Dear Dave,
I have driven my trailer, purchased in March 2021, about 20,000 miles. It has the MORryde CRE3000 suspension system. I check the tires for wear every trip and monitor my TPMS while driving. There was a normal temperature and PSI on the monitor for all of the tires. At the last campground, I noticed the back driver’s side had significant and unusual wear. I took it to a very respected mechanic and he took all of the tires off and did a detailed inspection of the axles, bearings, etc. It turns out several of the bushings were broken and were literally in pieces. I replaced all 14 of the bushings and purchased a new tire. Is it normal for the bushings to get such wear after 20,000 miles? How often should the bushings be inspected? What caused this? How often should bushings be replaced? —Patty, 2021 Jayco 280RSOK
Dear Patty,
There is no recommended replacement schedule for bushings that I am aware of, but rather a visual inspection at least once a year and sometimes more depending on usage. From what I found on the Jayco website, your 280 has dual axles and they look to be fairly lightweight.
The first thing I would recommend is to weigh the rig and make sure you are within the GVWR (Gross Vehicle Weight Rating) recommendations. This can be done at a CAT scale, as you are looking for the overall weight and not individual on each wheel or axle since they are directly next to each other.
You should be able to find the Gross Vehicle Weight Rating on the yellow sticker on the side of the rig. The RV Safety & Education Foundation recommends keeping your overall weight 10 percent below maximum GVWR when towing.
Keep the back tires in mind for bushing maintenance
As for the tire, keep in mind that any time you make a slow turn in a campground or parking lot the front tires turn with the radius. However, the back tires will actually drag since they are not independent suspension. Sometimes the entire axle will “pivot” or bend. I would imagine this is what has happened with your tire and bushings. 20,000 miles is quite a high number and I’m not surprised that with the stock axles you have experienced this.
I ran a company for the past 10 years that had three trucks with 20’ trailers putting on more than 100,000 miles per year each. I learned a lot about axles, bushings, bearings, and tires! We always outfitted the trailers with heavier axles and rotated the tires after every trip to keep the wear even. Plus, our drivers tried to limit the sharp slow turns in parking lots. Have someone drive your unit around an empty lot and you will see how the back wheels drag and the hub bends.
We even replaced the stock bushings with Dexter Heavy Duty Bushing Kit and had very little trouble.
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I have a tri-axle toy hauler that is brutal on suspension and brake parts. My question is: Is there a recommended amount of miles for wheel bearing replacement? I tend to replace them when I do brakes as a precautionary measure, but I don’t know how long they should last if they are kept greased. My other question is whether or not you feel the MORryde X-Factor Crossmembers will definitely help with preventing broken spring hangers. Thank you. —Andy
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This bushing issue sounds like an over-weight issue. JMHO
I had 2016 Cougar that had the MORryde CRE3000 equalizer. I had to replace the bushings. The ones I replaced were nylon and wore out. Replaced them with bronze bushings and greaseable bolts.
Hey Dave, not knowing what his suspension looks like as I’m not famular with suspensions like this trailer has! I did look up his trailer & it came with the MORryde CRE3000 suspension. So I looked that suspension up & all the bushings were made of bronze! Wondering how they could come out in pieces?
Thanks
Snoopy
Snoopy, not necessarily.The trailer manufacturer could have installed only the MorRyde equalizer and not the complete Wet Bolt kit.
I looked at the various (not all listed kits) Wet Bolt kits and equalizer kits on eTrailer.
The Bronze Bushings were included in most of the wet bolt kits.
To nobody’s suprise, Lippert offers a Wet Bolt kit without Bronze Bushings.