Leaf Spring Issue
If you are new to RV ownership you by now are wondering what did I get myself into. Little did I know that these homes on wheels experience an earthquake every time you travel over today’s interstates. Things are going to break, fall apart, and just malfunction on your new RV. You are not going to find this in any new RV owner tutorial but it pays to be handy when it comes to having an RV.
This will be the first of what I expect to be a series of fixes and such. Come along as we shakedown our 2021 Solitude 310GK-R. First up on the list was a problem with the leaf springs.
Previous Experience
I consider myself a veteran RV owner. We have been most timing for the last 4 years. Needless to say, we have run into a number of issues with our previous rig. One such issue was with the suspension that frankly caught me a bit off guard. I was pretty religious about tire pressures but paid little attention to the bones of the suspension.
It was our third year of travel. I had seen numerous posts from RV enthusiasts about leaf spring, axles, and general suspension issues. Many had broken leave springs or hangers so I thought it was time for me to inspect the entire suspension system. I did and ran into what would have been a very big issue had I not caught it.
The Equa-Flex suspension had a hairline crack in it near the connection point to the leaf spring. This could not be fixed with a weld and needed to be replaced. The moral of this story was, be sure to check all parts of the suspension no matter how new on a regular basis.
Solitude PDI Inspection At Dealership
Having gone through the suspension issue on our first rig it was imperative that I take a hard look under the rig prior to leaving the dealership. I did crawl under and took a good but frankly not thorough look at the suspension. I did not find anything out of place, broken, or leaking. We had ordered the 310GK with disc brakes and I wanted to be sure the hydraulics lines were good and tight. Grand Design had pleasantly surprised us and the dealership by upgrading our suspension with an 8,000 Lb axle package and tires. We were expecting the 7,000 Lb axles and Westlake tires.
Seems they ran out of the 7K axles and wanted to fulfill our build and tossed in the upgraded axles and tires at no additional cost. I was ecstatic, to say the least. We went from the Westlake to Cooper H rated and now had a GVWR of 18,600 up from 15,600. The springs and hangers looked good, although I had read on the Grand Design Forum that many thought GD should have upgraded the leaf springs as well.
The Ride Home
The ride home from the dealership was pretty uneventful. I thought the MorRyde Suspension and Rubber Pin Box had smoothed out the ride considerably. I had not installed my Tire Monitors so I was taking it very easy on the way back to Gallatin from Cookeville, TN.
We got in late so I parked the rig and decided I would do my PDI checklist one more time in the morning. I wanted to make sure I had not missed anything that could be addressed prior to us leaving on our shakedown trip.
I’m glad I did, the first place I decided to reinspect was the underbelly of the rig. I got over to the axles and looked up at the leaf springs and found that the straps on the front axle springs had broken loose. I was not sure how important this was as I could actually bend the straps with my figures.
That seemed a bit odd and I thought they may have been packing bands. I immediately got photos and each side and set them off to my dealer and Grand Design. After a conversation with Grand Design, I was informed that it was not debilitating or unsafe, which was a relief. I managed to get the pictured strap back in place and secured the best I could. The dealership stepped in and informed me that GD was sending a new set of leaf springs as soon as they were back in stock.
The rig is now at the dealership for the leaf spring install after about a 5-week wait for the parts to arrive. Covid is just raising havoc with the parts supply chain and our springs got caught up in it. They are the same leaf springs and I hope better strapping.