How to use HttpComponentsClientHttpRequestFactory with RestTemplate efficiently?

I am using RestTemplate along with its factory HttpComponentsClientHttpRequestFactory in one of my projects. In this project, I need to make a Http url call to my server which is running a restful service which returns back the response as a JSON String.

Below is my code -

public class GetUserClientData {

    public String getData(KeyHolder keys) {
        return new HTTPRequestAccess(keys).makeHttpRequest();
    }
}

Below is my class which wraps the HttpClient part -

public class HTTPRequestAccess {

    // should this be static?
    private RestTemplate restTemplate;
    private KeyHolder keys;
    private int timeout;

    public HTTPRequestAccess(KeyHolder keys){
        this(keys.getTimeoutValue()); // setting timeout to RestTemplate
        this.keys = keys;
    }

    public HTTPRequestAccess(int timeout) {
        this.timeout = timeout;
        restTemplate = new RestTemplate(clientHttpRequestFactory());
    }

    private ClientHttpRequestFactory clientHttpRequestFactory() {
        // is this not expensive that every time we are creating this new object?
        HttpComponentsClientHttpRequestFactory factory = new HttpComponentsClientHttpRequestFactory();
        factory.setReadTimeout(timeout);
        factory.setConnectTimeout(timeout);
        return factory;
    }

    public String makeHttpRequest() {
        String response = null;        
        try {
            // some logic here

            String url = generateURL();
            response = restTemplate.getForObject(url, String.class);

            // some logic here
        } catch (RestClientException ex) {
            // log exception and do some stuff
        } catch (Exception ex) {
            // log exception
        }

        return response;
    }
}

Should RestTemplate and HttpComponentsClientHttpRequestFactory be static here in my HTTPRequestAccess class as if I see it correctly, I am recreating the whole connection pool for each request in RestTemplate which is not the right way I guess because each factory has connection and thread pool and they are pretty heavy object I guess.

In general what is the best way to use RestTemplate along with its factory HttpComponentsClientHttpRequestFactory in a multithreading environment? I guess RestTemplate is thread safe but I don't think HttpComponentsClientHttpRequestFactory is thread safe. Correct me if I am wrong? I will be running this library under heavy load.

I am using spring-web-3.2.8.RELEASE version.