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southernkilowat's avatar
southernkilowat
Explorer
May 17, 2015

Lost my Doohickey Bar, HELP!!

Ok, so I towed down 3 hours to see family and go to a funeral and overnighted in my nieces back yard. Got myself in a hurry to unhook and set up and I am pretty sure I left the bar laying on the bumper of my truck and then drove away. :S
It is the pry bar Doohickey that you use to lift the sway bar up and onto the bracket that is mounted on the trailer frame. Its about two feet long I guess, and has a half loop on the end for the sway bar to sit in and a "finger" on the end of the bar that you put into the hole on the sway bar bracket. Once you have the sway bar sitting in the loop, and the finger sitting in the bracket you lift upwards and the sway bar "Pops" into place and you put the keeper pin in the hole in the bracket and do the other side.
Well I don't know what the stupid Doohickey Bar Thingy is called so I cant very well search for a replacement.
As I sit here typing this I realize that I don't need the Doohicky Bar Thingy to unhook, just to hook up, so I don't even know why I took it out of the storage bay to begin with. All I know is it AINT there and I need a new one.
I managed to put the sway bars on without it but almost broke myself in the process. HELP!

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  • Bedlam's avatar
    Bedlam
    Moderator
    May 18, 2015
    I call it a cheater bar. Like the others, I jack the tongue up after latching the coupler to get the spring torsion bars locked in place and pinned.
  • southernkilowat's avatar
    southernkilowat
    Explorer
    May 18, 2015
    Ron3rd wrote:
    camp-n-family wrote:
    You don't really need the "doohickey bar" (snap up lever). Hook it up, then jack the tongue up. You should be able to jack it enough to easily lift the bars onto the brackets by hand, then lower the tongue jack.

    What hitch is it? I think this is what you want.


    Good advice, latch the tongue onto the ball then raise the jack up and you should be able to snap the bracket up with a long screwdriver. No need to muscle the brackets up if you raise the tongue after latching the coupler. In fact,if you raise the tongue up enough, you can do it with your hand. That's how I would do it on my old EZ Lift WD hitch.



    Thanks for the advice but mine wont quite make it. I hook up and raise the camper back up until the back of the truck has come up several inches and its still not quite high enough. It was all I could do to put them on by hand after I discovered I had lost the Doohickey bar. Maybe its not set up right, but I think it would be better too tight then too loose. I do have another question though, and I will make another post for that, but do you grease the bars?
    Thanks!
  • Ron3rd's avatar
    Ron3rd
    Explorer III
    May 17, 2015
    southernkilowatt wrote:
    wnjj wrote:
    ScottG wrote:
    A piece of 3/4" iron pipe fits.


    Not for his. I think his uses this one here:

    Snap-up lever

    I see camp-n-family already linked one.


    Thanks camp-n-family and wnjj! That's exactly what I need! Will order it today!


    The link posted is for the Equalizer Brand Hitch, so if that's what you've got, fine. I've never used my snap up lever with my Equalizer, never had to. Jack the tongue up and push the bars over the L-Brackets. If you got the old type WD hitch with chains, that lever won't work.
  • Ron3rd's avatar
    Ron3rd
    Explorer III
    May 17, 2015
    camp-n-family wrote:
    You don't really need the "doohickey bar" (snap up lever). Hook it up, then jack the tongue up. You should be able to jack it enough to easily lift the bars onto the brackets by hand, then lower the tongue jack.

    What hitch is it? I think this is what you want.


    Good advice, latch the tongue onto the ball then raise the jack up and you should be able to snap the bracket up with a long screwdriver. No need to muscle the brackets up if you raise the tongue after latching the coupler. In fact,if you raise the tongue up enough, you can do it with your hand. That's how I would do it on my old EZ Lift WD hitch.
  • southernkilowat's avatar
    southernkilowat
    Explorer
    May 17, 2015
    wnjj wrote:
    ScottG wrote:
    A piece of 3/4" iron pipe fits.


    Not for his. I think his uses this one here:

    Snap-up lever

    I see camp-n-family already linked one.


    Thanks camp-n-family and wnjj! That's exactly what I need! Will order it today!
  • wnjj's avatar
    wnjj
    Explorer II
    May 17, 2015
    ScottG wrote:
    A piece of 3/4" iron pipe fits.


    Not for his. I think his uses this one here:

    Snap-up lever

    I see camp-n-family already linked one.
  • robsouth's avatar
    robsouth
    Explorer II
    May 17, 2015
    I used to use just a piece of pipe to life the "weight distribution bars" up to snap into place in the bracket on the trailer tongue. That was before I learned how to do it correctly and let the tongue jack lift the tongue and the rear of the truck so I could just flip up the bracket by hand and put the pin in, then let the trailer down by the tongue jack. Never used anything with the friction sway bar. It just set into place on the little small balls, one on the hitch and one on the trailer tongue. The sway bar had no tension on it until after it was in place. Just try a piece of pipe.
  • camp-n-family's avatar
    camp-n-family
    Explorer
    May 17, 2015
    You don't really need the "doohickey bar" (snap up lever). Hook it up, then jack the tongue up. You should be able to jack it enough to easily lift the bars onto the brackets by hand, then lower the tongue jack.

    What hitch is it? I think this is what you want.
  • jfkmk's avatar
    jfkmk
    Explorer
    May 17, 2015
    Not sure exactly what it's called either. Call etrailer they should be able to help.

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