4-Leaf Double-Eye Spring for 6,000-lb Trailer Axles - 25-1/8" Long

Video Transcript for Universal Group 3-Leaf Double-Eye Spring Installation

Hey, guys, Kevin here with etrailer, and today, we're gonna be taking a look at and showing you how to install the Universal Group line of trailer leaf springs. Leaf springs are one of the most essential components of your trailer suspension. It's what your axle's actually gonna be attached to, and it's going to help kinda cushion that ride, so it doesn't feel like you're hitting every single bump super hard. It's super easy to replace. It's super easy to figure out exactly what you need. A lot of people really like to get hung up on the amount of leaves that are in a leaf spring, but that really doesn't mean anything.

You just need to check what the actual weight capacity is on it, and one of the easiest ways to figure out the right one for you is to first know exactly what your axle is rated for. So you're gonna wanna get down below your trailer, look for that axle tag, and then you can find out exactly what the capacity is and then, go from there to find the correct size. And if you'll looking on the description on the leaf springs, you're gonna notice that it shows a little bit higher than what it actually is. So when the leaf springs are written up, it's gonna show you the capacity for that axle. So in our case, we have 4,000-pound trailer leaf springs, but that's including both leaf springs, so that's gonna be 2,000 per leaf spring, and these are all gonna come in the quantity of one, so you will need to order two.

You definitely don't want to replace only one side, 'cause that can kinda throw off your suspension a little bit if you have an old one and a new one on the other side. So if you're ever planning on doing this, make sure that you just replace all of 'em, just to keep everything nice and new. So to find the correct size, you're going to measure from eyelet to eyelet. So on double leaf springs, we'll go from center to center on the eyelets, and then, we can take that measurement and we can go back to our fit guide and then find the correct lengths. Whenever you're replacing your leaf springs, there are a couple other components that you're gonna wanna check and/or replace.

Typically, you're gonna have to always replace your U-bolts. Anytime that you remove your U-bolts from your axle, they kind of conform to that axle and get kinda bent as you torque 'em down, so you're gonna want to take those off, trash 'em. Typically, they get real seized up anyway, so you usually have to cut 'em off just to get 'em off. Other than that, you're also gonna wanna take a look at your shackle straps and your wet bolts, or standard bolts, if you have that, both on our equalizer side and on our hanger side. Your equalizer's another thing that you can look at.

