What is the reason for the left front shock mount failures on 90's buses?

[Eric Perplies]

When I discovered my front left shock absorber mount had failed just before the
Q rally in 08' I thought my experience was unique. Evidently it was not. There
seems to have been several similar failures on 90's vintage buses. All of them
appear to have occurred on the left front shock mount. It might be both
interesting as well as useful for all of us that have experienced the failure as
well as other interested parties to discuss what had caused the failures. If
there is a design flaw we know we are on our own, of course. Right now it
continues not to be clear to me what caused the problem.

I realize that some of you have already discussed your failure. I do hope you
can participate in what may be on line troubleshooting. Let me start out by
discussing my failure.

Just before the Q rally in 08' the left front shock absorber mount on my coach
failed. The whole piece of metal on the frame of my bus was pulled away from
the frame, leaving the shock mount still connected to the chunk of metal that
was pulled away from the frame. CCW in Riverside repaired the problem. They
had extensive discussions with the engineers at Ft. Valley. I will tell you
that CCW was less that fully communicative with me about what they discussed in
their multiple phone calls to Ft. Valley. Always say they "discussed the
problem and solution."

The fix was to weld a 1/2" plate to the area ripped out of my frame and re-weld
the still good shock mount back in position. (Caution: what I am about to say
is unreliable It looked to me as though the repair shock mount was re-welded
back in position just slightly lower than it may have originally been located.
When I asked CCW about the location of the mount they said something like: "We
put it back in where it should have been." Never saying that they relocated it.

When I strongly suspect that the failure occurred on my bus is when I traveled a
poorly maintained road (US 30) between Chicago and Ft. Wayne, IN. While along
that roadway my bus developed a "squeak" coming from what I thought was the
right front of my bus. I could not see anything wrong with the underside of the
coach. I did not look at the left upper shock mount. I was looking for at
problem on the right side of my coach. I took my coach to a big rig shop in Ft
Wayne that did among other things, front end work. They said everything looked
fine. On my trip from Ft. Wayne to Las Vegas I did a lot of inspections,
greasing and spraying of lubricate on the front right of the coach. I even
removed the Steer Safe. By the time I got to Sante Fe the noise had stopped.
When I went to put my Steer Safe back on in Las Vegas, just before the 08 Q
rally, I discovered the failed shock mount on the left side of the coach.

(By the way, sorry for the long post.) The question still remains in my mind:
What caused the failure. I have been on many bad road in my life with this
coach. The road I was on when the "squeak" started was bad but not ridiculously
bad. I would hate to think that every time I might ride a bad road that I may
be replacing a shock mount.

Eric Perplies
96' 42' WBWL