Upcoming torsion bar replacement

[Awolf123]

ups useally delivers them

[Larryjb]

I just heard back from Sonja. She put me in touch with Jacob who has been very helpful. Because Jacob is not listed as a contact on the web page, I'll respect his privacy and keep his e-mail private.

I will have to remove the roof from the lift arms, and install the lift arm onto the torsion bar, then I can flex it into the roof and install. This 20° forwards angle is intentional.

The end of the torsion bar must be ground down to match the opening in the lift arm. So, I should not just ram the new torsion bar into the lift arm.

[Larryjb]

Due to family matters I haven't been able to touch the trailer for months. I finally got it moved a little so I could open it. I'm hoping next weekend I'll be able to actually do the torsion bar. I've got a plan to support the shell from inside the trailer rather than from outside. This plan should be more stable, much safer. What I did before did not feel safe.

I won't post the actual procedure I use until I get the job done and bugs worked out.

On a side note, I'm not sure if I mentioned this before, but check that the screw clamps are in place on all the torsion bars I had one that had fallen off with the washer. This could cause the torsion bar to slip out. There's no danger of the torsion bar falling on the road, but you'd be left with no lift assist on once corner.

[Larryjb]

I'm not a happy camper at the moment.

When I got the torsion bars, I was surprised that the angle between the frame end and lift arm end was greater than 90°. It was more like 110°, maybe more, angled towards the front for the front shell. The torsion bars I removed were almost exactly 90°. One side did seem to lift okay, and there was still adjustment to give me more lift. The awning side was the side that was giving me much more difficulty, and it was adjusted to the maximum.

The ends of the new lift arms that fit into the lift arms have threads on them and required grinding to fit into the lift arm. The original lift arms are smooth round steel right to the end and required no grinding. Basically, Trailmanor jammed the torsion bars into the lift arms, deforming the ends of the lift arms in the process. The new lift arms are supposed to be ground down to the size of the lift arm.

After I finally got the torsion bars installed into the lift arms, and got the pivot shoulder bolts installed in the top, then got the height of the shell roughly adjusted (so that the aluminum lock bars would come out perpendicular to the trailer), I tried to lower the shell. It was really tight. I managed to get it down, and then I discovered that the torsion bars had begun to tear out of the lift arms.

I'm beside myself at the moment. It seems that Trailmanor must have changed the design of the lift arms along with the torsion bars. This should not have happened. I'll write to Sonja for help with this. I sure hope she can help!

[Bill]

What a mess, Larry. I'm sorry to see it, especially after all your work. From the pictures, it looks like the end of the torsion bar wasn't pushed far enough into the lift arm. Though you probably know this, the end of the torsion bar should be pushed into the lift arm beyond the four bolts, so that all four bolts contribute to the grip on the bar, and prevent the rotation of the bar that is so evident in your pictures.

I was always under the impression (though I'm not sure why) that the bulge in the lift arm between the bolts was pre-formed before the bars were inserted, and was properly sized to allow insertion of the bar. The shape if the bulge doesn't suggest that it was formed around the bar after it was inserted, although I suppose this could be true if the bar was inserted and the bulge formed before the lift arm / bar assembly was mounted on the trailer. I'm not sure why they would assemble it this way, but then ...

And I have no idea what the threads are all about, unless they were intended to accept a nut to secure the end of the bar in its cage on the frame, replacing the stainless steel hose clamp that has been used for so long in the past.

This may be a stupid question, and forgive me for asking it, but are you sure you didn't install the bar with the two ends reversed?

Please let us know what you find out from the factory.

Bill

[Larryjb]

That's what Jacob from Trailmanor said also. I was convinced that the torsion bar was full seated between all four bolts. For now I'm assuming that it was not, and I will have to make absolutely certain that it is seated between all for bolts.

He said I just need to lift the shell off the lift arms, remove the lift arm from the torsion bar and reseat it. I suppose I can just bend the metal back into shape. I may need to replace the bolts if the threads have been damaged.

I have left one further question for him, and maybe some of you can chime in too. When I tried to close the shell, I could barely move the shell into the closing position. It was ridiculously difficult, and nothing like my rear shell. My rear shell I can lift with one hand and close with one hand. It took my body weight and bouncing to get the shell to move. Is the front shell more difficult to close than the rear one? Should I be able to close it with on hand (and very little body weight behind it?)

[Bill]

FWIW, my experience is --- no appreciable difference between font and rear shells. I usually closed the shells by putting both hands on the shell, at the center. This provided balance for me, and a straight-ahead motion for the shell. Then I would lean gently into it to get it moving. Once a shell was moving a bit, it completed the closure almost by itself.

Did Jacob tell you what the threads on the end of the bar are for?

Bill

[MBushaw]

Do you have a roof air conditioner? I don’t know what year they changed from cabinet mount to roof, but that’s a big weight difference.

[Larryjb]

TM sent me torsion bars for a 2720 with the awning and no roof air.

They seem pretty confident it should work. Perhaps the struggle I had was my efforts were going into bending steel instead of twisting a torsion bar. I'll get to it next week again. I think I have lifting the shell off the lift arms down now.

[Larryjb]

Jacob at TM did say it might be a little stiff the first few closes. I also wonder if I didn't have the torsion bar clamped tightly enough and it got pulled out as I pushed it down to collapse the shell. Next week I'll raise the front of the trailer a little to help collapse the shell.