You wanna make sure that you're not getting any holes started in the hanger. So if it's sitting there and rubbing, or even on the equalizer itself, it'll kinda wear through it. I've seen plenty of equalizers where they start dropping down because the bolt in it is eating up the equalizer itself. Now, ours is dirty today, but it's not bad. It's still in an okay condition. Another thing you can check as well with that is if you're gonna reuse your hardware, just check your bushings, make sure that all of 'em are still in good shape, or you can get those swapped out. If you need any help finding the correct U-bolts, shackle straps, bolts, or even just the trailer leaf springs, then please reach out to us via our Customer Service line or through our Ask the Expert line, and I or one of my other coworkers will help find the correct leaf spring or other suspension items that you need for your trailer. Universal Group's line of trailer leaf springs are all made of a sturdy steel construction. They have a nice powder-coat finish on 'em, so it's gonna help resist rust and keep these living a whole lot longer. And on the inside of our eyelets, we also have nylon bushings. Now, you can't see it, because our bolt's already in place, but those bushings are gonna help keep it lubricated and kind of being able to easily move back and forth as you go over road bumps. As far as installation goes, it isn't too hard, especially with smaller trailers like the one that we have today, it is just a lot of prep work and it's just kinda tedious work once you get under here. As you can see looking at the floor, it is super dirty, depending on the trailer. A lot of rust builds up, a lot of grime from the road, so make sure that you have on clothes you don't care about. Definitely want some gloves, some eye protection. And then, you're gonna need an assortment of jacks, because you need to lift up your trailer and let the axles hang, and then slowly support those axles. And I tend to use a bottle jack just to make it easier, so I can lift 'em up and down, 'cause you do have to move the axle up and down quite a bit while you're trying to get those new leaf springs on. So as you can see, it looks like the leaf spring that was on here originally has been welded back together. Looks like it probably snapped right about here, and they just came down the side of it and put a little tab over the top. Extremely unsafe. Don't ever do that. Just go ahead and replace your leaf spring. It's gonna be a whole lot cheaper replacing that leaf spring than anything else that could break if the leaf spring broke while you're going down the road with a heavy load on your trailer. Now, we've taken a look at that, we'll just kind of break down our suspension here. So we're gonna have to remove our bolts that go into our shackles right here and our shoulder bolts on the edge of our axles, for each side. We're also gonna have to replace our U-bolts. So when you take these off, typically you can't really reuse them. They typically don't wanna come off either, so I usually have to cut these off. So we're gonna go ahead, we'll cut those off, we'll get some new ones, some new leaf springs. And since our neighbor is not replacing their bolts or their shackles and they're not in too bad of condition, they're just really dirty, we're gonna go ahead and reuse those. So we're gonna be careful, as we're taking 'em off, that we don't strip the bolts, strip the nuts or destroy the ends of our bolts hammering 'em out. If your bolts are as dirty as ours today, go ahead and take some penetrating oil, (aerosol oil spraying) let that soak on there and it'll heat up some of that grime. Makes it's a little bit easier. (aerosol oil spraying) So on the backside on our bolt head, I have my breaker bar, and I've got it kinda wedged up against the frame of the trailer so it can't move. We don't want that bolt to sit there and slide, because it's got these teeth that bite into the shackle, and we don't want that to sit there and grind that out and then, have the shackle be loose, 'cause if the shackle gets loose, it's gonna sit there and kinda wobble out and get an oblong hole through it, and then the shackle is gonna end up breaking. We'll go ahead and start breaking these off. (breaker bar ratchet clicking) (metal clanging) You wanna make sure that you're loosening the nut and not the bolt. (breaker bar ratchet clicking) All right, now I'm getting my jack in place. That's gonna hold up our axle, once I get these leaf springs loose. That way, we won't have our axle come crashing down. If we push up a little bit on it, it's gonna kinda help release some of that tension that's on that shackle strap too. (jack clanging) Okay, right off, just letting the screwdriver. And now's a good time to take a look at your shackle strap. Looks like we're pretty good. It's not starting to get oblong in there at all. It's not really chewed up. Does look like it's kinda been rubbing against the frame, probably right about there, but all in all, pretty good. If you wanted to, this would be the perfect time to go ahead and swap out your bolts, especially if you wanted to upgrade your wet bolts, makes it super easy to lube it. But our neighbor today wants to keep their hardware, so we'll go ahead and just pop it out and save it, sway it out a little bit. (hammer banging) And go ahead and do the same thing over on our other side. (hammer banging) (metal clanging) Now that I've got my leaf springs separated from my hanger and my equalizer, I've gone ahead and lowered the axle just a little bit, so it's a little bit easier to get at the hanger with the grinder. I'm gonna go ahead and cut these U-bolts off. Now I'm just raising my axle up out of the way, as I try to put the leaf spring in. I'm gonna lower it back down once we have everything ready to go. It doesn't really matter which side gets the retention clip. I always just try to put it towards the rear of the trailer, just to kinda keep everything uniform. But we'll go ahead, we'll grab our hardware, (metal clanging) and I'm gonna flip this around just on the shoulder bolts to be able to hammer it in. I prefer hammering it from the outside in, just because once you get under there and you start banging, it really vibrates and makes a whole lot of noise under there. Line it up, pop it in place. Now we can go ahead, and we're gonna hammer in the teeth that are on the bolt. Get you a little bit closer to look, you can see those teeth right there bite into the hanger and prevent the bolt from moving. (metal clanging) So get that back in place, and then, go ahead and stick a nut on it and then we will start hammering it in. That nut's just gonna kinda help it from popping back off, 'cause a lot of times when you hit it, it'll wanna smack back out. (hammer banging) We're nice and flush, so we can go ahead and start tightening up the nut. I'm just gonna do it hand-tight for now, as we get it connected on the other side with our equalizer. So I'm gonna grab that shackle strap, and I'm gonna get this in tow with our equalizer. Possibly, that other leaf spring's fighting us. It's okay though, we can just go ahead and stick it in on the lower side and we'll flip it over using a pry bar. Go ahead and we'll place our shackle strip, and then our nuts. That's about as tight as I can do it with my hand. Go ahead and we'll tighten that up just a bit more, using our wrench and our breaker bar. As we're tightening these down, we don't want 'em to go too tight, we just want it tight enough so there's no play with the shackle strap, but we do need a little bit, to where we can still have it loop back and forth, so as the suspension swings, as you're going over bumps in the road, it's not gonna get stuck. (ratchet clicking) All right, now we're tight, but we don't have any play in there. Let's loosen up, but we should be able to still have our shackle straps kinda swing back and forth. We'll grab our pry bar and we'll flip this back over. (metal clanging) I want that flipped back up. That's gonna make our spring stack more straight here, so that it's easier to put our U-bolt kit on. So I'll go ahead and lower my axle back down a bit. (ratchet clicking) (metal clanging) I'm trying to get it lined up. I need to drop it just a bit more. All right, we're kinda on there. It's just a little bit crooked. It's probably fighting us on the other side. So what we'll do is just. Yeah, the equalizer on the other side's kinda aiming down, so it's throwing us a little crooked. No problem though. As we start tightening down the U-bolts, it'll kinda pull it back into place. So we'll have our U-bolt plate with our edges facing down. We'll get that center in the bolt on our spring stack. We'll place our U-bolt over, slip 'em into the holes, and then we're gonna use our flange nuts. Now, these kits aren't gonna come with the leaf springs. This is something that you have to buy separately, and it's all based on the axle capacity. So if you need help finding that, you'll wanna go to the trailer suspension facet on our website, and look up your axle capacity, that'll give you a good idea. You may have to make some measurements, just to see, 'cause there are a few oddball axles out there that'll be a different diameter. Now we're gonna go ahead and tighten these down, and torque 'em down as well. As I do it though, I'm gonna go evenly across all four of 'em. If you start doing one side more than the other, it'll kinda throw it and wanna pry the plate a certain way, and then it makes it harder to get it on correctly, so a good way to do it is just kinda look at the amount of threads you got. So we're gonna go ahead (ratchet clicking) working it down. (metal clanging) All right, I've gone ahead and tightened down our hanger as well. On those, we also just wanna make sure that it's snug, but not too snug, 'cause this does have to kinda roll back and forth. Now that I've got this side done, I'm gonna go over to the other side, and then once we have that all complete, we can go ahead and throw our wheels on and that'll complete the installation. Well, that pretty much does it for today's look at and installation of the Universal Group's line of trailer leaf springs. My name's Kevin. Thanks for watching.