RV Inspection saved us from a Catastrophic Event - with Bloopers

[@goodcitizen1611]

Wow! No telling how many lives may be saved because you took the time to share this.

[@OurRoadLessTraveled]

Thank you

[@dab42bridges80]

That amount of damage is scary, glad it was spotted before something went seriously wrong. I bet there's a lot of owners out there that are just waking up to this potential problem after seeing this. This is what makes your channel so valuable, I've learned a lot by watching, and maybe if I or another viewer mention this to someone else they might avoid an expensive disaster too.

[@OurRoadLessTraveled]

Brother that is exactly why are put that out. Its great of you to think of others. I hope this brings a little awareness to the suspension on these things.

[@blueoxontherun9188]

Awareness is key!

[@johndernberger1961]

Great conversation and most people do not inspect their suspensions. Just completed a spring, shackle and equalizer upgrade this week on our 2016 Winnebago travel trailer. Since I have a Lippert Frame I relied on their technical staff to provide me with all the replacement parts. I did upgrade to an equa-flex with wet bolts. The technical staff along with the paper instructions and the KZbin videos were excellent and made the job extremely easy. Safe travels !

[@OurRoadLessTraveled]

Great comment. That is a rough job congratulations for getting it done.

[@jmburk55]

Well, you effectively scared the crap out of me. I tow our 43' 5th wheel through California, Oregon, Idaho, Utah, and Nevada every year. The sounds of the "clanging" have concerned me, but I never saw anything during my pre trip inspections. Now I want to take a closer look and have an inspection done by someone who actually knows what to look for. Thank you for making this video.

[@OurRoadLessTraveled]

This warms my heart. I will say, now that I know what to look for; it would be easy to find the damage. Crawl under there with a flashlight and look at all the wields on the equalizer then each bolt. Our main problem was the lack of CRE3000 shackles and wet bolts. Due to the lesser quality Dexter, I think that is what caused the issues.

[@whilewestillcan]

Fantastic video. Thank you! So glad you are all safe.

[@OurRoadLessTraveled]

thank you.

[@Luv2Bhitched]

Great information. After the axel came loose on ours on the way to Michigan I can tell you that is an experience I wouldn't wish on anyone. And we mistakenly thought "it's brand new nothing to worry about" guaranteed we ever buy another new one the inspection will happen before we hitch up. Glad you are repaired and glad you guys are safe.

[@blueoxontherun9188]

It's a hard lesson to learn. Luckily, your situation ended well!

[@OurRoadLessTraveled]

Wow, glad you are ok

[@johndenissweeney6753]

They are top notch if not the best in the RV inspection field . Love their videos and channel , glad you had Blue Ox on the Run go over your RV 👍

[@OurRoadLessTraveled]

yeah, we really like those guys. They know their stuff too. Not just glossing over things. They do a very good job for their customers.

[@ericoswald7608]

You did! Thanks so much for this very important video.

[@OurRoadLessTraveled]

you are so welcome. thank you for watching.

[@CruisinwiththeColemans]

Wow, just wow! I’m glad you are safe! Thank goodness. Take care!

[@OurRoadLessTraveled]

Thanks,

[@mercywas]

Great info.

[@OurRoadLessTraveled]

Glad it was helpful!

[@pamelawaterman3960]

Wow glad for this video. Thank you

[@OurRoadLessTraveled]

Glad it was helpful! Thank you for watching and commenting!

[@lauraheadley9026]

So glad you had all the things checked. So glad. Stay safe out there in God’s country. The bloopers are what my sailor’s mouth live for lol 😂

[@OurRoadLessTraveled]

Thank you!! We are fortunate! As always thanks for commenting! We cracked up watching the bloopers over! 😂

[@blueoxontherun9188]

The bloopers are the best😂

[@jeffwatson2234]

Holly Hell Clay You done run the wheels off ur rig 😊 Meeting you all at Harrisburg and talking got me thinking, that why i went through my suspension You folks are a wealth of knowledge I'm glad you did the video and glad you didn't go down on side of road

[@OurRoadLessTraveled]

thanks. im glad you checked yours out.

[@kevinm3873]

I was just like you. I thought I knew everything on the trailer. Checked the roof , plumbing, electrical, tires, lights, bearings, tires, etc. I Never checked the suspension until I had a leaf spring break. When I took my suspension apart it was worn out as bad as yours. If your going to replace the shackles and equalizer, I would replace the leaf springs also. I try and tell this to everyone that has a trailer, doesn't matter how old they are you should at least change to the heavy duty shackles. It's crazy that trailer manufactories can put so many people in danger with cheap products just to save a dollar! Keep up the good work informing people of this safety concern.PS I seen a video of a guy who took his boat trailer every year to have it inspected and they never noticed that his suspension was totally worn out.

