Trailer suspension.......

[JGR]

I have towed tandem axle trailers for years and never had this problem. When I went to pick up my trailer today the axles were tilted and the front tires were a couple inches off the ground when connected to my truck. I though maybe if I drove around things would settle down.

Anyway a long story short I went to a mechanic and he had no clue so I called the trailer builder. They explained that my leaf springs were now in completely opposite position they should be in. We had to take apart the suspension and flip the springs up above the shackle and tighten things up.

All is good now but how could this happen? And how do I prevent it from happening again???


The pic below is after we corrected the problem. The leaf springs had both flipped to the bottom of the shackles.

[chpthril]

This is normal for an unloaded leaf-spring trailer, according to Dorsey. Mine did it a couple of times, and was easily correct using a pry-bar between the frame and shackle.

[JGR]

Thanks for the info. This is probably my 4th tandem trailer and I also have a triple and have never had this problem.

We did try the pry bar trick first. I guess I need to carry a big pry bar with me. Because nothing I had with me or the mechanic had at his shop worked. So we spend an hr or so taking the suspension apart and putting it back together.

[JGR]

Forgot I had a pic on my cell phone of what the suspension looked like when it locked itself upside down.

[laserfish]

I have had the same thing happen only on the rear axle. The road to the lake house is kinda rough in spots and it happened unloaded. Had an 8' 4x4 to pry it back into position. Has only happened once in 8 years though.

[mls6722]

I spoke with Steve at California Trailer Works about my flipped suspension - see the following thread for pics.

http://www.tigeowners.com/forum/showthread.php?t=15325

He had the following recommendation for correcting it.
1 - Do one side at a time
2 - place a floor jack under the U-bolts on the axle that is not flipped
3 - Raise that jack until the pivot arm moves as high as it can on that side
4 - This should unload the opposite spring and get the shackle and the spring in almost a straight line, making it easier to raise the spring over the center and back above the pivot arm
5 - Using a second jack, jack the end of the unloaded spring at the pivot bar end to bring it over the pivot bar
6 - Check the shackle bolts - they should be completely tightened and backed off only enough to allow the parts to move.

He warned not to have any body parts near any of these parts when doing this.

Thanks Steve for the quick and helpful reply.

[mls6722]

fixed it with a floor jack and a bottle jack (not a bottle of Jack)- there's a lot of creaking going on when you jack one side of one axle that high.

[Iwndr]

Nicely Done MLS