My 81-year old FIL and I (59) just did the mod this weekend on my Thor Wanderer 24 foot trailer. Now, I have a much lighter trailer at 5100 pounds road weight than most on this thread. It took the two of us just 2 hours to do the one side and under 1 hour to do the second side. That time is from lifting the trailer to remove the wheels to doing the final torque on the lug nuts.
My plastic bushings looked almost new with 24,000 miles on them. Again, I think the weight issue is the reason they looked so good. My FIL was really surprised at the condition of the bushings since he had replaced the plastic bushings on his much heavier trailer a few years back.
We did discover a few things about this mod that might help others. First, make sure you are on a level area and DO NOT BLOCK the wheels not being worked on. My trailer had two wheels on grass and two wheels on concrete. We found it hard to move the axles around to install the single bolts in the end hangers when we worked the concrete side. The grass acted as wheel chocks.
We did use two floor jacks (2-ton and 3-ton) to help support and move the axles around a little. We used a small bottle jack (2-ton) to raise and lower the spring right at the center unit. This helped to position the single hanger on the ends so the bolt would side through.
I did most of the work on the second side. I followed the same lift and support the frame as before BUT the other wheels were free to move slightly. As soon as I lifted the grass side axles with the floor jack (Placed on 3/4 inch plywood for a base), the center hanging unit practically slid right out using just a push. I credit this to the axles ability to move free at the other side.
I did use the hacksaw to cut a groove in the plastic bushing, then twisted it out with the needle-nose pliers. This side showed wear on one bushing only.
I did use the Harbor Freight clamp like Barney and Les used. It was slick. However, I found it just as easy to use a hammer and the old bolt and hanger to hammer the bushings in. I used a socket turned backwards to force the serrated edges of the bolts into place.
On side two I used just hand tools - no electric or air impact. None of the nuts were that difficult to remove once I used penetrating oil to loosen the rust. The center nut was harder as the final torque is about 95 foot pounds, but it can be done by one person. Of course two people make it easeir. No, I am not a gorilla.
We will be going on a 240 mile trip this month to the coast. I hope to see some improvement in ride. Even though the old bushings were still good, I feel much more comfortable knowing I have all new stuff under there and grease! I hope any squeaking will be gone but the true test will be the speed bumps at the campground.
Three years ago I installed the Monroe shock kit. My wife and I saw a difference in the ride of this light weight coach. We did add the Reese dual cam back in 2004 to improve the ride comfort over the single friction bar. Two years ago we upgraded our OEM hitch on our Chevy Tahoe SUV to a class four hitch and saw even more ride improvement. The OEM hitch apparently was flexing while towing giving us a somewhat squishy ride - if you know what that feels like (not quite sway but squishy). We also went to the Michelin 4-ply SUV, light truck tire. The stiffer sidewalls gave us a somewhat better ride while towing but a stiffer ride when not. These tires run at 36 psi which is door pillar level and sidewall max. I think a P tire is OK for an SUV, as long as it is air to the sidewall max when towing as we towed many thousands of miles like that. We did added Bilstein shocks two years ago to the Tahoe.
I hope some of this can help you out. I learned a lot from Les and his photo documentation and from the comments others made concerning their project.
