Axle Bracket cracked all the way

[Sinyyl]

Originally Posted by Kountry_star

Looks great! Good to hear you found someone to fix it for a reasonable price. Only scary thing is WHY did it happen in the first place? Is there an inherent problem on Freightliner rear axles that need to be inspected / repaired 2yr, 5yr, 10 yr???

It is not a Freightliner chassis, it's Monaco's Roadmaster chassis. It got it a few month ago from a dealer sold as is. I am not sure what the previous owner did to it, but from what I read in other threads are that pulling a heavy trailer may cause this sort of thing to happen.

When I got the motorhome, there is high raise hitch mounted to it. It is way too high to connect to my 17ft trailer, which suggested the rig might be pulling a heavy trailer before.

Overall, inspecting the chassis every year might be a good habit. This particular issue may not happen very often, but it's very likely you are going to find some issue big or small.

[jacwjames]

Originally Posted by Sinyyl

Overall, inspecting the chassis every year might be a good habit. This particular issue may not happen very often, but it's very likely you are going to find some issue big or small.

I do my own servicing and most of the repairs. Every time I crawl under the rig I inspect the welds on the axle supports/structure. When I had tires installed last year I took pictures of areas that are hard to see with the tires on so I could look for problems.

When you own a 20 year old DP of any brand it makes sense to start taking a close look at the chassis for any problems, makes more sense to do it yourself if you can or have a good shop do it that knows what they are doing.

[Flyer15015]

Originally Posted by vyndance

Picture 1. The carbon around the tacks on the gusset and the splatter on the corner weld. (brushed off by the next pictures)

X2 on that. I would not use flux cored wire to fix my garden gate !!!!!
Use a real mig w/ 75-25 argon - co2, or stick weld it with E7014.

Mike in Colorado
retired John Deere welding engineer

[Sinyyl]

Originally Posted by Flyer15015

X2 on that. I would not use flux cored wire to fix my garden gate !!!!!
Use a real mig w/ 75-25 argon - co2, or stick weld it with E7014.

Mike in Colorado
retired John Deere welding engineer

I am not familiar with welding. Do you mean they used wrong kind of weld on the axle?

[Rob_M]

Originally Posted by Sinyyl

I am not familiar with welding. Do you mean they used wrong kind of weld on the axle?

No he’s just pretending to know more about welding than everybody else on here and he really doesn’t. I’ve been repairing earth moving equipment since 1980 and flux core wire is used frequently and will pass x-ray and bend testing. It just isn’t very pretty. The preferred method on heavy equipment is what they call dual-shield, which is flux core and gas shielded.
The main thing is a preparation, the crack has to be V’d out to get 100% penetration all the way through, and then since it is probably a weak design, another plate added to make it stronger than it was when it was new.

That said, the frame on your RV is not a place to learn how to weld.

[10EC]

Originally Posted by Flyer15015

X2 on that. I would not use flux cored wire to fix my garden gate !!!!!
Use a real mig w/ 75-25 argon - co2, or stick weld it with E7014.

Mike in Colorado
retired John Deere welding engineer

Think you got er right. I like them e 7014 rods, if i got the code right E means they are easy to open and 70 of em in a pack and they measure 14" long. So E7014 is easy to keep up with and use, almost fool proof
------------

rob -- ye larning anything?

[vyndance]

I like them in the 70 pack that are 18" long

[bigb56]

Originally Posted by vyndance

I like them in the 70 pack that are 18" long

But those don't keep very long out of the oven.

[153stars]

Our Miller Rep showed us how well flux core wire can work with gas on "real" Mig welder. Takes heavier wire, bigger tips and a feed wheel change to create same weld. Stuff as heavy as that I would use stick and gapped the gussets.

Originally Posted by Flyer15015

X2 on that. I would not use flux cored wire to fix my garden gate !!!!!
Use a real mig w/ 75-25 argon - co2, or stick weld it with E7014.

Mike in Colorado
retired John Deere welding engineer

[426smartin]

Originally Posted by 10EC

Think you got er right. I like them e 7014 rods, if i got the code right E means they are easy to open and 70 of em in a pack and they measure 14" long. So E7014 is easy to keep up with and use, almost fool proof
------------

rob -- ye larning anything?

Yep E6011-----Only 60 rods and at 11" is too short ---cost the same? That is why I use E7018 ----longer!

[Rob_M]

Lol y’all are too funny [emoji1]

[10EC]

Originally Posted by Rob_M

Lol y’all are too funny [emoji1]

Bout whutt ????
But we are good gate welders
It is almost a proven fact, you could jump out of a airplane with 18' of welding lead and it would hang on something before you hit.
Every time i try to strike a arc wif a e2012 rod it welds itself to the base plate. gotta jerk hard to git it loose. Guess that is why they call them "stick" rods.

[Flyer15015]

Originally Posted by 426smartin

Yep E6011-----Only 60 rods and at 11" is too short ---cost the same? That is why I use E7018 ----longer!

So right. 7014 you can eat right out of the package. 7018 (low Hydrogen) you need to bake in the oven.

Mike in Colorado

[153stars]

We used to get supplied. X-ergon rods you can pull them out of a puddle and weld . Light them them over and over to tack down expanded metal to build guards , nearly as easy as a MIG would. We have to use a lot of stainless steel ,they also make about the best SS rod for weld it vertically or overhead. It was called Easydown .