leaf spring breakage

[red]

heading home from hunting i hit a pothole on a turn and the trailer with my golf cart didnt like it too much. the tire started smoking so we stopped quick to check it out. snapped the leaf springs on one side of the trailer, the tire was rubbing inside the fender of the trailer. we just happened to stop in front of a guys house that was using a chain saw. i asked him to cut me a slice of wood big enough to wedge in between the frame and the axle to hold it at the right height. put a few ratchet straps on it to hold them together and we were able to limp home.

the new leafs have a bit more arch to them, or the older ones have too much sag

[N Dubya]

That stinks, glad you weren't doing 70 down the highway when that happened.

[Dale Moser]

Old springs were tired.

[txfireguy2003]

Save those old springs and have someone make a big knife out of them. I was told that the steel in leaf sprigs makes a good blade and I beleive it. I have seen one very large knife made from them and it was SHARP. I tried it once, but I messed up. While trying to flatten the leaf out, I heated it, pounded it flat, then hit it with water so I could handle it. The next step was to cut out my blade profile and that steel was so hard it ate the teeth off of my metal cutting bandsaw blade! I guess I should have thought about the heat treating process first and realized that heating, then quenching would make that sucker harder. Made a neat chopping tool though after I ground the edge down with an angle grinder.