[@OurRoadLessTraveled]

we ended up trading the Tandara for a new Ahara 5 weeks ago. I agree with you 100% on changing everything. One this rig, we hope to go to an IS and get rid of the leaf springs all together. It was really eye opening. thanks for the comment and helping to raise awareness. Everyone needs to hear it, regardless of who the speaker is.

[@5thMile]

Woah! That’s crazy. That could have been disastrous. Glad yall found it early.

[@OurRoadLessTraveled]

I was shocked.

[@jstar1000]

Early? kind of past early, just not too late, like one tow away from two late most likely.

[@gregvworld]

I would NEVER called Clay a know it all. 😗 no but seriously… great info. Glad you guys are ok.

[@OurRoadLessTraveled]

Thank Greg, see yall soon

[@lightryder85]

I just broke a suspension hanger on our triple axle. Realized i need to do a suspension refresh and after doing research i just found out about all this with the wet bolts and MoRyde shackle system. I'm running the CRE3000's too and like you, i do all my own repairs on my RV and feel like i know the rig inside and out. Boy was i wrong and did the exact same thing as you with the suspension. I'm upgrading to the AllTrek 4000's, full system and upgraded 8k axle springs, reinforcing the hangers and installing hanger cross members. Good luck and happy travels!

[@OurRoadLessTraveled]

That will be a great upgrade. If you are ordering from Morryde you can use the discount code ORLT7% and save 7%. Keep us updated on the progress.

[@posplayr]

Looking at the picture of the CRE3000 at 9:36 it appears as if there is a manufacturing defect. It is pretty clear that the left side started to rip apart from the lower edge where the wear indicator (horizontal tab) is located. Comapring the left-hand side to the right-hand side there is a large build-up of weld material at the point where the rip started on the left-hand side. Teh left-hand side is much smaller (only 25% of the thickness) and following the weld material up the left-hand side it is substantially (50 % as much as the right-hand side. The problem is once the crack starts at the bottom left, it will continue to rip apart up the left-hand side. One might say it is a poor design, but in this case, it appears the weakness was caused by the welder's lack of attention and a failure of the final inspection to catch the production flaws.

[@OurRoadLessTraveled]

Great review. I would agree that it was a manufacturing defect. They replaced it at no cost and overnight-ed the part. I will say, putting 50k miles on it did not help at all. We got it fixed though

[@cjwalstad]

So great you found the damage before you had a catastrophic failure. My question, what new components did you have installed on your axles? Did you stay with the Morryde CRE3000? system? It appears in the video you had installed new Morryde heavy duty shackle straps and new wet bolts along with a set of new CRE3000 equalizers.

[@OurRoadLessTraveled]

you are correct, we replaced the standard Dexter bolts and shackles with MORryde shakles and the wetbolt kit. We ended up trading the rig in Jan of 24 and went with an Ahara 365. We just finished a video of the MORryde independent suspension install on it. We did not want to deal with leaf springs anymore.

[@bobmartens1089]

Dexter also makes the super thick shackles and bronze bushings, i know ive installed them. But everything u say is bang on.

[@OurRoadLessTraveled]

good to know. Ill have to look those up. Thank you for the information.

[@davidbarber1033]

Thanks for the video. We have a 2022 285 RL. What springs did you go back with? I found a CRE 3000 replacement kit with wet bolts on Amazon but it comes with heavier springs for a 7000 lb axel.

[@OurRoadLessTraveled]

We kept the same leaf springs. Replaced one CRE3000 equalizer and wet bolt kit UO12-O16.

[@johnderbabian6198]

Those plastic bushing are probably from the springs. The Morride replacement wet bolt/shackle kit comes with the bronze bushings that you have to replace the plastic bushings with. Because they didn't use the Morride kit, that step was never done.

[@OurRoadLessTraveled]

You are 100% correct. I brought it to the attention of East to West. They claimed that our rig used the MorRyde CRE 3000 suspension system. That system is the equalizer AND the brass wet bolt kit. For some reason it did not get installed on ours. Could be they ran out of parts or who knows. We did have it installed, so the new owner got basically a brand new suspension. Thanks for the comment. Its the highlight of my day to log on and interact with people.

[@OurRoadLessTraveled]

@@ZonaJim good catch. i misspoke, but honestly thought they were brass. I did look it up and they are indeed bronze.

