Thread: towing the tm
View Single Post
Old 03-03-2019, 01:07 PM   #2
Bill
Site Team
 
Bill's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: The mountains of Scottsdale, AZ, and the beaches of Maine
Posts: 10,088
Default

Quote:
I need to lube the pivot points on the anti-sway bar.
Yes, you do.

Is there a question in there somewhere? Are you asking what points need to be lubed, or what lube to use, or when to use it? Let me toss out some random info and perhaps some of it will be useful to you. By the way, the bar I am looking at is not an antisway bar, since it will do nothing to control sway. It is a springbar, part of the Weight Distributing Hitch (WDH) setup.

The hitch ball itself should be greased. Not daily, but every two or three outings. Use a paper towel to clean off the old grease. Then apply a blob of new grease to the ball, and smear it around with your fingers. You should have a generous coating of grease over the entire ball, especially the front and back surfaces that get most of the wear. I'm not sure if it matters what kind of grease you use - I have always used a white lithium grease in a toothpaste-type tube, because it is easy to apply, and has other uses around the trailer.

From viewing the video, I think you have trunnion-style springbars, and that each springbar has upward- and downward-pointing stubs at the end, as shown at the left end in the picture below. (If you have a bent springbar, the same comments apply except that there is only one stub.) These stubs are what mate into the sockets on the ball-mount.As the tow vehicle turns corners, the stubs rotate in their sockets, and this results in wear on the stubs. If you inspect the stubs, you will see shiny areas where the wear is taking place. These shiny areas should be oiled (not greased) each time you insert the springbar into the ballmount.

The chain hangers do not need to be lubed. However, it should not groan like that. When the chains groan (as they do in your video), this is an indication that the chains have been tightened too far. There should be 5 or 6 links between the chain hook on the trailer's A-frame and the chain's attachment point at the rear of the springbar. If the chain is too short (say 3 or 4 links), and your tow vehicle makes a sharp turn, you can actually pull the chain out to full horizontal, and if you turn more sharply than that, you can break the chain or the hanger hook.

Is any of this what you were looking for? You might also check out the applicable articles in the Trail Manor Technical Library, such as

http://www.trailmanorowners.com/foru...ead.php?t=2616

Bill
Attached Thumbnails
Click image for larger version

Name:	Trunnion springbar.jpg
Views:	161
Size:	13.0 KB
ID:	17973  
__________________
2020 2720QS (aka 2720SL)
2014 Ford F-150 4WD 5.0L
Bill's Tech Stuff album
Bill is offline   Reply With Quote