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Nearly lost my entire Tag Axle on a Affinityrunning the interstate h

Yahoo Message Number: 72984
Att: Country coach owners; and other coach owners with a Tag Axle axle......please read: 07/22/2011

Our coach is 2009 CC Affinity:

We had a NEAR catastrophic failure with the coach on our lest leg of our return to home this past weekend.
We were in western Pa. and drove home from there (360 miles + - )I-75 to I-80E to I-81N to I-84E I did my usual 360 walk around before we left. This includes a thump check a visual inspection of the tires and their air pressures....A-OK!
Upon our return to home, I backed the coach down our driveway. I walked around the coach and eyeballed everything up and down to find the 'tag' wheel on the right was cocked about 15 degrees and looked odd.
I do recalled a clunk in the rear as I came down the driveway.
I felt the tire and it was all chewed up on the inside. Like it was ground off with a floor sander.
I took it to a spring and axle shop here in town and they discovered that the entire tag axle assembly is attached to the frame thru a formidable flange plate and shims and 4 massive grade (8) -- 7/8 X 3-1/2 in. bolt and nuts.
2 of the 4 bolts and nuts were gone....shims gone.
Another had the nut off it and was worn thru about 1/2 of it's diameter do to rubbing. The 4th was still in tack and was the only attachment point left; otherwise the tax axle would have departed the coach along the highway and doing incredible Fiberglas damage on the way.
And, who knows, could have hit some one or some thing to boot!

The other side has 2 loose bolts and they re-torqued .
This is really weird and we are really lucky that the repair was just over $200.00
The interstate highways in Michigan, Ohio and western Pa. are beyond horrible, Potholes, uneven pavement with rolls and waves, sunken pavement at almost every bridge plate that slams the front tires as you pass over them and so on.
This sure didn't help the poor chassis and likely contributed to the loosen hardware. We maintained speeds at or under 62 for entire trip.
I'm going to take it to a bus company in the next town over and pay them to put the coach on a lift and torque each and every nut and bolt in the undercarriage and chassis.
Including storage tanks for water, waste and fuel & engine and transmission mounts I'd rather be safe that sorry!

I plan on sending this along to the Yahoo blog site and to CCI news letter.
Were are the highway repair funds collected at the pump on every gallon of fuel purchased going? These highways are worn out and they are wearing our our coaches in the process.

Bill

P.S. Please feel free to share this with others who have tags.

Comments welcomed

Re: Nearly lost my entire Tag Axle on a Affinityrunning the intersta

Reply #1 –
Yahoo Message Number: 72985
Thanks for sharing this Bill, There is someone else on this site that had a problem with their tag and as I recall it was an alignment problem dating back to when the coach was built. Kept wearing out their tag tires prematurely. When they got it into a shop for an alignment, many of the bolts were loose. The tags on my coach support 9800 lbs when they where weighed last at a truck scale so I would say that those bolts are there for a purpose.

I will be checking mine before the next trip.

Thanks

Dallas 2004 intrigue ovation 11688

Re: Nearly lost my entire Tag Axle on a Affinityrunning the intersta

Reply #2 –
Yahoo Message Number: 72989
Bill,

Thanks for the update. Very sorry to hear about yet another issue of serious proportions with potential safety concerns for innocent drivers. I wouldn't blame the roads, however. Within reason vehicles need to handle normal and expected degradation in tarmac, concrete and bridge transitions. Usually safety bolts use castle nuts with cotter pins. Good luck with your repairs. I'd be interested in how this situation developed in the first place.

At 04:55 PM 7/24/2011, you wrote:

Re: Nearly lost my entire Tag Axle on a Affinityrunning the intersta

Reply #3 –
Yahoo Message Number: 73003
Thanks for sharing! You know Comm. Trucks and Trailer's have to have D.O.T. Inspection's! Brake and chasis components too by a state traind inspector! Working at Cat our drivers always had this done it's the Law! Motorhomes privatly owned are not required! Like some of us drive rigs over 26,000 pounds with a basic driver's lic.! Thank God no one was hurt! Driving a Truck for Cat many years I was in the law and safe! I use to remind myself the name on the cab door says 1-800 sue me! The driver is ALWAYS RESPONSABLE! Ken 99 Allure 30356

