Bent axle on Forest River Cardinal

[rvfan]

We have had our 5th wheel for almost 3 years. Last year we had 2 blow outs on our tires. one on either side. No damage done to RV. We took it to the dealer and was told the axle was bent. Forest River says "not their problem". I beg to differ. Has anyone else had problems and where do we go from here. I am afraid to use the RV now.

[TXiceman]

First think you need to do is to weigh the rig and get indivudual axle weights with it loaded to normal travel loads. Next is to check the axle ratings and see if an axle is overloaded.

If you tow nose high, you can put more load on the rear axle and nose low will load the front axle more.

Certain models of the trailers put the bare minimum axe under the trailer and it will reverse the camber on the wheels and bend the axle if you overload the axle.

If you wind up replacing the axles, I would go up one axle weight rating over waht you now have. I wousl also look at upping the tire load range rating.

See this is your first psot. Glad to have you here and hope we can help to solve your problem.

Ken

[rvfan]

Thanks for such a quick reply.

[BookIIRoadtrash]

RVFAN, I had a bent rear axel on a Keystone product…there is no way to prove that it was bent at the factory or if the dealer did it. I was 1800 miles away from my dealer so I got quotes on a new axel or straitening the existing. All the dealers just wanted to sell me a new axel installed . I then become aware of a body shop that did big rig front ends and gave them a call and made an appointment. That was in 2002 and the cost of a newly installed axel was around $500 and the body shop cost was $125 an hour and they did it in less than one hour. And I never had anymore axel problems. But yes we can cause damage to them from turning to tight causing the rear tires to drag or not seeing that pot hole…Book2