Caravan springs

[Deleted]

Hi All perhaps some one can answer this one for me. I am currently rebuilding a 11ft. chesney and while lying down having a well earned break from sealing the cover strips on the out side of the van i noticed that the springs were a 3 leaf slipper type. A quick look on spinny things tells me they are rated for 600 kilos and the van weighs approx 750 kg,s. HMMMM do i have a issue here? The springs are 45mm wide and 690mm from the front eye to the pin at the rear that can be removed to take out the springs. Your thoughts please....cheers oggyfj

[millard1399]

G'day oggyfj,

I'd say you definitely have an issue. 45mm x 3-leaf springs rated for a total load of 600kgs per pair is way below what your van should have. If the tare weight is approx 750kgs, you can add another 300kgs of loading on top of that, to get a GVM of approx 1050kgs. You'd really be wanting the 6-leaf springs which are rated at 1200kgs per pair. The 5-leaf springs are only rated at 1000kgs per pair, which would be too marginal for your van's total weight.

Obviously the slipper springs on your van have been fitted at some point after the van was manufactured. If they've been on it for quite some time, and the van has travelled a fair distance since they were fitted, I'd be inclined to think the springs must have been quite overworked during that time, and have probably lost a fair bit of their "springyness". The van must nearly bottom out every time it hits a bump at the moment?

cheers,
Al.

[Deleted]

Have a chat to a spring specialist. My Franklin has long springs that are hard to get so I had Carrols Springs re set them, they added an extra leaf to each one to improve ride height and lessen sagging, did a very good job. The Franklins springs are 915 mm long,58 mm wide by 6 mm thick each leaf, the original pack was 7 leaf but is now 8. When Carrols did the job they also renewed the "U" bolts as their policy is never to re-use the old ones due to possible fatigue.
hope this is of help.

Denis.

[Deleted]

hmmm thanks Al and Denis, I have ordered some new six leaf springs with new U bolts ect hope to pick them up next saturday. Will check out what type of bushes if any are fitted as i would like to keep the greasable type that are already fitted or should I fit new spring bolts as well with noalthene bushes? cheers for now oggy

[Deleted]

See what the old bolts are like, if they are worn in any way I would replace them, likewise the bushes. If the springs are slipper type then definatly use greasable bronze bushes in the attachment end as nolathane ones can distort and allow the springs to move about slightly sideways, this can cause wear to the sides of the slipper end keepers.

Denis.

[Deleted]

Hi Denis will do I like the idea of the greasable type of bush and i can get access to a press to remove the original ones if required so onwards and upwards cheers oggy ;D

[Deleted]

One thing I have noticed on my old Frankiln Hunter is there is some play in the front bushes.
These are slipper type springs.
I drop the spring on one side at the front and the bush was worn & also the hole on the chassis was enlongated or slogged out, not round any more.
I suspect this is a problem which would be a little more costly to rectify.
Scotty

[Deleted]

There are two ways of repairing worn spring hangers, the best way is to remove the old ones and weld on new ones, they are not very expensive to buy or could be easily fabricated by someone with the right gear. The other way is to weld up the wear in the existing hangers and then re drill to the correct size, this is not always completely satisfactory as often the weld is harder than the parent metal and can make accurate drilling awkward.
Spring bushes are fairly easily replaced, either by pressing out or making up a puller using a bolt and bits of pipe that will fit over the bush and pulling the old bush out and the new one in.
The reason the hangers wear is that the spring retaining bolts gets too loose and rotate in the hanger, these bolts should be just tight enough not to rotate easily in the hanger but not tight enough to clamp the spring bush and cause it to turn in the spring, a bit of a juggling act to get right. A simple mod. to prevent this happening again would be to have some way of holding the bolt head, a tab washer or a keeper welded onto the hanger would do the job.
Hope this is of help.

Denis.

[Deleted]

New to this guys. You do not need to press brass bushes. Put your hacksaw blade through the bush and then reconnect it to the saw facing the wrong way round. then cut two slits in the bush. After that they just belt out with the appropriate punch. Hope that this helps?