Broken leaf spring

remoandiris · April 24, 2019

Broke the rear curb-side leaf spring yesterday. Luckily able to get 2 ratchet straps onto the axle and limped into Missoula. Currently sitting in a truck repair garage waiting on parts to be overnighted.

Lippert leaf springs are a non-standard 7-leaf, 25" eye-to-eye. Spring suppliers in town have 25" sets but they are only 6-leaf. Repair guy said he "could" add a leaf and it should work. He said if it were his coach, he'd wait on the right parts, so... Having 2 sets sent to replace both rears and will have an original spring for a spare.

Coach is 4 yrs old. I am close to max weight, but not over. Maybe it was just the culmination of bumpy roads, IDK. Hope to get back on the road and to our destination tomorrow afternoon.

billr · April 25, 2019

If you only broke the main leaf just put in the new leaf using the rest of the stack.

Should be fine. At least to get you going.

I had same failure years ago and all they had was the single main leaf. Re strapped the old stack and it lived one in the unit for 10 yrs and traded.

Good luck.

Ronbo · April 25, 2019

Another member had problems with breaking leaf springs. He finally replaced with higher capacity springs and no more broken springs.

remoandiris · April 26, 2019

22 hours ago, billr said:

If you only broke the main leaf just put in the new leaf using the rest of the stack.

Should be fine. At least to get you going.

Had ordered a pair of OEM replacements from CARiD that were supposed to be overnighted. After a goat rope with CARiD, I found out they do NOT ship overnight. Today I ordered a pair from Lippert and paid $369 to overnight. This afternoon I still had not received a shipping notice so I called Lippert to check on the status. Despite everything being done right, the CSR had no idea why they didn't ship out. KRAZY!!

So I am back to where I was 2 days ago. But, tomorrow I'll head to the repair shop and have one of the original leafs put into the stack to get the capacity up to where it needs to be. Lippert is sending the 2 new sets to the park we'll be at for the summer. Hopefully over the next 3 weeks I can get both sets replaced.

Should be on the road by noon and arrive at the park by 2. Will go thru an RV wash and the Cat scales on the way out of Missoula.

GR "Scott" Cundiff · April 26, 2019

7 hours ago, Ronbo said:

Another member had problems with breaking leaf springs. He finally replaced with higher capacity springs and no more broken springs.

Yep - you did the upgrade for me right at the campsite in Wilmington, Ohio - greatly appreciated.

packnrat · July 25, 2019

there used to be places all over the country that could build you a quality set of springs. they built them right there, and were made better than the chinese made springs.

on my jeep they never sagged, the store bought ones failed in a year. but then this j-7 was used for hard rock crawling, and saw heavy abuse.

but yes if the main leaf is still one part, just keep on going, just tighten up the center bolt. till you get the correct parts in, (but replace very soon) and if possible get better, stronger then what the factory put in.

I'mdonewiththis forum · July 25, 2019

One question I have is where did the leaf(s) break? GENERALLY if the spring broke at the center bolt the ubolts are slightly loose. If the break is just outside of the ubolt overloading is the culprit. Like I said, these are general reasons......

alan0043 · July 26, 2019

19 hours ago, Mntom said:

One question I have is where did the leaf(s) break? GENERALLY if the spring broke at the center bolt the ubolts are slightly loose. If the break is just outside of the ubolt overloading is the culprit. Like I said, these are general reasons......

Hi Tom,

Nice to hear that you are still on the forum.

Al