First run for my trailer ! ...... We broke it ?

[Bonsai4youbyken]

Well the weekend started off with my rig not wanted to work.... But good news! We had a brand new Raptor to haul us down.
We ran down to Hood River OR for some back country exploration with the intent for snow camping on the Cascadia Skyline overland route

300 ish miles into our day and only 40 miles into the trail..... we broke spring in the pass side. Managed to run a block of wood, bunch of zip ties and a ratchet strap to get us out but with it being mid day on the weekend, we had no parts available for us to return to our run.
Was a fun adventure and I’ll be back for more but just wanted to share with you my progress in my trailer adventure ?

 

[Bonsai4youbyken]

It’s a good start to trailer runs

 

[billiebob]

You have a state of the art high performance Raptor towing a hill billy trailer..... and yer surprised ?? Sorry, really not critical but maybe invest similar $$ into the trailer.

 

[old_CWO]

Meh, no biggie. Breakage is just God's way of telling you to upgrade.

 

[Bonsai4youbyken]

All part of the adventure

 

[MuckSavage]

"Adventures suck while you're having them" -Neil Peart

 

[WOODY2]

Just a leaf and a half? What were you thinking?

 

[SDDiver5]

Yeah, how dare you!

JK, Awesome truck. Those are the best looking factory wheels I've ever seen. I love them so much I had to get some for my truck.

 

[Winterpeg]

I learned the hard way suspension ratings are for on highways... not offroading.

I have blown both leaf springs, broke the new one, bent the axle.... and ultimately upgraded to what I thought was "overkill"..... which in actuality was not overkill at all.

The ratings of both sides combine to provide the whole suspension rating.

Having the weight of the whole trailer slam down onto one side - half the suspension rating.... tends to be a learning experience, lol.

 

[RedRaider1]

Ouch

 

[Bonsai4youbyken]

Just a leaf and a half? What were you thinking?

Came that way?‍♂️

 

[roving1]

You have a state of the art high performance Raptor towing a hill billy trailer..... and yer surprised ?? Sorry, really not critical but maybe invest similar $$ into the trailer.

I'm not gonna lie. I went through the same mental process. I don't get it.

I broke a leaf on a rental pop up camper just like that on a comically small pot hole at about 35MPH. There is no way I would build an adventure trailer with those.

 

[Ryannnz]

Go big on your next trailer with an M1101 or 1102


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[old_CWO]

I broke a leaf on a rental pop up camper just like that on a comically small pot hole at about 35MPH. There is no way I would build an adventure trailer with those.

I would reflexively agree with this but a well known member here, Adam Tolman ran his dandy home built "box rocket" trailer pretty hard for a decade on standard trailer springs and self admitted inferior welding before a hanger gave up. In the photos at least the leaf springs looked none the worse for wear. Is his an anomaly? Possibly, but it does make me wonder.

I would not be surprised if the true root cause of trailer spring failure is because most (all?) of them come from China. Based on the low retail prices for springs I am going to guess that they aren't made in any of their state of the art facilities with good quality control. That might be reason alone to go a different route.

 

[roving1]

I would reflexively agree with this but a well known member here, Adam Tolman ran his dandy home built "box rocket" trailer pretty hard for a decade on standard trailer springs and self admitted inferior welding before a hanger gave up. In the photos at least the leaf springs looked none the worse for wear. Is his an anomaly? Possibly, but it does make me wonder.

I would not be surprised if the true root cause of trailer spring failure is because most (all?) of them come from China. Based on the low retail prices for springs I am going to guess that they aren't made in any of their state of the art facilities with good quality control. That might be reason alone to go a different route.

These springs seem to fail spectacularly after a higher than average load spike hit just the right way or not at all. Mine failed after hundreds of miles on a dirt road up to Labrador from Quebec. I had just pressure washed and inspected the suspension because I was worried about it and every thing was fine. Then on pavement I hit a small hole that was the perfect diameter for the tire to dip into but not that bad. I still would have ridden a street bike through the thing not even standing on the pegs. But the trailer spring snapped as soon as it hit it.


20 years of driving a truck and I could not even tell you the amount of times I have seen trailers with those springs sitting on the side of the road, or just remnants of the broken springs sitting on the shoulder. There is so much variance on the quality control and they are so short and easy to fatigue and break I would not rely on them without spares.