How to prevent trailer repair disasters

Posted by Peter Armstrong in Trailer Bearings, Trailer Repairs      No comments

Feb
16

In the mobile trailer repair business, I see some unfortunate trailer wheel failures. Murphy’s law dictates that these roadside disasters will always occur when you are trying to enjoy your holiday or are rushing to complete a run to the rubbish dump for example.

Following, are a few instances where I recently had the opportunity to help trailer owners in Brisbane:

In this first example the wheel came completely off the trailer. That’s it below, still bolted to the trailer wheel hub.

The remains of  the outer bearing were seized onto the axle. Luckily no one was injured when the wheel came off that night.

A bearing puller and cold chisel were used to remove the remains of the bearing from the stub part of the axle. Once cleared, it was a matter of installing a new set of bearings on both sides of this trailer.

In the next case the boat trailer wheel came away, but was luckily, kept on the trailer by the disk brake caliper. The owner could not feel anything while driving the tow vehicle. The trailer wheel flogged itself around and destroyed the end of the axle. The repair required a new axle, new axle U bolts, a new hub on one side and new bearings on both sides.

Nearing $1000 in repairs and heaps of roadside heart ache, may have been avoided, by simply checking and re-greasing the bearings each year for a few hundred dollars.