Towing Pictures to Ponder

ctechbob

ctechbob

Well-known member
Just a random picture I came across today.

Broken u-bolts?

Judging by the wheels, it looks to be a 2500/3500.

Not sure what is going on with what appears to be the receiver that got shoved out the back.

Might have been an accident, judging by the state of the underside of the trailer and hitch.

Figure we can post towing disasters here to pontificate over...


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The drive shaft knuckle broke, so I would assume the axle rotated either up or down first, because it didn't pull the rear half of the driveshaft out of the spline. The spring(s) doesn't appear to be broken or separated, so the only conclusion that I can come to is that the bolts holding the axle to the springs broke or came loose and the axle rotated upward from torque, then all when to hell quickly.

My bet is that the owner installed some kind of lift kit and didn't do something correctly. Or, the "lift" was a poor design or maybe even home-grown.

As for the receiver, it looks like an extension.

This is a picture of my 3500 axle-spring mount. It's way sturdy and isn't going anywhere.

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Wayne is it the angle of the photo or is the airbag top mount really close to the spring u-bolt?
 
ctechbob said:
Just a random picture I came across today.

Broken u-bolts?

Judging by the wheels, it looks to be a 2500/3500.

Not sure what is going on with what appears to be the receiver that got shoved out the back.

Might have been an accident, judging by the state of the underside of the trailer and hitch.

Figure we can post towing disasters here to pontificate over...


View attachment 2516
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Ctech, GM used to have this little sentence at the beginning of every troubleshooting section..
the beauty of it I've remember it most of my life..

QUOTE " MANY TIMES A CLOSE VISUAL OBSERVATION WILL REVEAL THE SOURCE OF THE PROBLEM"

one thing I learned from working on machinery most of my adult life was to never prejudge where the problem originated or to guess what was wrong before someone took a look..

Still remember teaching arrogant azznozlle boss a lesson.
Boss tells me to go and put a new alternator belt on bus 1000.
I go out, cut the old belt off and park the bus... generator light is on.

2 hours later my boss calls me in to shop office to say I didn't fix bus 1000..
I replied " you told me to replace the alternator belt, you did not tell me to fix the problem."
for proof there is justice sometimes, my bosses boss was in the office and chewed my boss out for diagnosing from the office.

lesson in that is you can't diagnose simply by symptom or by the internet or phone
and that the internet will usually give you the worst case scenario as the most likely problem.
Reality is you actually have to do some investigation..

so in this case you probably need to look at the previous mechanics workmanship... :)
 
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I’m not saying this is what happened in the photo but I have had this happen. Those long U-bolts that hold the axle to the springs stretch and if not retorqued periodically will become loose. The axle will then start sliding on the spring perch, back and forth. When the spring tie bolt wallows out the hole, it increases the amount of movement and eventually will shear the tie bolt off. I have had it happen. All suspension parts take a beating even if they are never operated off road.
 
OLEJOE said:
I’m not saying this is what happened in the photo but I have had this happen. Those long U-bolts that hold the axle to the springs stretch and if not retorqued periodically will become loose. The axle will then start sliding on the spring perch, back and forth. When the spring tie bolt wallows out the hole, it increases the amount of movement and eventually will shear the tie bolt off. I have had it happen. All suspension parts take a beating even if they are never operated off road.
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Or if you have a Ford, they are under-torqued from the factory.

Mine took way more turning than it should have for them to hit the spec.
 
Any component or fastener that has rusty looking dust on it or around it is moving and loose. I drove another truck that had the rusty looking dust coming from where the pitman arm connected to the steering box. I kept telling the mechanic that it was loose but they never checked it. I finally told one of them to “just check it”. He stuck a screwdriver behind it and pried on it and it almost fell off. They are fastened with a pinch bolt. After he torqued it to the 250 ftlbs it drove like a new vehicle. From that point forward, that was the first thing during my pretrip inspection.
 
OLEJOE said:
I’m not saying this is what happened in the photo but I have had this happen. Those long U-bolts that hold the axle to the springs stretch and if not retorqued periodically will become loose. The axle will then start sliding on the spring perch, back and forth. When the spring tie bolt wallows out the hole, it increases the amount of movement and eventually will shear the tie bolt off. I have had it happen. All suspension parts take a beating even if they are never operated off road.
Click to expand...

way back when I worked on tractor trailers that towed a dump trailer.. trucks could weigh in around 100,000 lbs when loaded... since they go off road on construction sights as well as the pit, they really loosened suspension items up.
Owner wanted us under the trucks at least once every 2 weeks, just to look for loose stuff.. things like the U joint caps, spring mounts etc..

I think one of the problems with truly extended maintenance intervals is the idea nobody actually might go under the vehicle for many months at a time... which is when you notice things...
 
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