Bends, Buckles and Cracks in the frame!

[Tim Dailey]

Well Folks, bad news for the Winnie!    Was doing some research to replace the Mor/Ryde suspension and stumbled upon some issues.

The frame has some major issues, including cracks, buckling and is twisted in multiple spots.    The drivers side Mor/Ryde Suspension arm has started to poke through the bathroom floor. 

[Lakota Wolf]

Sounds like you have a bit of a project ahead of you. All the luck to you as you  support the structure.

[Jimco_W001]

My welder is available if you need it Tim

[Tim Dailey]

I'll start by saying Dad and I noticed some of these issues a while back, we just didn't expect to be working on a fix this soon. I'm going to try to explain the situation, its tricky to explain. Below is a diagram of my Mor/Ryde configuration, with the exception my shocks are in a different location.

In the diagram above, #11 (Cross member straps) keeps the frame rails from spreading apart at the bottom when the weight of the vehicle is applied to the Hanger Assembly (#2).
Had those straps been installed, my frame would probably look just fine today.

In the pic above, you can see the bottom mor/ryde plates are "fairly" straight, but the top right corner of the mount (#2 in the diagram) is touching the bottom of the floor of the Winnebago. There should be a 2 inch gap, as the entire rig sits on metal 2x2s that run across the frame. Both sides are bent to this extreme and you can see where the PO had repairs done.

Just in front of one of the mor/rydes is a factory cross-member, its pretty much the only thing keeping the frame rails from REALLY flexing, and its cracked, and has been plated at the top on one end, and a strap was added to keep the frame from flexing. This side is the best side, and to the best of my knowledge has not gotten worse since I've owned the rig, it seems to be holding up.

(Drivers Side)

In the picture below, you can almost see the frame rail being twisted counter clock wise, and the bottom piece of the cross-member is tilted with the frame. What you cannot see is the crack on the back of the cross-member allowing to flex even more.

(Passenger Side)

First we have to remove the old cross-member and unbend the frame rails. There is also some minor buckeling in a few spots along the frame rails that we might just leave alone. Then we are going to build a redesigned cross member that grabs the frame rails, and also provides us a place to weld the Mor/Ryde Hanger assembles to.   It really looks and sounds worse than it really is.