Broken leaf spring

[Roughrider IV]

Anyone ever experience a leaf spring crack in half while traveling? I've been a boater for 35 years trailering a lot of places and today was the first I had to have a boat towed home. Left rear on double axle broke in half and dropped back behind the lisence plate at a 45 degree angle. A hell of a mess. Trailer is a 2000 loadrite 5700lb cap. with a 20ft grady on top,.nowhere near maxed out on weight. The crack was rusted on the edge so it was probably cracked for a while and finally seperated under the u bolts. Is there a torque spec for these u bolts? Thanks for any insight.

Roughrider out

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[ray koziatek]

happens more than ya think and yer right on with it was probly cracked a while....ive seen many "listing" boats on trailers and probly has the same thing going on..it usually is not whats on top that cracks the spring but our fine roads under the load not to mention a tight turn over the curb gives that spring some added action (so ive been told) springs are inexpensive and some extra time should be taken to inspect "VERY Good" and all the mounting hardware lots going on back there ... I always give my Trailer a good lookin over with the boat off when I can (launch to myself)

[jimski2]

Trailer springs are not mounted with shock absorbers and break easily when you go over a simple thing like a speed bump. Think seriously about replacing both springs because they may have a metalurgical fault when they "cooked" up the steel. Also try a larger capacity spring since you are changing them.

[skipper19]

1/2 inch U bolt...45 to 50 ft lb.....Mark the frame before disassembly where u bolts rest...measure end of frame to center of spring eye both sides to be equal for alignment

Mark

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[Has Been]

Was coming home from the Niagara bar a few years back. On the way home Spring broke less than a mile from my house.Limped home, Jacked up the trailer, took it of, went to Thruway spring in Roch off Mt Reed, they sold me a new one, installed it ,Went back to the Bar the next morn. Pretty easy fix for the most part.

[skipper19]

Oh and have the trailer unladen when aligning and installing.

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[Shakemsam]

I broke a leaf on my 16' 2 years ago. It happens but not often. I worked for a Loadrite distributer long before

your trailer was built. I can say for a fact, we never torqued the ubolts to a specific lb. Also, 5700# doesnt sound

right for a trailer for a 20' boat unless the trailer was for something else first. If it for a 20'-21', their was a model with a 3700#

capacity.

[buckboardjr]

3 out of the 4 on my tandom trl have broken. Everytime I was fortunate that it rode along like a trailing arm or a reversed trailing arm. Ya it happens.

[Roughrider IV]

Got 4 new leafs, bolts, light unit, fender repaired , new tire and galv wheel for 80 bucks after insurance payment. I also had the boat hauled on a flatbed 50 miles home after accident and it was covered on my US boat insurance. A free tow. Best insurance I ever bought. I highly recommend the 65 dollar investment.

Roughrider out

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