Leaf Spring Wet Bolts

I replaced my plastic bushings last year with Dexter E-Z Flex with the wet bolts. It came with bronze bushings for the springs. Everything is much heavier duty than what the manuf. installs. I highly recommend upgrading to this system if you tow quite often!

I got 3 years out of the bushings on my utility trailer, while it's 3500#, it's only used for a quad.

My cargo trailer probably weighs 1000 lbs. My TT weighs 14k lbs. 7x as much weight on the axle.. The cargo trailer and TT shackles look to be about the same quality...

Installed "neverfail" bushings from Lippert on present trailer along with Equiflex equilizer, made a huge reduction in "chucking" of 5er. Interested to hear of others experience with neverfail. Didn't go too far last year and haven't prechecked before starting this year yet to see how they have stood up to use. Had wet bolts on previous trl and had no probs.

Trailer leaf spring suspension uses cheap plastic bushings....they wear out within 1st year of use then bolts elongate the holes in hangers resulting in loose leaf springs.

Then figure in the torque on suspension parts due to maneuvering trailer into awkward sites......tires/axles forced into offsetting positions.
It's not surprising trailer suspension takes a beating.

Wet bolt kits is a improvement.

jporietis wrote:

ktmrfs wrote:
well, cars and trucks usually don't have a hanger for the leaf spring and that is usually what wears the most on a trailer. and the hanger is pretty thin material.

The thick hanger that comes with wet bolts solves the problem.

Next, they use a very thin plastic sleave over a steel bolt in the eylets. doesn't take long for the plastic sleave to wear through, then you get lots of clearance and slop.

and when turning a trailer has much much higher side loads pn the axles and springs than a car/truck since the trailer pivots on the dual axles.

Plus vehicles ( other than trailers/fivers) have shocks that prevent a lot of the up/down stresses.

if you have leaf springs you must have a hanger, car, truck, or trailer. Trailers I have seen have metal to metal on the hangers whereas cars and trucks usually have a rubber or plastic bushing

I put 'wet bolts' on each of my fivers over the years!

On my Dexter Axles there is a nylon bushing that needs replaced every 10,000 according to Dexter. I replaced it with wet bolts because Dexter told me they should last the life of the trailer if I grease them every 1,000 miles

ktmrfs wrote:
well, cars and trucks usually don't have a hanger for the leaf spring and that is usually what wears the most on a trailer. and the hanger is pretty thin material.

The thick hanger that comes with wet bolts solves the problem.

Next, they use a very thin plastic sleave over a steel bolt in the eylets. doesn't take long for the plastic sleave to wear through, then you get lots of clearance and slop.

and when turning a trailer has much much higher side loads pn the axles and springs than a car/truck since the trailer pivots on the dual axles.

if you have leaf springs you must have a hanger, car, truck, or trailer. Trailers I have seen have metal to metal on the hangers whereas cars and trucks usually have a rubber or plastic bushing

well, cars and trucks usually don't have a hanger for the leaf spring and that is usually what wears the most on a trailer. and the hanger is pretty thin material.

The thick hanger that comes with wet bolts solves the problem.

Next, they use a very thin plastic sleave over a steel bolt in the eylets. doesn't take long for the plastic sleave to wear through, then you get lots of clearance and slop.

and when turning a trailer has much much higher side loads pn the axles and springs than a car/truck since the trailer pivots on the dual axles.

I think because the manufacturers of TT build them as cheap as possible and also see even more profit in selling aftermarket upgrade parts.

I really like the rubber torsion bar suspension on our 10 year old Sunline TT. Unfortunately, we did not have that option on our new Arctic Fox TT which we have on order.

On edit: I see you received several replies of examples of what I was referring to as build quality with "cheap" materials.