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Loss of Elephant Pad Buckets


220cummins

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Somethings weird about this....I never seen these buckets do this even on old completely worn out suspensions, convenient to have a dash cam going to capture the incident though. Glad the driver walked away and (at least it appears) there was no other injuries involved. I hope when it's determined exactly what did cause this it's shared on the BMT blog too.

On a side note it looks like the truck has a aftermarket trunnion stand/ bar installed which appears completely intact, I wonder if the installer/s reused the bucket bolts and /or rubbers/wedges and if so did that have anything to do with this?

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I've never seen it but I've heard of the buckets breaking on some older camelbacks. My dad had a F-model with 38k rears with aluminum bottoms. Pittsburgh Mack replaced them under recall. That was prob 40 years ago though. I agree with challenger; someone royally screwed up if that just had suspension work. I don't know if it did or didn't. It would make the most sense.

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Here's a picture from the web. #9 is the bucket in question. The isolators(elephant pads) are #10 & #12. They have been part of the design from the start.

While we're on the subject, when you hear of 'on Bronze'... whats up with that? And what if they're not 'on bronze'?

Fun is what they fine you for!

My name is Bob Buckman sir,. . . and I hate truckers.

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While we're on the subject, when you hear of 'on Bronze'... whats up with that? And what if they're not 'on bronze'?

On bronze refers to the bushings in the centers where it attaches to the trunnion. Usually 44k and up camelbacks have Bronze or other metal bushings at the trunnion. 38k and possibly some 44's use rubber

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Never saw a broken bucket until one day in central Texas on a well travelled heavy haul route on a bad corner I found one in the middle of the road, appears while turning the bolts broke and split the bucket, I kept it and still have it today, thought of painting gold and putting on display. probably never see another.

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Glad no one was hurt in this. Pad or axel mount failure is a sure thing here. I would not be to quick to point the finger at the mechanic. Take a look at the trunnion placement to the rear gate, that is a lot of distance. It looks like an old coal bucket setup. All the weight is over the boogies and not distributed over the length of the frame. Overloading the boogies can be done and the whole truck be under weight. The failure was triggered when the truck went over the bridge "bump" that is a huge shock load at that speed and loaded, just one to many times. I would be looking at bad chassis engineering. Maybe that is why the the trunnion was replaced in the first place.

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