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

[David Brady]

Eric,

You need to climb under your coach and take a look at the difference
between the curb side and steer side shock mounts. The curbside
mount is part of the panhard rod and is stronger.

Your frame c-channel should be 10 7/8" x 3.5" x 5/16". The plate of
steel that cracked is part of the Ridewell system and is 1/4" thick.
On your coach this plate also serves to support the upper spring
perches for both air springs.

David Brady
'02 LXi, NC

-----Original Message-----

From: Eric Perplies
Sent: Mar 10, 2009 8:26 PM

To: WanderlodgeForum@yahoogroups.com

Subject: [WanderlodgeForum] Re: What is the reason for the left front shock mount failures on 90's buses?

I do believe that one of the issues with the failure on the shock mounts is the quality/mass of the steel in the frame of the coach. The center of the upper left shock mount is about 2"- 3" from the edge of the modestly thick frame. The webs or gussets on my coach had to be turned in the "hold water" position to keep them from projecting above the frame member. I didn't measure the thickness of the frame steel but I would guess it's 1/4" +/-. But even if the problem is the location/thickness of the upper mount it doesn't answer the question about why this failure has ALWAYS happened on the left shock mount.



The right shock mount is built the same way. The right shock mount should be extended even more because of the camber in the road coupled with the leveling system on the bus. Finally, road damage is typically much more prevalent on the right side of the road. What's up with the left side??



Just too make my previous discussion complete. (My post on the Don's shock mount post 'disappeared'. A regular occurrence for me on this site.) When CCW repaired my upper shock mount they welded a 1/2" x 6" x 8" plate to the damaged area on my frame. They drilled a hole in the plate to accommodate the air line. They were on the telephone a lot with Ft Valley engineers discussing the problem. It took them 4 days of telephone conversations before they started the work. But it was very difficult to get CCW to relate what there discussions were except to say "we were trying to find out from Ft Valley how to repair the problem."



Eric Perplies

96' 42' WBWL