Dexter EZ Flex Rubber Issue

[JohnB]

Hi Fellow Sunliner’s

Reporting in on an issue I had with my Dexter EZ flex this summer. Since some of you may have done this upgrade from my post here, I thought I would show the issue I discovered. Here is the original post. Dexter EZ Flex Equalizer Upgrade With Many Pic's

I have a camper buddy who lives out west and he contacted me about my EZ Flex install if I was having any issues with the rubber. He just bought one this spring and on his the rubber really blistered bad from just a month of being on and he had not even towed with it yet. Mine has been on and working well since Feb. 2009 and quite a few thousand miles of towing.

So I went and looked at mine. H’mm OK I’m starting to have an issue, but no where as bad as my buds. In fact if I did not look close I would of never known it.

Here is the issue. In my case real fine cracks in the rubber on the outside diameter. At first glance I did not see anything and even this spring when I repacked the bearings and greased the pivots I did not notice anything. But I did not wipe off the dust either.


Now the dust off of it. This is the non side of the camper.


And closer. You can see the fine cracks


Now the slide side


Close up


Well at first I thought it was me and the sizing of the system, as they have 2 sizes. A 6,000# and a 7,000# unit. So I wrote to Dexter, pics, weight slip and bill of sale and told them of the issue. I first asked if I sized this right as is the rating per total or per side? The rating is per side, so 2, 6,000# units would hold 12,000# of axle weight. Well in my case my axle weight is only 7,680# and goes up to 7,946# combined axle loads with the fresh tank filled. I’m still 4,054# away from the max rating. And the 7,000# unit was way to big to fit in the spacing.

I was just over the 2 year warranty. The service lady at Dexter stated that should not be occurring and didn’t seem to matter I was a few months past the warranty date. They reviewed it with engineering and sent me out 2 totally new EZ Flex’s, the entire casting and all direct from the factory so they could track it. I bought the original unit from a dealer.

They showed up in a few days and I installed them before going on our Sunline road trip this summer. No issues with the new ones so far. I must say Dexter service continues to get an A plus from me. They saw what I had and took care of it.

I did alert one of our other Sunline members who has a large camper, not as heavy as mine but still big. His was just starting cracking and was not as advanced as mine, which again was not very advanced as compared to my bud on the west coast. He too sent pics and all and Dexter sent him a unit as well without question.

I still very much like the product, it works well and Dexter continues to do good by it.

I’m just passing this along to members who may have one to check next spring if your camper is already put away.

Thanks

John

[Sunline Fan]

John,

Funny you should mention this. I too had "squeeze" similar to this within a month or so of installation. Granted it has spent almost all of the time since installation inside out of the elements, so I suspect the cracking might be less, but I'm still curious to see if I have any stress cracking. Even though I had it out this summer for 17.5 miles to take pictures of it, I never looked at that. Just topped off the tires and took off.

I installed mine 6/2/09 at mileage 2464.2. Current mileage is 5527.5, so the system has been in use for 3063.3 miles.

Jon

[JohnB]

Hi Jon

The rubber being squeezed is what it is suppose to do. So no concerns there unless there is super excessive squeeze like my buddy out west had but the cracks, not good this early in it's life. Sort of like the rubber cords in the torsion axle. They are under constant heavy pressure just we cannot see them as easy and you do not now about it until the axle fails.

Your towing mileage... Yes I too track every mile and when things get added/fixed as a running log to go back and figure out exact miles if I need to. Brakes, bearings etc. But I at least round to the nearest whole mile... Are you looking to take a second major in engineering?

I'm going to have to go add up my mileage on this install. I'm guessing I'm somewhere between 10K to 15K miles just by the years total.

[JohnB]

Jon, More on the rubber squeeze.

Here you can see the camper jacked up and the EZ flex before I replaced it. The fine cracks went back together when I took the weight off and the rubber compression went back extended close to new. If I looked close in the unloaded state all I could see was fine lines where the cracks where.



Now the new one next to the old one, again the old one is unloaded.


And one more pic


There is some loss of overall length even in the un-compressed state. I suspect this is normal, length may be exchanged for larger OD. It is a form of rubber or synthetic it almost has to change. I'm also assuming the heavier the camper the more compression there would be under load. Your T286 should be compressed less then mine as a T2499 less then yours.

[JohnB]

Well I added up the mileage. Less then I had thought. Been slipping the last 2 years and not getting enough camping in... Work, family you name it.

EZ Flex original install: 2-8-2009, removed under warranty on 6-24-2011. Total elapsed towing mileage: 8,182 miles.