Bob is quite right about the importance of getting the adjustment right.
Quote:
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Originally Posted by bobkelly
...the two struts are adjusted in length via the adjusting nut so that any play at the two attachment ends is removed and then preloaded 1/4 turn so that the strut is in a mild state of axial compression. Any looseness here allows one of the struts to be in tension during a turn and pulls on its forward lug on the body of the mechanism in a direction that was never intended. Look at that lug closely and you see very little meat on the rear facing side. This lug is too easily deformed with a tension load.
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I am at Roger Williams Airstream this week having some maintenance work done. As part of that, we disassembled our Hensley today. It has ten months of use and roughly 20,000 miles on it.
During two months and about 5,000 miles of the above travel, the struts were not in proper adjustment and so the problem Bob describes above was caused. See the picture attached.
But we also found a significant amount of other wear
inside the hitch, where you can't see it. The zerk fittings were nearly wiped out on the inside. The bushings were badly worn ("ovalized") too. And this was with regular lubrication. I'll be
blogging more about this tomorrow and I'll post photos there, if you are interested in what happens inside a Haha during normal use.