Broken Leaf Springs, again

As we were leaving Austin it was pouring rain.  I looked in my mirror as we were going down the road and noticed that I could see more of the side of the trailer than normal.  The last time this happened we had a broken leaf spring so I pulled into a gas station, waited for the rain to let up a bit then went out to see that not one, but two leaf springs had failed.  

I found a KOA nearby where they would let us have a mobile tech come work on the trailer and we went there while I ordered parts and found someone to install them.

I should have replaced all four the first time around so I made sure I replaced not just the springs but all of the pins and shackles as well.

Four days later, with brand new suspension, we resumed our travels.

Passenger side front

Driver side rear

New springs, pins, shackles, and bronze bushings

This time we had a nice asphalt pad for the mechanic to work on.  Much nicer that than the dirt pad we had when the first spring was replaced.

Springs being installed

Three down, one to go.

The load balancers hole one end of the leaf spring on either side.  The result is that the center pin takes twice as much load as any other pin in the system.  Despite this the pin and bushing are the same size as all of the others.  Clearly the pin should be a larger diameter so this doesn't happen.

Load balancer hole wallered out pretty good.

 Just like last time, the fracture surface showed beach marks, indicating that the failure was a result of fatigue.

Passenger side front fracture surface