Re-Arching the Springs

I pulled the leaf springs off the Cat this weekend to get them re-arched. They are also going to add a leaf to them. Lately I have noticed that the drivers side is setting an inch or two lower than the passenger side. I have roughly 20-25k miles on them. Here are some pics of the project so far. 3 of the springs had an arch of 5.5" and one had 6". Also, when I pulled my trail-air brass bushings out, the were all cracked on the ends, so I am going to call them and order some new ones today.

Next question, I would like to inspect my brakes while I am working on this project, how do I do it?

Brad,
How are you supporting the frame of the CAT?

It is magically hovering there!!! Just Kidding.

I have blocks up front right behind the front jacks, I ran the front jacks up pretty high, put my blocks in and then lowered the front jacks and took them off the ground. Then I took 2 house leveling jacks (the old screw up type) and put one under each rear corner, and slowly raised the back up. Would have been easier with 2 people, I got alot of exercise going back and forth between each jack giving one a turn, then the other a turn, then the other a turn...........

I will get some pics and post them.

I think I would just replace the springs instead of bending them. Here is the problem I had not too long ago with my springs:

Broken Springs

Hi Bobby,

Thanks for sharing, and what a GREAT WRITE-UP... WITH PICTURES!!!!

Good point Bobby. I have the springs back and I discussed this with the shop. They test them with a 100 ton press. Like he said, if they are going to break, it would be on that press. I am happy with the outcome and they added a leaf. The springs now have an arch of 7" instead of the 5.5" when I took them off. I wish I would have measured the camper height before I took them off, but I forgot to do it. Here are a few more pics.

I will install them as soon as my new bushings from Trail-Air get in .



Here are some pics of how I supported the Cat. Please ignore my dirty floor, if it ever stops raining around here for more than three days, I plan to clean the floor.

bdaniel wrote:I think I would just replace the springs instead of bending them. Here is the problem I had not too long ago with my springs:

Broken Springs

Where did you get the spring spacer blocks? I have been looking everywhere for them, all the spring shops in my area tell me they are not available. I would like to raise the suspention 2 inches, I already had the ubolts made, now they tell me you can't get them. Any help would be helpful. Thanks, Tim

slowtruck wrote:

bdaniel wrote:I think I would just replace the springs instead of bending them. Here is the problem I had not too long ago with my springs:

Broken Springs

Where did you get the spring spacer blocks? I have been looking everywhere for them, all the spring shops in my area tell me they are not available. I would like to raise the suspention 2 inches, I already had the ubolts made, now they tell me you can't get them. Any help would be helpful. Thanks, Tim

My Dad and I made them. Here is a description of how we did it.

http://www.bobbystuff.com/RV/01-04-Axle_blocks.php