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Old 05-23-2020, 10:31 AM   #1
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Worn leaf spring/equilizer bushings, trailer stability

This thread relates back to my original post:
https://www.sunlineclub.com/forums/f...ues-19479.html

JohnB asked me to start a new thread for different aspects of my original problem, so any of my new threads will end in "trailering stability".

So I ordered new trailer tires since they were over 10 years old. While I have the wheels off I will repack the wheel bearings (which I have done many times), but I also want to address the suspension, which I have neglected and I know bushing are worn out.

So I have had a few discussions with JohnB about this, they were brief last year, so I've forgot which direction I was going with this. In JohnB's experience, he suggests this doesn't affect sway, so this may not be related to my issues. But I'm l going to include this here anyway. And the next time I get the trailer on the road, I will have made 2 changes, which typically you don't want to do since then you don't know which thing may have improved or fixed your problem. My only concern is fixing the sway issue, I don't really want to spend the extra time to do it systematically.

I'm am looking for anyone's experience or suggestions on just replacing bushings with OEM, or upgrading to a superior material. Also I'm wondering if upgrading the equalizers is worth considering. I should mention, that we only use the travel trailer a few weeks out of the year.
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Old 05-24-2020, 06:13 AM   #2
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I would definitely upgrade the bushings. After tearing mine apart to do an axel over/ under flip. I was surprised to see the condition of the bushings. Much longer I would have had to replace springs. Weather or not you do the axel flip I would upgrade the suspension to heavy duty bushings that are able to be greased.
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Old 05-24-2020, 08:37 PM   #3
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Cool

My Sunline is a 1997, I haven't done anything to suspension so I expect my bushings to look like that or worse.

Here's some options I am considering.

Never Fail Bushings ~$75
https://www.etrailer.com/Trailer-Lea.../LC279685.html

Also thinking about 2 upgrades,

Dexter Heavy Duty Suspension Kit, ~$210
https://www.etrailer.com/Trailer-Lea...71-359-00.html

Dexter EZ Flex Suspension Kit, ~$320
https://www.etrailer.com/Trailer-Lea...71-652-00.html

I'm thinking that I'm going to upgrade, not just replace the bushings. Has anyone used either of the upgrade kits? I don't know if I want to spend $320 since I only used the trailer a few weeks a year. Even spending $210 is probably more than I'd like, but this kit looks really beefy compared to the OEM plates and equalizer that came on our trailers. It's nice to have zerks on all of the bolts in the bushings.

I thought someone here had done some suspension upgrades, I'd be interested in hearing any opinions with pros and cons of the options above.

I'm also curious about the axle flip. I actually always liked that my trailer was low to the ground from a crosswind standpoint (had a near disaster in the plains when I first started trailering that has stuck with me). I've dragged my trailer backend on occasion, but the skid plated have kept me from causing any problems. The black water hookup can be a problem since it's so low. What are some of the pros or cons of doing this.

All opinions appreciated.
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Old 05-26-2020, 09:33 AM   #4
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Lots of options and you have the standard ones covered. You need to consider the miles you will put on and upgrade appropriately. Minimal miles, I'd just put the basics back.

I've been using the ez flex by dexter for several years and I chew through the bushings. I would change to something else if there was something else better.

. Most people on the road are driving steel on steel with the bolts riding on the spring eyes after the plastic bushings go. I kind of wonder if I should just go that way sometimes. The heavier shackles are nice. Shackle failure is common for those putting on a lot of miles.

Never fail do fail. Search never fail failures. I have not used them, but John is trying them and I am waiting for a report.

I'd put you camper on stands and take a look before I did anything.

Your price on the ex flex is high. Eastern marine aka trailer parts superstore is much cheaper.
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Old 05-26-2020, 09:44 AM   #5
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On the axle flip, the way we use the camper we need the flip. I personally wouldn't flip again, I just get straight axles and get rid of the drop axles.

We flipped the original axles, then went to straight and unclipped ( which puts you at about the same height).

