Re: Spring Break
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I had a brand new trailer break a main leaf spring last year, but it was on a tandem axle trailer with 8 lug wheels, when it broke, the opposite spring was stiff enough to keep the axle from swinging back too far. I actually didn't realize it till I saw smoke in my rear view mirror while stopping. The smoke was from the left forward wheel moving back and hitting the front of the left rear wheel when the axle was pulled back during braking.
Since it was a front spring, the extra weight was held by the truck, which never noticed the added weight, even under the weight of a front end loader.
I also had a spring bolt break on an old somewhat rusty trailer I bought, it was on the way home, heading down the highway with boat and trailer in tow. I had checked the wheel bearings, added some grease and figure it would be OK for the 40 mile ride home. The boat was a junker which I bought only for it's newer motor so I didn't much care about the boat or trailer, and if the seller would have let me, I'd have stripped the controls and motor off it and left it.
The springs were rusty, but not so much that they looked unsafe. What broke was the left front bolt holding the spring to the frame. This happened about 10 miles from home, at about 50 mph, the axle first dropped a bit, I noticed something and slowed down, looking for a place to pull out of traffic, then right after the axle slid back letting the tire hit the frame and back of the fender, that made lots of smoke.
I got off the highway slowly, stopped and looked, the tires had pretty heavy side walls and I was almost home. I stayed off the main freeway and took a back road the rest of the way doing no more than maybe 15 or 20 mile an hour with the thinking that the closer I got to home before the tire blew, the less it would cost me to tow it. It made it all the way to my driveway. The last few miles were with a patrol car following closely with red lights flashing. He told me he wanted to see how far I'd make it on the rim once it blew. It made home but the tire blew when I tried to back up, when the axle swung the other way, the tire then caught the bent forward lip of the fender tore through the already thin corner. There was a pile of smoldering, burnt sticky rubber on the frame and leaf spring, and the tire was down to the cords about 3/4 of the way across and down the inner sidewall. (There was a few bits stuck the patrol car following me too). The other tire which was badly dryrotted, was chopped badly from being drug at a bad angle. I pulled the motor the next day, stripped the boat out and listed it on CL, it was gone by the following weekend, sold for $100 to the first taker.
