Hendersons Line Up

[David Brady]

Interesting Kurt,

My LXi has a large flanged/gusseted shock mount that's
huck bolted to the frame. No intervening plate. I wander
if the plate might be the result of an earlier fix. Anyway,
I like the idea of a large plate for the shock mount so that
the stresses can be distributed to as wide an area as possible
on the main chassis rails. You mention sensitivity to tire air
pressure. Our coaches are pretty similar in weight - what
do you run for tire pressures?

I always air up before retracting the landing gear. Even on those
occasions where the suspension won't air, due to excessive
jack height, I start the motor, and let the pressure build in the
reservoirs. When I then stow the jacks, by the time the coach
is near the bump stops enough air has been pumped into the
bags to give me a soft landing. On occasion I'll stop the HWH
retraction midway to let the suspension air up.

Very, very concerned about bottoming on the koni's.

Thanks,
David Brady
'02 LXi, Smokey, NC

bumpersbird wrote:
>
> I think you guys might be right about dumping the jacks befor airing
> up. My coach drops very fast and stops hard, it probly isn't a good
> thing. So I air up befor hitting the stow button.
> My coach had about 134000 miles when I discovered the cracked mount.
> It was the left side and it destroyed a new Koni adjustable shock
> that only had a few hundred miles on it.
> The crack was found when the shop was putting in new air bags. I
> replaced all of them due to dry rotting. When the mechanic lifted the
> front of the coach up, the shock pulled down on the mount and you
> could see the shock mount pulling away from the side plate mount. An
> interesting note the mount for the shock is on a plate that is bolted
> to the frame. I had the mechanics weld the plate to the frme and
> welded the mount to the plate. It appears to be a little lite as far
> as what it is expected to do in terms of performance.
> I'm assuming that it is a know problem because when I aske my BB tech
> about it he quickly replied, just weld it back in place. That's it?
> Yes, it's an easy fix. :{
> An associated problem at the time was the coach would not always air
> up properly. The front left would be a few inches low. I had the air
> level sensors checked and one replaced and that did not fix the
> problem. It turned out to be a bad rocker swith on the dash for the
> main air dump relay. Some times it worked, some times it didn't and
> some times it did a little of everything. But it always aired up to
> full height after a few little bumps in our drive way. It could have
> been a problem for a while befor I bought the coach. I'm not really
> sure because I replaced everything on the front end shortly after
> buying the coach. New Michelins,Koni's,Draglink Ends,Tie Rod
> Ends,Chassis Alignment, Air Bags.
> She runs very well now, I know that air pressure is very important a
> few lbs. cold either way makes a big diffrence in how she tracks.
>
> Kurt Horvath
> '95 PT-42
> 10AC
>
> --- In WanderlodgeForum@yahoogroups.com
> , Pete Masterson
> wrote:
> >
> > That's an interesting idea... and might be a possibility as I've
> > noticed that the coach comes off the jacks fairly rapidly. I'll
> make
> > my procedure to 'air up' before raising the jacks. I usually need
> the
> > air pressure for the waste water dump valves anyway as that's
> a 'last
> > thing' before departure from most places where I've used the jacks.
> >
> > The technician at Henderson's didn't speculate on the possible
> cause
> > of the break (after considering that the shock might have been too
> > short). The failure was pretty obvious, so I'd think that it would
> > have been noticed when the current shocks were installed. I don't
> > know if there's something different about the left vs. right
> side ...
> > the right side didn't show any signs of fatigue.
> >
> > Pete Masterson
> > '95 Blue Bird Wanderlodge WBDA 42
> > El Sobrante CA
> > aeonix1@...
> >
> >
> >
> > On Sep 17, 2007, at 2:42 PM, David Brady wrote:
> >
> > > Another scenario that could excessively stress the shock
> > > mounts (assuming they bottom before the air bag bump
> > > stops) is releasing the HWH jacks before adding air to
> > > the bags. In this case the coach will come down quite hard
> > > onto the bump stops or shock mounts, whichever hits
> > > first.
> > >
> > > David Brady
> > > '02 LXi, NC
> > >
> > > David Brady wrote:
> > >>
> > >> Seems like not enough miles for ordinary metal fatigue
> > >> to set in. Is there something else going on? Perhaps when
> > >> the suspension air is dumped, the weight of the coach comes
> > >> down on the shocks, not the bump stops. Could be that
> > >> the Koni's are too long for the chassis/suspension, or it
> > >> could be that the frame pick up points are woefully under-
> > >> engineered. At this point, I think we should all go out and
> > >> check our shock to frame mounting points for cracks.
> > >>
> > >> David Brady
> > >> '02 LXi, NC
> > >>
> > >> Pete Masterson wrote:
> > >>>
> > >>> One (left front) shock mount was cracked. The coach has about
> > >>> 130,000
> > >>> miles. Henderson's checked the other factors and determined
> that the
> > >>> shocks did not need to be replaced.
> > >>>
> > >>>
> > >>
> > >> [
> >
> >
> > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
> >
>
>
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