If you stay on the road and are careful, you can probably get by with flipping. We drug the rear on the trip home after buying and it was clear that wasn't going to work.
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Old 05-26-2020, 09:45 AM   #6
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On the axle flip, the way we use the camper we need the flip. I personally wouldn't flip again, I just get straight axles and get rid of the drop axles.

We flipped the original axles, then went to straight and unflipped

d ( which puts you at about the same height).

If you stay on the road and are careful, you can probably get by with flipping. We drug the rear on the trip home after buying and it was clear that wasn't going to work. I've never seen someone here say they wished they didn't flip. This has been covered many times.
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Old 05-26-2020, 09:47 AM   #7
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Tod Osier View Post
Lots of options and you have the standard ones covered. You need to consider the miles you will put on and upgrade appropriately. Minimal miles, I'd just put the basics back.

I've been using the ez flex by dexter for several years and I chew through the bushings. Most people on the road are driving steel on steel with the bolts riding on the spring eyes. I kind of wonder if I should just go that way sometimes.

I'd put you camper on stands and take a look before I did anything.

Your price on the ex flex is high. Eastern marine aka trailer parts superstore is much cheaper.
I was just starting a new post to when your reply popped up. I was looking at one of your threads from a year or 2 ago, seems like you and JohnB had a lot of discussions about this. After reading through what you were going through kind of made me think a Dexter upgrade may not be the way to go. I am now interested in the MORryde CR3000, using their upgraded HD shackles and 1 - xfactor cross member for the equalizer hanger. So far it looks like I can get that for ~$405 off of Amazon. I thought you were thinking about this option, did you ever buy it. I'm kind of looking for some opinions on the direction I'll go. My trailer is a 1997 with all original suspension, I know it's loose as a goose. Trailer is jacked up as I'm taking my wheels in for new Goodyear Endurance tires today. So I'm going to do something before putting the new tires on and trailer back on the road.
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Old 05-26-2020, 09:56 AM   #8
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Morryde is very similar as far as the bushings and shackles. The bolts are identical and the bushings may be. I've talked to them and they said that their bushings are not better.

Their equalizer is enormous. It may be better but my concern is the unintended consequences of having a giant thing like that swinging around. I'm sure it is great.

I've been sticking with dexter because they have been throwing parts at me under warrenty. I finally started to feel bad and bought a kit to put on. No real strong opinion on these. I think they are all flawed because of the thin wall on the bushing. I'll never buy a trailer with that setup again . I'd get torsion axles or custom springs with eyes to fit real bushings.
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Old 05-26-2020, 10:00 AM   #9
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I have three x factor cross members. You need longer bolts with them, they come with the cross members, but if you want to replace get them from morryde for the best price.
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Old 05-26-2020, 12:20 PM   #10
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The MORryde CRE3000 looks smaller than the 4000. I think the CRE3000 is better for our trailers, mine has 3500 lb axles and 7K GVWR. Not sure how big the CRE3000 is compared to the stock Dexter equalizer.

I just read some negative reports on the CRE3000 from a Jayco forum from 2016 or 2017, makes me wonder if there is any upgrades that work well and last for a reasonable amount of time if maintained. One thread talked about excessive tire wear after going to MORryde CRE3000. Interestingly it was a someone that puts lots of miles on rough roads in Alaska. Since I am more of a low mileage, paved highway Rv'er, maybe I'm over thinking this. But I really think the OEM, is pretty cheaply done. I'm kind of the middle of the road buyer, don't like the cheapest option, but don't want to pay for the most expensive either.

