I was under the truck today trying to diagnose my pinion seal leak when I noticed this!!!

4 of the 5 leaves are cracked straight through!!! These were brand new skyjacker 6" springs less than a year ago. I don't know when this happened, but I know the springs were fine two weeks ago when I was checking the fluid level in the diff. I'm very dissapointed in these springs because although I use the truck a good deal, I have not abused it. I'm going to give the company I got them from a call tomorrow to see if I can get a new pack, and you can bet I won't be paying for that one.

 

Dang!!!!! Im going to keep an eye on mine now....looks like some bad tempering.

 

I wonder if the traction bars had something to do with it? Or was it the 3 ton loads of white rock you been hauling?

 

Anybody have an idea as to why they broke? I think the traction bars would have helped the springs, not caused them to break. The most weight I pulled was a jeep on a 20' tag along, far from over weight.

 

on my old truck i had A broken spring and i never hauled anything with it other then a small load of wood but i did have it flexed out really good off roading a few times which is why i think it happened, hope this is of some help...

 

Possibly some bad metal stock in that batch, or maybe the u bolts were overtightened? It looks like they are squeezed down pretty good under the U bolts, but that is my perspective from a picture.

 

Did you have a heavy load in the bed recently? If you were riding around with a load that was enough to flatten or straighten the pack to where they were level or negatively arched it looks like that would be the result. Maybe poor preparation when they were made?? It's also pothole season.

 

Is it possible to make the u-bolts too tight? I torqued them down as tight as I could with an 18" breaker bar, but even then the springs were only tight against the lift block in the center. There was a good 1/16" gap between the springs and blocks at the edge of the blocks. Like you said, now that they broke, they are tight against the block. I've done a little bit of off roading with this truck, but 95% of my driving is highway and without a load.

 

I've never had a load that squatted the rear more than 2-3". Now that you mention pot holes... I think this probably happened last weekend when I went to the cabin. There's a pretty rough road for 4-5 miles to get in there, but it was so foggy that I couldn't go more than 10 mph anyway. Anyway, thanks for your thoughts, I appreciate it.

 

Welcome to the awesome quality of Skyjacker!

My leafs on my 95 did the same thing.

 

I am not saying it's your problerm, but bad shocks will ruin leaf springs. Rough roads make it happen faster.

I do not think you can over torque them, unless you got on it with like a 1" impact.

 

Every spring that I have seen broken due to overload is at the U-bolt not in the middle of the u bolts like yours. Springs shouldn't flex where yours broke. I say foul ball on Skyjacker's part and I am definately going to be checking mine from now on because I do load the wagon 'til the mule goes blind.

 

Well, I called skyjacker and they said they have a 1 year warranty on manufacture defects. I bought the springs 3-14 and today is 3-12, so I guess I'm still in. I have to send the spring in to them so they can check it out.

 

Now the question is should I drive it 150 miles to get home this weekend?

 

no you shouldn't because your main leafs are broke.