Trailers, a warning

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Fredthecharlie
Established member
Posts: 76
Joined: Sun Oct 11, 2015 5:31 pm

Trailers, a warning

Post by Fredthecharlie »

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Rust.docx
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Please find attached a few words and a picture to remind you of the importance of checking trailers properly.

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fishwics
Committee Member
Posts: 52
Joined: Mon Oct 12, 2015 10:29 pm

Re: Trailers, a warning

Post by fishwics »

For those who cannot (or don't want to) handle MSWord documents:

Fredthecharlie wrote:

A WARNING


When checking your boat trailer don’t forget to look under the suspension units especially if they are mounted in a channel section; you might miss seeing something like this!
It had been unused for several years but it would have failed disastrously after only one bump!
trailer.jpg
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trailer.jpg
trailer.jpg (14.74 KiB) Viewed 10088 times

John Perry
AYRS Chairman
Posts: 104
Joined: Tue Nov 08, 2016 6:39 pm

Re: Trailers, a warning

Post by John Perry »

Well, my trailer maintanance may not be perfect but I hope that neither myself nor any other AYRS member would let their trailer get into that state!

I find that with the type of suspension shown in that picture there is a tendancy for the wheels to splay outwards when the trailer is loaded - i.e. the distortion of the rubber parts within the box section allows the wheel rotation axis to slope up rather than remaining parralel with the road. If I ever bulld another trailer (which is now illegal anyway, unless you go though a certification procedure) I think I will design the mounts for the suspension units so that they are slighly tilted to compensate for that effect.

Another grumble I have about the usual type of stub shaft and wheel hub assembly found on small boat trailers is the crude provision for adjusting clearance in the taper roller bearings. The usual design is a castle nut locked by a split pin. You loosen off the nut to the first position that actually gives some bearing clearance, quite possibly more clearance than is optimum but you have no choice about that since you must not over tighten the bearings. Then after a period of use this clearance always increases - dont ask me why, theoretically it should not happen, but it does. That means that the bearings which may have been a bit loose to start with are now defintitley too loose, which resultis in wear and I suspect possible damage to the grease seals and you know what happens next, possibly on the motorway at 60mph. I have so often heard of boat trailer bearings failing on the road. Such failures of car wheel bearings would result in the car manufactures haivng to recall all their cars for modification but trailer parts manufactures seem to get away with it!

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