Also did you ever try using epoxy to set the bushings in the leaf eye like you and JohnB discussed? Sounds like it could help if the epoxy doesn't crack and fall out. It would in theory, support the bushing and potentially improve wear of the bushing. Would you use something like J-B weld steel stik epoxy? I'd be interested if anyone tried that.
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Old 05-26-2020, 12:40 PM   #11
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I did round the spring eyes with epoxy. I was planning on posting up pics, but my reefer failure has me tied up. In short, I used a product similar to jb weld, but a commercial product meant for repair and machining after the repair (thicker than jb weld with steel in it). Anysay, they came out perfect and it resisted me hammering the bushings in without cracking. I have no idea how it will work long term. I'll get pics and a narrative up asap.
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Old 05-26-2020, 04:41 PM   #12
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I took apart one of the leaf springs and equalizer on one side. As expected everything is wore badly, bushings wore through, holes elongated in shackles. One kind of suprising thing was the bolts in the shackles are bent. Looking at it, at first I thought I saw a taper, but then I realized it's bent. I put it in my lath chuck, and on the very end of the shoulder, and the head of the bolt was probably running out between 1/16-1/8". I definetly think the leaf spring hangers should have been thicker with grade 8 bolts. There is just so much force applied when that trailer goes around a corner. it seems like all parts from the leaf spring bushings, bolts and hangers are undersized, all from an economical standpoint I'm sure.

The MORryde xfactor cross braces are probably a big help I would think, did you notice any difference?

Reading about all of the options available for this type of suspension system, it seems like nothing is a great fix all, it seems there are flaws in most of them. So now I must determine what the best cost compromise is.

I was hoping JohnB may chime in so I could get his take on what may be a good way to go.
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Old 05-26-2020, 04:54 PM   #13
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I'm sure John is camping somewhere and hopefully having a great time.

The standard shackles are very weak, I wouldn't use them. The heavy duty shackle plates do a good job of protecting the bolts from bending. As I understand it, all the bolts are grade 5 because that is a good mix of strength vs not being too brittle, there is a lot of bolt unsupported.

On the x factor, I don't know how much they help, but I'm glad I have them. The frame on my camper is a very tall I beam with a very thin web. There is little as far as side-to side bracing - that is why I added them. My frame shows a lot of sign of side-to-side stress.

To think about the situation here is my experience on bushings. I put the bronze bushings in an ran the camper for 35K without checking on them. When I did, they were gone. Experience since then suggests that they were worn through at 15-20K miles, so I was running steel on steel for over 10K miles. The bolts looked worn and I wore the spring eyes enough that they were clearly opened up, but would have went another 100K before wearing through. I kind of think it doesn't matter, either change everything meticulously every 10K (what I'm doing) or just drive. There is no good solution.
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Old 05-27-2020, 06:44 AM   #14
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I went with the Dexter heavy duty kit. But the one thing I did at JohnB's suggestion was drill the 2 bolts and tap for grease fitting that go through the hanger bushings so they are also able to be greased.
John got his truck done and is away for awhile with family.
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Old 05-27-2020, 12:23 PM   #15
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Hi Russ,

We just got back from camping, it was good, and it was hot... but still good to get out.

There can be a lot to talk on this topic, and since you found Tod's post it has a lot in it. I have learned some new things since that time and I'll give you top line bullet points here. Ask away on any of them for more info and pics.

1. I myself would not install the OEM nylon bushings. They are only good for about ~ 7,000 to 10,000 miles and they are gone. We can do better than that.

2. The mode of failure of the OEM nylon equalizer, shackles, pins, bushings and walloring of the hangers appears to start like this.

The equalizer bushing starts to wear first. It gets 2 times the movement as the shackle area so it can wear faster.

Once the equalizer bushing has excess wear the actual equalizer triangle link can start to wobble left to right. This then starts the shackle bolts to tip on an angle and start wearing the serrations in the pins that the bolt starts rocking on the end of the shackle.

As time wears on, the equalizer pivot pushing wears more, in time it will wear into the actual casting and make an out of round hole in the casting.

When the EQ bushing is wore to the casting, by then the shackle pins have been bent back and forth enough the serrations eat up the grip in in the shackle plate and start wearing oblong holes in the plates.

The spring pin bushings are wearing too along with the shackle pins. As the entire setup keeps wearing, in time the actual shackle plate will crack off from the elongation process and leave you stranded on the side of the road with the tire up in the wheel well.

I happened to see this wearing process in these stages by doing enough rebuilds to notice how it seems to advance. More miles, more wear and when you for the first time look at it, the whole thing may be worn out as once as you missed seeing the stages along the way.