[@richardlynam7856]

Wow I have a 2022 East to West Tandera 386MBOK and my hanger failed. I have the lifetime warranty also and pay good money for it. This was our first trip with this Rv out of our state, we made it 750 miles stayed a week. On our way back home we blew out our left rear tire. Had a tire shop come out and fix it. Got 20 miles and blew same tire out again. I honestly thought they over aired the tire. But paid for a new tire and again blew it out again. Now I know I have a problem. Decided to put our spare tire on. After inspecting saw the hanger was jacked up and had to take it to the nearest Rv shop. Probably just what you said. Will contact rv repair shop and talk with them. Thank you

[@OurRoadLessTraveled]

Hate that that happened to you. glad you found it though. let us know what it ends up being. Keep your receipts, E2W may cover the cost of the tires.

[@jstar1000]

Not to be a hater but to put 50k miles on a tow rig of any kind and not do inspections of the suspension and brakes, frame etc is nuts. I can't even fathom that. They make a cross brace that beefs the side to side movement up and would have prevented most of that wear in my opinion along with the wet bolts and greasing often. The cross brace is called X factor, look into it.

[@OurRoadLessTraveled]

I get that, but you don't know what you don't know. I feel like I covered that pretty well in the video and took full responsibility for the failure. My hope is that others see my failure and don't repeat it. I don't take your comment as being a hater at all. Now knowing about the suspension, I can't fathom I didn't look at it sooner either. Bothers me still to this day.

[@jstar1000]

@@OurRoadLessTraveled I hear you, its easy to not think or look at stuff, were all guilty of that to some degree. Besides you had that upgraded CRE 3000, surly that gave you a false sense of security for sure, probably would have done the same for me because I didn't really know any better either until I watched a bunch of videos like yours. I just ordered $800 worth of suspension goodies for my 7 year old 5th wheel. I don't put near the miles on it as you did though. Maybe 10% of what you have done in 7 years lol. Maybe slightly more. I have been getting some strange wear on one of the axles so I bet when I take it apart it may surprise me how bad it is where you can't see stuff. I don't really see anything obvious though but something isn't right with the wear.

[@OurRoadLessTraveled]

@@jstar1000 It bothered me so bad on teh Tandara, that we installed the MORryde IS on the new Ahara 5th wheel. Ride and braking are way better now. We do a yearly service at MORryde, and I dont have to worry about it. Thanks for the comments.

[@amlee7]

Soo you went 2 years with the OEM shackles, dry bolts and PLASTIC bushings and lay blame on Moryde?

[@OurRoadLessTraveled]

No, not sure how you can to that conclusion. I do question how the equalizer cracked. At no point did I blame Morryde for the other items, its not even their equipment. I think you need to watch the video again.

[@gold5th]

@@OurRoadLessTraveled My take is it was 100% dexter factory, somebody replaced the rigid equalizer with the cre3000, but only the equalizer and re-used the old bolts. Then then Nylon bushing wore/failed causing shock load on the bolts which then over time caused the rest of the damage. Chance are if the nylon bushing were swapped out more often it would have been "fine". But most people expect suspension to last much much longer. I have a small flat deck and my nylon bushings are soooooo shot it's not even funny... I just use it so little it's low on the priority list. I actually have a cre3000 competitor system that should be here tomorrow.

[@ZonaJim]

@@OurRoadLessTraveled the equalizer cracked because the other components were so badly worn that they were hammering into the top cap.

[@OurRoadLessTraveled]

@@ZonaJim I agree, and if you see our comments above, it clearly states it was due to high mileage and rough roads.

[@jorgepatino6844]

Some people want things to last forever

[@OurRoadLessTraveled]

thanks for the comment

[@orokai6591]

I think the max capacity was exceeded or I could be wrong?

[@OurRoadLessTraveled]

No. We have the records from CAT scales to show we were way under. It’s the horrible roads across the country and 30k miles on the rig. Just wore it out.

[@orokai6591]

But what is capacity on this equalizers? 8000lbs or more? Can't get it

[@OurRoadLessTraveled]

@@orokai6591 that is a fantastic question. I have no clue what the capacity is. I always just assumed it was within the GVWR of the 5th wheel. Ill call and see if I can find it.

[@ZonaJim]

@@OurRoadLessTraveled The CRE3000 can be installed on axles rated up to 8,000 pounds.

[@OurRoadLessTraveled]

@@ZonaJim later found that out, and that is what we put back on. Our problem is / was, the rig was supposed to have come with the entire CRE3000 system from the factory. It did not. It only came with the CRE3000 equalizer.

[@mikecolie9290]

"copper sleeves" ????? No such thing. Way too soft. They are "Bronze". Yes bronze is a mixture of copper and tin but it is much more durable. Your scare tactics are funny.

[@OurRoadLessTraveled]

yeah, i misspoke on that one. thanks for pointing it out.