the failure chance.

 

[tomkatb]

Yep. Had one of those. Cost about $12,000 by the time we were done. Bolt on the right front spring disappeared.

Pays to check torque now and then as well.

 

[18CrewDually]

It's not going to show rust since it is breaking at the grease channel and if properly maintained would be covered in grease.

 

[jjbbrewer]

Pays to check torque now and then as well.

That's a good point.
Even though visually it looked ok, if I'd put a wrench on it, I might have found the failure before 1/2 of it ended up on the road.

It's not going to show rust since it is breaking at the grease channel and if properly maintained would be covered in grease.

That's true, although in this case I'm pretty sure I hadn't greased it since it had broken.

The only reason I say that is I last greased the bolts at the end of last year and I've been on several pretty long trips this year before I saw this problem.

 

[ajg617]

That's true, although in this case I'm pretty sure I hadn't greased it since it had broken.

It's interesting that your original picture of your spring eye & bushing (assuming bronze) and bolt look fairly dry. Had you cleaned the excess off the eye or bolt before snapping the pictures? The bolt, wear-wise looks like it held up pretty well with minimal wear (except the fracture) which begs the question of how many miles you might have on the bolt/bushing? If a decent amount, is it possible that too much grease is not a good thing? Seems counter-intuitive but my original bolts/bushings came from the factory with minimal or no grease and they lasted about 14K miles - suspension creaked badly. I greased the replacements a lot and the bushings were missing with bolts badly worn at 5500 miles.

 

[Wileykid]

I joined the club last year. Both rear bolts sheared, the left side part of the bolt slid out with the other half staying in the spring, bending the bracket. Might have been worse, but I had Summo springs on the trailer and they "took over" for the rear spring. The right side had sheared, but stayed together in the spring. Not sure for how many miles, but got lucky on that one. Fixed them, and was gifted this year with the right rear spring breaking at the rear eye.

 

[18CrewDually]

I have a drawer full of spare wet bolts and bushings in the garage. I put Morryde bolts on our last 13k# fifth wheel camper and never broke one traveling for 12 years from Maine to Florida to TN and everywhere in between.
I think I'll be relocating those spares to the new 5er. Plus now I got 3 axles of bolts to worry about. It also makes me realize it's a good thing the wet bolts are installed with the nut side out so I can easily inspect for a missing one, like the OP JJBBrewer showed in his first post.

 

[Scott'n'Wendy]

It's not going to show rust since it is breaking at the grease channel and if properly maintained would be covered in grease.

I've seen loads of pics online of a broken wet bolt with rust over part of the face..just not the final break.

 

[jjbbrewer]

It's interesting that your original picture of your spring eye & bushing (assuming bronze) and bolt look fairly dry. Had you cleaned the excess off the eye or bolt before snapping the pictures?

Yep, I have aftermarket 4000# springs with bronze bushings. And yes, I cleaned the bolt off with brake cleaner before taking the picture.

The bolt, wear-wise looks like it held up pretty well with minimal wear (except the fracture) which begs the question of how many miles you might have on the bolt/bushing?

Honestly, I can't remember if I'd reused that bolt when I changed the springs or not. The original springs flattened out in <6000 miles. I replaced the worst ones with the same crappy brand and they flattened out in <10k. I put in the Alcan springs in at 16k miles and I'm now at 22k.

So it's possible that bolt had 22K miles on it.

It also makes me realize it's a good thing the wet bolts are installed with the nut side out so I can easily inspect for a missing one, like the OP JJBBrewer showed in his first post.

I installed with the zerks facing inward so I could get to them without pulling the wheels off. But I guess in this case there was another plus.

 

[18CrewDually]

I've seen loads of pics online of a broken wet bolt with rust over part of the face..just not the final break.

Hence my quote "if properly maintained ". If there's rust they're not greasing like you're suppose to which would help in finding the break during that greasing and inspection.

 

[18CrewDually]

Yep, I have aftermarket 4000# springs with bronze bushings. And yes, I cleaned the bolt off with brake cleaner before taking the picture.

Honestly, I can't remember if I'd reused that bolt when I changed the springs or not. The original springs flattened out in <6000 miles. I replaced the worst ones with the same crappy brand and they flattened out in <10k. I put in the Alcan springs in at 16k miles and I'm now at 22k.

So it's possible that bolt had 22K miles on it.


I installed with the zerks facing inward so I could get to them without pulling the wheels off. But I guess in this case there was another plus.

My last 5er I also installed them like that. The new one came with the upgrade and they were also installed this way from the factory. Some people criticized saying they're backwards. But for you and I, it is beneficial and correct.

 

[jjbbrewer]

Some people criticized saying they're backwards.

Interesting. What do they say that makes them backwards?

 

[Hoopy Frood]

Interesting. What do they say that makes them backwards?

Well, some people, like me for example, want the grease fitting on the outside so I can reach it without having to crawl under the trailer. I don't understand why you would have to pull the wheels off to reach the zerks though. Just seems easier to me to have them on the outside. Personal preference I reckon.

 

[huntindog]

I have never been impressed with wet bolts.Had them on 3 trailers and they are a constant headache.
There is no mechanism to keep the grease where it is needed. Most of a greasing is pushed out before you hit the the highway.
I just finished installing Neverfails on my Momentum.
I installed them on my previous TT, and put over 50,000 trouble free miles on it before I sold it
No more greasing for me.