Komet Trailer Tongue Surge Damper - How To Replace

The surge damper on my Komet trailer is shot. I have a replacement from Entec along with a very fuzzy fax of an exploded drawing of the whole tongue assembly. While I can see what all the parts are, there is not enough detail to show how to go about disassembling/reassembling the inner workings. I'm sure I can eventually figure it out, but would appreciate it if anyone who has done this before can tell me the best way to proceed and what not to do.

JJ - you ever done this?

Thanks, Doug

Hi Doug, The damper must be removed from the rear of the tongue (the end that is inside the trailer). Lots of fun, It's all self evident after you get in there. :> JJ Sinclair

Hmm, I replaced mine from the front (1980's vintage trailer). Fairly easy involving two bolts as I recall-one at each end. The hard part was getting the tongue pushed in just the right amount against the damper so that the bolts lined up. I did it all with every day tools though.

Cheers,

Thanks for the response, guys. As I figured out earlier today, you are both right. While you can do the job by taking the whole mechanism out the back, it can also be done out the front as Shawn stated - two bolts (well, actually three since there are two bolts holding the hitch to the tongue). So that part is done.

However, since I also wanted to replace the grease seals and clean up the sliding shaft (and had already removed the entire tongue assembly from the trailer and had it in the shop), I now encountered the next problem. While the sliding shaft should slide out the back (after removing the two spacers for the aft damper fitting), I found it started binding with about 2-3 inches of the inner shaft protruding forward of the outer shaft. Turns out that someone was over zelous when tightening the two bolts that hold the hitch to the tongue. The result is that the shaft is considerably out of round (1.649 in, to 1.814 in.), not just once, but twice in the space of 4 inches and perpindicular to each other! I guess the person doing this never heard of a torque wrench. Anyway, at least I know what the problem is. Hopefully I can find a hydraulic press or other means to get it back something close to round that will slide out.

Thanks again, Doug

P.S. I'm taking some digital photos of what all this looks like for the next guy that wants to tackle this job.

Doug I did the same in 1999. My biggest problem was actually removing/sliding the inside bar from the outside.

To put it back I sand blasted, cleaned, and greased the inner bar. With a little hutzpah I managed to get it back.

Interesting post. Bill Evelyn LS3A, WLE

BTW, If the damper is bad (lost It's air load), as your tow vehicle brakes are applied, the trailer surge brake will slam full on. One or both of your trailer tires will skid, the surge brake will then be pulled full forward and release the trailer brakes and the whole thing will start again. This will continue at about 2 or 3 cycles per second until both of you come to a complete stop. A very good way to loose the air load in your damper is to do some welding on the tongue. JJ Sinclair

No kidding. I didn't get the oscilations you mention, but the brakes did have a tendency to lock up and skid just before the car came to a complete stop. And then a big KLUNK if I accelerated too quickly. The last few trips to the airfield this season were done very gently. Fortunately, it's only about 10 miles.

Making good progress so everything should be operating smoothly soon.