[sourdough]

When new the Equalizer bars can be hard to pull/push back and forth. The most important key is having the tongue up enough to remove the weight on the bars from the L brackets. Next, when new I had the bolts tightened to 65 lb. ft. of torque as a minimum. Coat the sliding surfaces of the square bar receiver with grease; I used Reese hitch grease, you used white lithium which in my experience doesn't do much or last long. When new, at times it was almost impossible to get the bars in/out and I was pretty stout back then and could do it but figured something was going to "pop" one day while yanking on the things. To eliminate that I found a 5' length of 1" steel pipe that I just threw in the pass through for a cheater bar....made the world SO much better and eliminated the problem. After thousands of miles of use the hitch loosened up and I now run it at 75 lb. ft. and they work without the bar and it does an excellent job.