3. How to make the setup better. My opinion on this, upgrade to the heavy duty 1/2" thick shackle plates. This will help slow down the shankle plate wear.

4. If your spring pins, (all 6 of them) have worn the hole in the hangers to where the pin serrations will not bite in to stop the pin from spinning, you must address this at the time of rebuild. If the pin spins, it will wear keep wearing the pin and the hanger. To repair you have a few options pending how bad the wear is.

a. Flip the pin 180 degrees and see if it will bit into the opposite side of the hanger. Some times this works and others not as the hole is too worn.

b. If the pin will not bit into the hanger enough to stop it from spinning, but is not worn so badly that the pin does not really move very much at all up and down, then you can add spring pin bolt anti rotate bolt keepers at each bolt. This small approx 3/16" thick plate about 1" wide is positions on the hex flat and then drilled and taped with a 1/4--20 bolt to the hanger. This keeps the bolt from spinning.

c. If the hole wear is beyond fix A and B above, then you are into welding up the hole to fill metal back in a few different ways or new hangers.

d. There are ways to bolt on thick side plates to hold the spring pin but this means you need longer pins and they do sell longer pins. This method can work if you do not have access to the welding above.

5.
Cross supports between the spring hangers. On long hangers, and especially on I beam frames, this is a need even if all you are on is highway roads. Off road twisting makes this even worse. You can do the Morryde X brace or make your own. In my case, I make my own but it is a need in all 3 locations, again on long hangers. 4" and up I would say is long. My T310SR had 5" long hangers and I bent them turning in my yard years ago with the stock setup.

The non slide campers on rectangular tube or channel iron frames with shorter hangers, do not seem to have the issue of flexing hangers like the I beam design frames do.

6. Bushing materials, You found the options, greaseable bronze Dexter, greasable bronze MorRyde, LCI Never-fail. I have done all of them.

I have a little over 30,000 miles on the greaseable Dexter bronze on my T310SR which weighs close to 10K pounds. The actual bronze wear is tolerable so far. I do not think I can get double the mileage. I do have bronze cracking though. This is not wear but comes from the spring eye radius at the eyelet hole leaving the bushing unsupported and in time it will crack. The spring eye wrap where it closes up the circle is another failure point of no bushing support. My springs are tight on the wrap, but I have seen some that area close to 1/8" gap on non Sunline branded campers. The spring quality can affect the bushing life.

I do have 1, LCI Never Fail in the T310SR as a test. When one of the bronze cracked, I replaced it with a Never fail. I would have to add the mileage up but it may only be 3K to 4K,miles. I have installed a full campers worth of the Never Fail on a friends camper, told him the pro's and cons and he picked the Never fail as he does not like to get under the camper and grease them. His towing has slowed down and I expect they will last him as long as he wants to tow. The bronze in his case could also do this, but he would have to grease them.

While the Never Fail have a warranty of 100,000 miles, the spring eyes issues create problems for these too. It will be a good many years before I ever get to the 100K mark to know if the LCI warranty is real, but I would say it is much better then the original OEM nylon.

7. Rigid equalizers. In a rebuild, if the pin worn through the bushing and into the casting, replace the equalizer. An egg shaped hole will accelerate any bushing material wear/failure, even the nylon.

8. Rubber equalizers. I have used Dexter and Trail Aire. Both do help in the hard instant bounce jolt of a bump. Actual shock absorbers really help tame down the frame oscillations. Rubber EQ's and shocks do different things.

If your camper is setup on Dexter Equalizers, the Dexter EZ flex is a drop in part and go. The Trail Aire requires fiddling with shackles or hangers.

Early on, I had Dexter rubber failures, they back them and gave me new as they had a manufacturing issue when they first came out. I then switched to Trail Aire due to going to 16" tires and needed the longer equalizer.

The Trail air unit I have now has cracks in the rubber and I may be changing them in the next few weeks when I put new brakes on. The Trailer aire unit is about 8 year old now.

