Replace brass bushings?

[GMcKenzie]

So I finally dig into my springs. Just one side so far. First off, my trailer came with an Equaflex Trailer Air, So i'm not upgrading that (I think I asked about this at one point). But I pulled the springs off anyway.

So what I found is plastic bushings in both ends of the springs, but brass bushings in the Equa Flex.

Thoughts are to replace the plastic bushings with Never Fail ones and leave the brass ones in place. I took one bolt out of the Equa Flex and the bolt and bushing look perfect.

In fact, if I hadn't damaged the plastic ones removing them, they all looked fine as well. But too late to not replace them.

My bars and bolts are all fine so I'm thinking the Never Fail is good enough for how much I'm using the trailer if the plastic ones have stood up 9 years.

I guess my question is, does it make any sense to replace the brass bushings?

An 8 pack of the Never Fail is $53 Cdn on amazon, while the 14 pack is ~$63. As my springs were bolted right to the spring hangers, 8 is all I need (but I'm hard pressed to not by extra for $10). I'm sure I could use the extras on my boat trailer.


I'm also doing tires this year. 9 years is long enough (too long) to go on the ones that came with the trailer.

[busterbrown]

For peace of mind, I'd replace all the bushings for an extra $10.

More importantly, 9 years on the same set of trailers? "Lady Luck" was sure watching out for you.

[GMcKenzie]

For peace of mind, I'd replace all the bushings for an extra $10.

More importantly, 9 years on the same set of trailers? "Lady Luck" was sure watching out for you.

Assuming you meant tires, ya. I agree.

They have a couple of lfat spots and a tiny bit of cracking on the tread. Going to save the best two for my boat as it rarely sees over 20K at a time, and hasn't seen anything for 3 years.

[GMcKenzie]

Would the Never Fail be quieter than the brass? One thing about our trailer is the suspension has always been loud and creaky. Add to that the 4 pt hitch and everyone knows when we come to and leave a campground.

Might be worth the work if it quiets things down a bit.

[bobbecky]

If you had plastic bushings to start with, that means you did not have the wet bolts, the bolts that are drilled and have a zerk fitting on the head end. Without bolts that you can get grease into the area of the bushing, you will only be doing half the job by installing brass or bronze bushings, and those bushings will wear out rather quickly without grease being applied on a regular basis. You should be able to get the bolts from the same place you can get the bushings, and this should help quiet the suspension. Trailers with electric brakes are very noisy due to the mechanism being activated when applying the brakes and that is a lot of what I hear sitting in a park listening when a rig pulls past, and the suspension will not change that noise.