For the hitch, technique suggested by Cobra:-

http://www.cobratrailer.com/wp-
content/uploads/Kupplungstausch_englisch.pdf

At 04:10 15 August 2015,
wrote:


In my older Cobra trailer, that's normal behavior. The
damper just
prevents=
the tongue from slamming the brakes full on in a
hard stop. It also
preven=
ts the tongue from hitting the stop in fully expanded
position in hard
acce=
leration. It is, in fact, very much a shock absorber,
not a spring.=20

That's not to say that later models don't have gas
springs; I wouldn't
know=
.. But I would think it would make more sense to use
a coil spring with
prog=
ressively higher force the more the tongue is
compressed rather than a gas
=
spring with its nearly linear force/deflection profile.
But I'm not an
expe=
rt.=20

If you can deflect the strut by hand by slowly
compressing it, and if it's
=
about as difficult to expand as to compress, it's a
damper. You'll know if
=
it's a spring: lots of force in one direction and if you
let it go, it
expa=
nds quickly to its free length.=20

The nice thing about the damper, at least in my
trailer, is that you just
u=
nbolt the tongue, including one end of the damper,
and slide out the
moving=
, inner (piston) tube. Bolt in the new damper on one
end, then insert the
t=
ongue and slowly compress it by hand while peering
into the hole in the
ton=
gue for the other end of the damper. When it finally
comes into view,
inser=
t a punch to line everything up, then insert the bolt.
It's literally a
5-1=
0 min. operation after you've done it once.=20

The older Eberle trailers didn't have anything, as I
recall. In a hard
stop=
, the trailer brakes would come on suddenly causing
the trailer wheels to
b=
riefly lock up, especially on uneven pavement when a
panic stop would
cause=
the wheels to lock up and bounce, chirping madly
every time they touched
t=
he ground. Those are also the ones where you had to
get out and set the
loc=
king lever in the tongue to allow you to back up
without actuating the
trai=
ler brakes.

Chip Bearden
ASW 24 "JB"
U.S.A.