Shock Bent/Pulled Apart

[sgtjoe]

I was having new tires installed on my MH when I saw that one of the rear shocks was damaged. It looks like the shaft connected at the top of the frame was pulled out of the shock and was bent at the top of the shaft.

Has anyone else ever experienced this same problem? The shocks are Bilsteins. The chassis is a freightliner. What could have caused this? Is it possible that the leveling jacks could have done it by being set too high?

[wolfe10]

If the shock did pull apart,  first thing I would do is check RIDE HEIGHT.

If too high, the weight of the rear axle could hang from the shocks as you come off of bumps/a wheel fall in a hole. They are NOT designed to do that.

Some chassis have straps or other means of limiting rear axle travel.  You certainly want something other than a shock to be the limiter.

[sgtjoe]

Is this a common thing with the freightliner chassis that my tradewinds has?

[dickandlois]

On 11/14/2019 at 3:19 PM, sgtjoe said:

Is this a common thing with the freightliner chassis that my tradewinds has?

I would call it somewhat uncommon to happen on any chassis, but would indicate something unusual did happen. So checking the axle area and suspension for anything unusual would be in order. 

Rich.

[deenad]

Quite common on some Country Coaches. Some came with limiting straps as Brett mentioned. Cummins in Portland OR broke two of mine on the drive axle when they rebuilt the engine in 2015. Of course they claimed they didn't do it.