Re: Nearly lost my entire Tag Axle on a Affinityrunning the intersta

Reply #4 –
Yahoo Message Number: 73058
do you always lift your tag on tight turns, i've seen a major rv dealers drivers(ie techs) turn a very tight turn with my tag down. not good. i always hit the tag button when i make a tight turn, this saves tires & strectual.bob '02 magna6028

From: kenbea2002

To: Country-Coach-Owners@yahoogroups.com Sent: Monday, July 25, 2011 10:52 AM Subject: [Country-Coach-Owners] Re: Nearly lost my entire Tag Axle on a Affinityrunning the interstate highways

Thanks for sharing! You know Comm. Trucks and Trailer's have to have D.O.T. Inspection's! Brake and chasis components too by a state traind inspector! Working at Cat our drivers always had this done it's the Law! Motorhomes privatly owned are not required! Like some of us drive rigs over 26,000 pounds with a basic driver's lic.! Thank God no one was hurt! Driving a Truck for Cat many years I was in the law and safe! I use to remind myself the name on the cab door says 1-800 sue me! The driver is ALWAYS RESPONSABLE! Ken 99 Allure 30356

Quote
Bill,

Thanks for the update. Very sorry to > hear about yet another issue of serious > proportions with potential safety concerns for > innocent drivers. I wouldn't blame the roads, > however. Within reason vehicles need to handle > normal and expected degradation in tarmac, > concrete and bridge transitions. Usually safety > bolts
use castle nuts with cotter pins. Good

Quote
luck with your repairs. I'd be interested in how > this situation developed in the first place.

At 04:55 PM 7/24/2011, you wrote: > >
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Re: Nearly lost my entire Tag Axle on a Affinityrunning the intersta

Reply #5 –
Yahoo Message Number: 73074
I always lift my tags when making any type of tight or sharp turn.
That wasn't a contributor.....

Re: Nearly lost my entire Tag Axle on a Affinityrunning the intersta

Reply #6 –
Yahoo Message Number: 73094
Have either one of you pulled the piston out of your drive axle shocks?

Mike 03 Lexa.

Re: Nearly lost my entire Tag Axle on a Affinityrunning the intersta

Reply #7 –
Yahoo Message Number: 73197
I had a problem with a seperated shock almost 3 yrs ago when the coach was 'new' replaced shock and installed axle straps, no further problem and it was on the opposite side.

Re: Nearly lost my entire Tag Axle on a Affinityrunning the intersta

Reply #8 –
Yahoo Message Number: 73211
Axle straps? Is this something you can get off the shelf?

Mike 03 Lexa

Re: Nearly lost my entire Tag Axle on a Affinityrunning the intersta

Reply #9 –
Yahoo Message Number: 73240
I got then at Lazydays. They had them in the parts dept. and had them installed there.
They limit the travel of the shock so not to over extend and pull apart.
This has been a big issue with newer CC w/tags.
They loop over the top shock mount and under the drive axle on each side. Nice and neat.
I have a couple of my friends with late model CC who have had this problem and the 'fix' corrected it.

Re: Nearly lost my entire Tag Axle on a Affinityrunning the intersta

Reply #10 –
Yahoo Message Number: 73245
Thanks Bill,

I thought about fashioning something like this myself, but decided against it.

Mike 03 Lexa

Re: Nearly lost my entire Tag Axle on a Affinityrunning the intersta

Reply #11 –
Yahoo Message Number: 73405
They are woven, 2 ply 1-1/2 wide nylon safety belt material, stitched into a loop with parachute type stitch. The wheel has to be removed to slip the loop on to the alxe and shock hanger.

Nearly lost my entire Tag Axle on a Affinityrunning the intersta

Reply #12 –
Yahoo Message Number: 73066
Bill,

We had a similar problem with the tag axle on our 2008 Magna last year. We were in El Paso preparing to leave for Dallas the next day. We had decided to have the coach washed before we left. The man washing the coach called us and told us that he had discovered a serious problem. The passenger side tag was being held on by one loose bolt. The other bolts were completely gone but the shims were still there. We had a difficult time finding someone who would do the repair but finally found a truck repair facility about ten miles away. We drove the coach there without incident and they jacked up the coach and replaced all of the bolts. The other side of the tag was okay.
We also thought that we were very, very lucky and that we would have probably been killed or else killed somebody else if the tag had come off while we were on the interstate driving to Dallas. I can only imagine.
I am so glad to hear that you also escaped disaster in this very dangerous situation.

Linda

2008 Magna 6925