Cobra Trailer Strut Help Please....

[Brian Iten]

I have a 1995 Cobra trailer for my Discus. The tongue
strut is shot and needs to be replaced. Can anyone
give me some advice on how to do this? I removed the
hitch, all the bolts along with the bolts holding the
strut in but can not pull the strut out of the front.

Thanks for the help and advice,
Brian

[Udo Rumpf]

Brain
Use your vehicle to pull it apart.
Install the hitch again
Tie your trailer to something sturdy
hook up your vehicle, pull it off by driving forward.
If you have a shop try to set-up a lever arrangement.
If the tongue strut did not move in normal operation
you may need several 100 lbs of force to get it moving.
Udo


"Brian Iten" > wrote in message
...
>I have a 1995 Cobra trailer for my Discus. The tongue
> strut is shot and needs to be replaced. Can anyone
> give me some advice on how to do this? I removed the
> hitch, all the bolts along with the bolts holding the
> strut in but can not pull the strut out of the front.
>
> Thanks for the help and advice,
> Brian
>
>

[Brian Iten]

Actually, the tongue strut still moves just fine. The
strut has lost it's charge so it will
not push the trailer away from the tow vehicle at a
stop. I just can't figure out how to remove the strut
from inside of the tube that goes into the trailer.
Brian

At 23:00 28 November 2004, Udo Rumpf wrote:
>Brain
>Use your vehicle to pull it apart.
>Install the hitch again
>Tie your trailer to something sturdy
>hook up your vehicle, pull it off by driving forward.
>If you have a shop try to set-up a lever arrangement.
>If the tongue strut did not move in normal operation
>you may need several 100 lbs of force to get it moving.
>Udo
>
>
>'Brian Iten' wrote in message
...
>>I have a 1995 Cobra trailer for my Discus. The tongue
>> strut is shot and needs to be replaced. Can anyone
>> give me some advice on how to do this? I removed the
>> hitch, all the bolts along with the bolts holding
>>the
>> strut in but can not pull the strut out of the front.
>>
>> Thanks for the help and advice,
>> Brian
>>
>>
>
>

[Chip Bearden]

No two Cobra trailers seem to be alike so I'm not sure if mine (ca.
1992) is a close match to yours. But my trailer's strut isn't a gas
spring, it's a damper; i.e., it doesn't push the trailer away from the
tow vehicle at all but rather damps the movement during acceleration
and braking. With older trailers which lacked such a damper, hard
braking would sometimes cause the surge-brake sliding tongue to
compress suddenly, applying full brakes and often causing the wheels
to hop off the ground at the slightest bump in the road. When they
landed again with the brakes locked, the tongue would extend just as
quickly before being compressed violently, repeating the cycle and
leaving little chirp marks of rubber on the road.

To remove the damping strut, I have to remove the inner tube to which
is bolted the hitch. That's usually (see below) pretty easy: you can
leave the hitch on the inner tube; just remove the big bolt (maybe
two, I'm not sure) that holds it all together and slide the inner tube
forward out of the outer tube. You must remove remove the bolt that
retains at least one end of the damping strut first, of course.

Years ago, after the trailer sat for a while, moisture apparently
caused the two large plastic bushings in which the tube slides to
swell, plus the inner tube rusted/corroded. The tongue assembly was
frozen in place no matter how hard we pulled (we didn't try Udo's
trick). I chained a long lever arm to the inner tube and was able to
rotate the tube slightly back and forth while I slowly pulled it out.
I had to clean up/smooth the inner tube's surface where it slides in
the bushings. More important, I also had to open up the bushings a
little bit with a sanding wheel on a long shaft (the front bushing is
accessible but the aft one is recessed in the outer tube) before it
would all go back together properly.

Keeping the bushings lubricated properly minimizes this problem. After
I use a grease gun on the fittings, I remove the bolts holding the two
tubes together and rotate the inner tube 360 degrees to distribute the
grease all the way around.

Chip Bearden

> Actually, the tongue strut still moves just fine. The
> strut has lost it's charge so it will
> not push the trailer away from the tow vehicle at a
> stop. I just can't figure out how to remove the strut
> from inside of the tube that goes into the trailer.
> Brian
>
> At 23:00 28 November 2004, Udo Rumpf wrote:
> >Brain
> >Use your vehicle to pull it apart.
> >Install the hitch again
> >Tie your trailer to something sturdy
> >hook up your vehicle, pull it off by driving forward.
> >If you have a shop try to set-up a lever arrangement.
> >If the tongue strut did not move in normal operation
> >you may need several 100 lbs of force to get it moving.
> >Udo
> >
> >
> >'Brian Iten' wrote in message
> ...
> >>I have a 1995 Cobra trailer for my Discus. The tongue
> >> strut is shot and needs to be replaced. Can anyone
> >> give me some advice on how to do this? I removed the
> >> hitch, all the bolts along with the bolts holding
> >>the
> >> strut in but can not pull the strut out of the front.
> >>
> >> Thanks for the help and advice,
> >> Brian
> >>
> >>
> >
> >

[Brian Iten]

Here is the response I received from Agnes (see below)
at Cobra. I have a couple of ideas that I want to try
but was interested if anyone else has any suggestions.
Thanks
Brian

(snip)
Hello Brian,
sorry to let you wait. I had to investigate first because
I am not too familier with this job and Alfred is not
around.
I was told that this task is very difficult for one
unexperienced.
You just need to make sure that you have removed all
the bolts and then fumble around until it gets out.
It is kind of tricky and I heared the boys cursing
when they did it. Only if you don't get it done you
would at least also remove part Nr. 8 but normally
it should not be necessary.
Wish you good luck.
Regards
Agnes