I have seen the MorRyde CRE 3000 unit up close on a friends large 5er. I trust their quality, but have no first hand experience on it.

9. Spring eye wear. When the nylon has worn and it starts wearing the spring pin and then the spring eye, you have a situation where the spring eye will not allow a press fit anymore on any brand new bushing. I know of 2 ways to deal with this.

a. Buy new springs. Hoping the spring eyes are made right

b. Uning brass, stainless or aluminum shim stock (think thin, 0.005" to 0.010" thick) create a custom wrap to fit in the hole that the bushing is still a press fit. It will be trial and error on the shim wrap to get the right fit.

Hope this helps.

John
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Old 05-27-2020, 02:13 PM   #16
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Hello John,
Glad you had an enjoyable trip. Hopefully my wife and I will get out soon, I missed going anywhere last year in my trailer.

I tend to over analyze things, so I've spent a lot of time between reading some of the threads here and researching things on other interenet forums or websites. After spending to much time on that, I decided I didn't know when you were going to be back to give me some of your wisdom, so I just finishing purchasing some of the parts when your reply came in. I really apprecaite the time and detail you put in your response, and for the most part I have come to the same conclusions. It seems that all different options and manufacturers have some faults or may not meet all of your needs.

What I have ordered so far is the LCI Road Armor equalizer with bronze bushings. You can get these with the Never Fail bushing, but it seems like lots of people have had the same issues as the stock nylon bushings, they just last a little longer. After reading some negative things about the Dexter Easy-Flex (and not just from Tod on this forum) and the MORryde CRE 3000 equalizers, I started looking at other options. I will make one comment on the CRE3000, I really didn't go with them because they have useful CRE3000 Qualification Guide, that gives detailed specifics on what the fitment is based on certain criteria. I didn't really want to do a axle over/under conversion, and to use the CRE3000 with under slung axle (axle on top of leaf spring), you have to have a frame hanger with 4-1/4" frame to bolt center dimension. My frame hanger is a 3-1/4" frame to bolt center dimension which requires an over slung (axle on bottom of leaf spring). So the cost between a CRE3000 and Dexter over/under conversion is about the same as the LCI Road Armor Equalizer.

If you watch enough Youtubes you'll find some of the differences on the different manufacturers and models of equalizers. The Road Armor appears to have some potential advantages, but they do not have a Heavy Duty Shackle kit for some reason. I called LCI, to see if they had a document similar to MORryde qualification guide and they do not. I asked if there were any dimensional requirements, and the technical guy said the part# I was interested in, a generic replacement for OEM axles, should be a direct fit for the Dexter steel equalizer with 3" x 1-3/4" x 3-1/4" bold center on hanger.

Since I wanted Heavy duty shackles, I ended up buying MORrdye Heavy duty wet bolt, shackle kit. They also use the OEM 2-1/4" shackles length but have a 1/2" thick shackle like Dexter.

I have debated whether I want to just use one cross member support, like the MORryde Xfactor adjustable cross member, or do all three. My cheapness tells me I don't want to spend the ~$130ea for the MORryde to do all 3. My assumption is that there is a lot more force exerted on the center hanger since it's supporting to leaf spring ends, so maybe one is better than none. Then there is the fabrication side of me that says, I can probably buy 3" channel and make 3 of them to fit for the same price as 1 MORryde. My problems with that is time, I seem overbooked even though I'm semi retired.
What do you think about one cross member for the equalizers? My frame looks to be 5" x 1-3/4" hot rolled channel.

So the last item would be how I handle the leaf spring eye wear. I've only taken one apart and the nylon bushings were wore through on hanger an equalizer sides. I measured the spring eye with telescoping gauges and micrometer only at the bore face, haven't checked the inside bore yet. Measuring from the end of eye wrap (I have no noticeable gap) I get 0.726" and measuring 90 deg of that I get 0.702". I really need to take a closer look at the bore and the hanger bolt holes, but I'm not going to be working on this for a couple of weeks. I just wanted to get parts on order an have a plan in place when I actually do the job.

