Bed Arm Bushings - Adjustments?

Hello,

Our new to us '00 3023 has different bushing assemblies on each arm. It appears the previous owners were trying to adjust the bed height or something. See the attached pictures which show a new bushing/bolt assembly we just got from TM versus what's on our TM now.

Any ideas why someone would add additional spacers?

I am wondering if I should go back to the "factory" setting or try to copy the spacers at each corner as they are now.

Thanks for any feedback!
Jason

Hi jasongeda,

It looks like the area that the plastic washer rides againist is destroyed, I would call the factory to ask what it's made out of and replace the strip of plastic/fiberglass on each side of the slot which the bolt goes up through. Then your new bolt / washer combo will work very nicely.

Good luck
Bob

[B_and_D]

Bob's right, they look pretty chewed up. The factory sent us replacements (although I was trying to find a different part, but I kept them anyway, they are in our spare parts stash) so I know they have them. They're not very expensive and they were pre-cut. It's important to have those bolts sliding freely back and forth, if they're too tight or not just right the arms have a tendency to pop out of the tracks, and they you have to unscrew the plastic track pieces enough to get the arms back in them properly. It can take a bit of extra time when you're packing up to leave (and it's embarassing when people are watching you, TM's can draw an audience sometimes). I kind of greased ours up with vaseline (for lack of anything else available at the time) and they've worked fine ever since (7+ years on our 1997 TM).

The way ours are in the back bed are (starting from the bottom):

Nut
2 metal washers
Support arm
big fat plastic washer
bigger around plastic washer
Guide channels (the things they slide on and are screwed to the underneath of the beds)
smaller plastic washer
bolt head

From the pictures of your replacements apparently I have the 2 metal washers at the bottom and one of them is supposed to be higher up. But ours works fine. They are not very tightly compressed, there's a bit of wiggle room.