About a year ago my wife and I bought a used toy hauler, 2004 - 26ft front bath Fleetwood Gearbox and after just a couple trips people started pointing out that my trailer appeared to be sagging on the drivers side. I looked the trailer over up and down, I've been under it and measured all kinds of different things and the best thing I could find wrong was that the front left leaf spring had sagged about an inch & a half (it was closer to the frame from the axle then the other three). So I called around and found an RV repair shop to change it out. I took the trailer down to him and he suggested replacing both leaf's on the drivers side, (so I had him do it). Well I went to pick it up today and as soon as I hitched it up I noticed it was STILL SAGGING!

Why would this be?

I checked the leafs and sure enough they were new and looked to have a nice arch to them then the old one's that look flat, but the trailer still leaned on the drivers side. So I got to talking to the guy who did the work and he suggested maybe putting heavier springs all the way around, including shackels. I admit the stock leafs appear to be very thin and not very stout at all, so I left the trailer at the shop and told him to get me a price. I'm waiting for him to call me back and I'm trying to look online to find similar problems but nothing is catching my eye.

I've searched this site, I've googled it and called numerous trailer and RV shops, but this doesn't seem to be a very common problem.

What are your thoughts?

Is it unsafe?

Do you think the leaf springs are causing the problem?

Have you ever heard of anything like this?

The trailer is in great condition, the only wear and tear on it is from my kids. The trailer tows straight, never sways or feels unsafe, even in heavy winds I have no problems pulling this with my pick up.

If you have any opinion or advise I'd greatly appreciate it.

Thanks,
Rob

It looks like your kitchen and generator sit on that side. Have you tried parking your stuff more to the passenger side and moving the weight?

Cabinets full of stuff...Too much weight on the drivers side. Probably rated for 2000 lbs gross carrying capacity and you have 500+ in all the cabinets under the kitchen/ dinette/ ect. Tough to fix. Spring hangers/ axles pads/ frame all rated and built for max weight. IF you install heavier leaf springs you may overload some other component of the suspension. I'd do it...but that's just me.

Well the gene, stove and fridge are on the drivers side, but the sink, tv and bathroom are all on the passenger side. And I put my buggy right in the middle and one quad in the middle as well, so my storage is distributed pretty evenly, cbnts run up both sides of my trailer....?

So the RV shop just called and said on top of the $500 I just paid for the first set of springs, it's going to cost and additional $500 to upgrade to the heavier set up all the way around, including new shackles and mounting HW.

I asked for the weight rating on the stock spring and the weight rating on the HD one's he priced out.

Do you think this is something that I really need to do?

First and foremost is the safety issue in my mind. I've seen some pretty nasty TH accidents (mostly pics on line). But the thought of spending a $1000 just makes me mad.

I'd worry more about the way your ford is sitting, j/k!! airbag it

Yes, air bags are on the list of to-do's... especially now that both kids ride quads so I have to fill the truck up.

Thinking about it I could spend the extra $500 and the trailer still might sag... the trailer is not broken now, so I'm not sure what I should do.

Hold off on trailer and bag the truck. post some pictures of the rig from behind to get a better idea of the sag.

Before you buy new springs look very closely at your frame and hitch.
Fleetwood made a mistake in the design of that model and placed the axles too far to the rear.
The result was an excessive amount of hitch weight.

An employee of mine had the same trailer and Fleetwood bought it back from him.
They did re-design the frame and axle placement but yours may be one of the early models.

If you post a picture of the curbside of your trailer I could tell you if you have one of the faulty design units.

just out of curiousity what side are the tanks on and do you leave them full while stored?

Here's the best curbside picture I could find... If needed, I can go down and take a picture of the entire unit... Let me know what you think.

Also... the tanks fill on the drivers side but they are completely centered on how they are mounted. The trailer is always stored completely empty. I drain everything, all tanks are emptied as soon as we are done.

Thanks for your support guys!

Here's another one, but from a distance.

I'm all but positive yours is one of the pre-fix versions. The 26's that were re-engineered had the forward tire within a foot or so of the door. They moved the axle position way up.

Again, the trailer I know about belonged to one of my employees so he would be the best person to talk to.
The problems he had were in relation to an excessive amount of hitch weight.
Give him a call and he can let you know how he got his problems resolved.

His name is Tom and his cell # is 480-250-9925.
Just tell him Neil said to call.

These are the best 2 pics I could find right away of the re-engineered axle location.
These are both 26FS models.
Notice how much further forward the axles are now set?

Click to view attachment

Click to view attachment

From the looks. I think your door is set further back . Your models you show are frt sleepers his is a frt bath.

They dont look like the same trailer models from what he has....

Yep, bonehead here posted pics of the wrong model but the info is accurate.

have you looked over the passenger side springs real good? maybe they are causing it to lean left?

Yes, first thing I did was look at all four leaf springs. They all look great (as they should on a 4 year old trailer). The only thing I came across is measuring from the top of the axle to the frame and the front left leaf spring was just about an inch closer to the frame then the rest. Which is why I had thought it sagged the spring or was a defective spring. The trailer is still at the shop, the repair guy is now investigating it more with Fleetwood and last told me he may be able to put on the HD springs at no additional cost to me... so we'll see if that even works.

I really appreciate everyones input on the matter. Love how the GD family comes together.

Thank you,
Rob

I'll only mention it one more time. You really should call Tom, he will have some info you should know.

Thanks for the info man, I just got off the phone with Tom. Turns out he had the exact same trailer, year make and everything. The problem is excessive tongue weight and and it will cause damage to my hitch. Which I instantly noticed. He says the tongue weight should be 750 LBS, but turns out to actually be 1800 lbs. Fleetwood did buy his trailer back from him but he had it less then a year and was the original owner. I'm going to contact Fleetwood and see if we can work something out. But first I'm going to find out the actual tongue weight of my trailer.

Not being the original owner will probably make things more difficult in dealing with Fleetwood but be persistent.
The trailers were built out of stated spec and in standard loaded or unloaded configuration exceed most hitch's tongue weight ratings.

Fleetwood has essentially acknowledged the defect by re-configuring the axle location on the following years model.
You will likely have the most luck by stressing the damage being done to your hitch ( same as Tom's ) and the potential safety issues.

Good luck.

Any updates? I recently bought a 2004 Gearbox 30ft and now I'm worried. Did you find out your tounge weight? How?