I'm kind of interested in how Tod addressed the leaf spring eye wear, he used some industrial epoxy. He said when he has some time he may put up some pictures and details of how he went about doing this.

Thanks again,
Russ
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Old 05-27-2020, 05:38 PM   #17
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Just thought I'd throw in a couple of pictures. If you look at the picture with the wheels on, you can see how misaligned they look from the excessive play. I have to cut hard when I'm backing in my spot causing wheels to try and pivot. I'm sure this puts a ton of stess on the bushings in spring hanger and equalizers pivots. You can also see the elongation of the holes in the shackles and what's left of the bushings.

Here's some of the components I just purchased.
LCI Armor Equalizer, this has a good comparison of Dexter and MORryde (not named in video) at about 2 minutes in a 4 minute video.


MORryde Xfactor Cross Member (haven't decided if I'll buy or fabricate my own)
http://www.morryde.com/uploads/downl...structions.pdf
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File Type: jpg 20200525_wheelsonright.jpg (66.0 KB, 8 views)
File Type: jpg 20200525_wheelsoffright.jpg (66.2 KB, 10 views)
File Type: jpg 20200526_discleftleaf.jpg (58.9 KB, 7 views)
File Type: jpg 20200526_shackles1.jpg (74.6 KB, 91 views)
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Old 05-28-2020, 05:38 AM   #18
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Here you go . Do not try this on my endorsement!!!!!!!

https://www.sunlineclub.com/forums/f...ued-18949.html
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Old 05-28-2020, 08:51 AM   #19
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Tod, just put a quicker shortcut to your latest post #37, on using Devcon Plastic Steel Putty in leaf eye:
https://www.sunlineclub.com/forums/f...tml#post152252

I spent some time looking to see if leaf spring material can be milled or drilled with the thought of reaming out the eye of the leaf spring and machining thicker bushings. Typically leaf springs are made from an alloy steel 5160, which has high carbon and chromium in it. After look at a couple Truck suspension youtube's, I found that the leaf spring can be drilled at slow RPM, high feed pressure, and lots of cutting oil. I have a scrape truck leaf spring I was going to experiment with. My thought was to ream out the eye to 0.75". As was stated by JohnB in one of the Tod's suspension threads, reaming is typically done after undersize drilling and usually only removes a few thousandths of an inch at a time. I stumbled on to this tool that I was debating about using, and to ask JohnB, our mechanical expert what he thought about this as an option.
https://drillsandcutters.com/3-4-hss...bridge-reamer/

The thing is assuming you can even use this on spring steel, I wouldn't attempt to do this by hand. The leaf spring would have to be removed, set up and indicated on a mill or heavy duty drill press, in order to keep everything square and parallel for a true circular hole. I probably will try drilling in my scrape leaf spring just to know whether or not I can do it, but after looking at Tod's work and watching a couple of youtube video's, I think his option is probably much easier. The link below is a very good comparison for how different manufacturers of similar products hold up to a few different test. I also watch one youtube where a machinist had a worn shaft on a lath apron that he couldn't find new parts for, and he used the Devcon to build shaft back up and machine it back to original dimension.

I think the epoxy should work well for filling in the V created by the rolling process and bushing wear. The only thing I might suggest if Tod didn't do this (he doesn't give specific details) is to take a small deburring tool on a die grinder and make a couple of divots in the seam line of the eye, to create a locking mechanism, and provide more surface area for the epoxy to grip to.

Epoxy Test. If you just want to see results, go to 12:15 minutes in the video, and it gives the results of the test done in this video.
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Old 05-28-2020, 10:24 AM   #20
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When I first got my camper, I replaced the tires which appeared to be original, and all the suspension bushings and shackles. I opted to go with the never fail, based on price and how much I intended to tow. My camper only weighs less than 4000, but all the bushings were worn almost thru . I have no idea how many miles were on it. I felt the grease-able bushings weren't worth the price for me, plus I thought it would be a maintenance headache I didn't need. My thinking at the time was, the grease would attract dirt that would get into the bushings and wear faster than the plastic ones.
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