Full Suspension Replacement - Alcan Spring and Dexter D52 Axles

[jd1923]

Our OEM suspension was still in good shape. I had worked a full brake service, including the Timken bearing upgrade, two years ago just after we purchased our Oliver June of 2023. Our OEM leaf springs were still properly arced and no rust given life in the SW, never an issue.

Until the “Made in USA leaf springs” forum post came up, I had not worried about it, nor ever concerned that the Oliver suspension might be undersized in some way. I headed the warning, but not at first wanting to pay for this extensive upgrade, so I purchased a spare pair of 1750 LB leaf springs and U-bolts to have on hand in case of possible failure on the road.

We were on our 5-week June trip to Minnesota, and on the way back we took the northern route. I wasn’t at all thinking about a suspension upgrade! I’m in regular communication with our friend Ken @mountainoliver and realized they were camping in Colorado and perhaps we could meet up. They were there waiting for their scheduled appointment at Alcan Spring in Grand Junction CO. At the time, we were camped in North Dakota on the great Missouri River! But were soon cross Colorado from the NE to the SW on the way back home.

Given we could see our friends and the many mentions of Alcan on the Forum, I thought we should visit Alcan Spring to at observe their operation. I called and talked to Tim and made an appointment to visit, not a service appointment.

"Every picture tells the story" don't it! The first pic is much later in the process as a preview and the second one was only two years ago after working a complete brake/bearing maintenance. I believed we were good! 🤣

Edited Tuesday at 02:18 AM by jd1923

[jd1923]

Seeing is believing! I’ve worked manufacturing a few times in my career, like the ol’-school RAM Golf Club manufacturing back in the early 70s in Melrose Park IL. Later I spent a decade, the 90s in Motorola manufacturing! My immediate first impression, observing a relatively small manufacturing facility which I truly appreciated! I realized a team of good people, working hard with little to no BS, and as busy as they were they took time with me, helped me answering all of my questions.

If they could have serviced me that day, or that week, I would have stayed and had the work done. I knew from the start that I would not upgrade springs without upgrading to D52 axles. I’m one of the unlucky few who not only got the inferior D35 axles, but also in a half dozen hulls where OTT installed the 1/2" shorter 50” axles (what the, why?)! Alcan had a skid full of the 50.5” axles from all their Oliver business of late, but replacement of the rare 50” axles must be special ordered!

So I’m talking/texting with Ken, when he said, “Don’t let them sell you my springs! 🤣 Ken had a service appointment scheduled for the very next week. I purchased Alcan Springs on this day. When Tim said, they could special order for me the correct 50” axles for our hull and charge me the same going price Oliver owners were paying for the 50.5” axles which they had purchased in bulk. This read like a very good one-time good offer, from a helpful, fully knowledgeable company rep! This is TRUE Customer Service! 😂

All I could say is “let’s do it!” Renee wrote up the order. Tanner assembled the leaf spring parts they manufacture in house, and then he went through their installation instructions and torque specs and later loaded the spring parts in my truck.

I wrote Renee a check for half+ down and an hour later we were back on our trip!  What was accomplished in an hour was spectacular!

Lunch and a fuel stop in Grand Junction and we’re headed out of town…

Edited Tuesday at 02:51 AM by jd1923

[jd1923]

Met up with Ken and Mary Kay in Montrose and we had a great time together! They had dinner ready for our for first night at Riverbend RV Park, considering our long day. Our second night we went to dinner at Ted Nelson’s Steakhouse! A couple days later we had another evening together at our next campsite, Basecamp550 between Ridgway and Ouray. We headed home slowly, other good camps along the way.  They stayed another few days at Riverbend until their scheduled Alcan Service appointment.

[jd1923]

Dexter estimated 3-4 weeks to manufacture the new D52 axles, and it was just 4 weeks when they were delivered to our home. The bad news was that Dexter did such poor job packaging they came to me a basket case. What a waste! They used a single nylon strap (and a whole lot of stretch wrap) to secure the two heavy axles to a standard sized skid. But trailer axles are longer than a skid! They had slipped off to one side!

FedEx Freight propped up their packaging on another skid but the damaged had been done. The one drum hanging lowest took a bad bang bending the brake backing plate, to the point that the drum could not turn at all. These could have been repaired, but soon enough I decided to refuse the shipment. Why should I pay over $2K for this mess?!

On the weekend, I emailed Tim at Alcan Spring to report the damage, several pics included. When Tim called me first thing Monday morning, he already had contacted Dexter re the shipping damage and got them to place a rush replacement order, with promised delivery in 2 weeks. I accepted their offer.

[jd1923]

So while I was waiting for the new shipment, I thought why not check out the inner workings of the Dexter Nev-R Lube bearing? In seemed a reasonable use while these damaged axles were hogging up space on my garage floor!

 

[jd1923]

It was exactly 2 weeks as promised and the replacement axles were here. This time they were mounted on a custom pallet 100" long! Two steel straps holding one to the other and two nylon straps to the skid, and no furniture wrap! 🤣

It's time for the work to begin. I'll walk through the process but enough for today. It's been fun working on this, first axles install ever for me! There will be several points to consider in having this work done, that I will discuss later. Not too many of us would do this work ourselves. Going to Alcan Spring is a great excuse to visit SW Colorado! 😂

[Mike and Carol]

We’re making our way to Grand Junction for our axle replacement on Friday.  Currently camping near Park City in Utah.

[John and Debbie]

Mike, Alcan is a great company to work with.  The downtown area is very nice for looking at their art, having breakfast and poking around in a shop or two.

John

[Mike and Carol]

9 hours ago, John and Debbie said:

Mike, Alcan is a great company to work with.  The downtown area is very nice for looking at their art, having breakfast and poking around in a shop or two.

John

We’ve already got the ALCAN springs, should have done the axles at the same time, but, better late than never!  We’ll spend the night in Ridgway before heading to Durango to spend the weekend with son and family.  A big breakfast is waiting for us in Grand Junction while our axles are swapped out!  Mike