Troubleshooting Bouncy Ride and Loss of Clearance After Hanger and Leaf Spring Installation

Question:

I just moved from collapsed 55 year old 2inch wide double eye leaf springs on a 3500 lb axle travel trailer to these leaf springs. This process involved welding new hangers using a kit purchased from etrailer. I was surprised that the ride got significantly worse with the new springs where now I have a large amount of trailer bounce when before I had a relatively smooth ride. Is it simply that the springs are rated for 2000 lb instead of 1750 lb? I also had a in ride height of about an inch. Would a lower rated spring help smooth out the ride? Is there a spring that would provide an additional inch of clearance so that the jack doesnt scrape on the driveway?

asked by: James B

Helpful Expert Reply:

Although they are not rated significantly higher, installing the # e57SR could result in a noticeable difference in the ride. Springs rated for your 3,500 lb axle (1,750 lb spring capacity) would be the better option. I'm not sure what you had before, but the replacement leaf springs should be approximately the same length as the old leaf springs on your travel trailer. That is, the spring eye to spring eye measurement. Since the old leaf springs were flat the replacement should be a bit shorter.

Assuming you already accounted for this to get your 25-1/4" measurement we can move on from the leaf springs. If you used leaf springs that matched your 55 year old collapsed leaf spring length then that is part of the problem here. If you decide to use leaf springs designed for 3,500 lb axles in the future, then something like the # e68SR would make a good replacement.

It also sounds like you lost an inch of ride height after the installation. Since I don't know what the size of your old hangers were I can't be sure, but it sounds like your new hangers are shorter when compared to the old ones. When replacing your hangers, it's important to replace them with new hangers of the same height as the old. If you both hangers are a different height but not an equal difference when compared to the old that might also be part of the problem you're experiencing since it can impact the way the suspension works.

There are no springs that would provide you with an inch of additional clearance. If the hangers from the # APS5 are in fact shorter, one option would be to replace the front and rear hanger to match the old hangers. This would give you back the height that you lost.

The other option if you don't want to cut off hangers and weld on new ones would be to flip the axle using the Dexter Trailer Springs Over-Under Conversion Kit # K71-384-00. This will move the axle underneath the leaf springs to raise your trailer. The height you gain would be the width of the axle and the leaf spring stack so 3-1/2" meaning you would be 2-1/2" higher then you were originally.

I have attached a helpful article on trailer suspension for your reference.