Boat Trailer Trouble

Latest Articles

Boat Trailer Trouble

Downsizer Forum Index -> Fishing

Author

Message

RichardW

Joined: 24 Aug 2006
Posts: 8443
Location: Llyn Peninsular North Wales

Posted: Mon Jun 25, 07 1:54 pm Post subject: Boat Trailer Trouble

Hi,
i have just bought a small fishing boat. Towed it home about 2 1/2 miles & just as we turn into the drive one wheel falls off. The bearing had seemingly failed & the other one looked very loose. On closer inspection I find that the hubs that are fitted are the wrong ones & only the innner bearings was fitted. The numscull. The problem now is I have a boat & trailer stuck in my entrance drive. I can get in & out as I can go through next door but its not ideal. I did think that it would be an easy pop a new set of bearings in & the local place had the ones I seemingly needed till I found the butcher job previously mentioned. The problem now is I will not re butcher it so need to sort it properly. No probs I thought you can pick up new hubs very cheap online. BUT they are all 19mm or 24mm or 1" & guess what my shaft is 31.5mm BUGGER. Cant find one any where. So do I now have to buy complete new suspension units or should I rip some bits of old kit I have lying around the yard & weld it on? Its only got to get the boat down to the harbour 3 miles away after its been sorted (the boat) & then once per year to bring it back for winter.

Justme

Jonnyboy

Joined: 29 Oct 2004
Posts: 23956
Location: under some rain.

Posted: Mon Jun 25, 07 2:30 pm Post subject:
My option would be to get it mobile so you can get boat in the water, and then do a decent job at your leisure.

dougal

Joined: 15 Jan 2005
Posts: 7184
Location: South Kent

Posted: Mon Jun 25, 07 2:40 pm Post subject:

Presumably a trolley jack (or two) might help to move the 'stranded' boat and trailer?

Dunno what you might count a "small" fishing boat though... especially since (if I've got this right) your shaft has almost *double* the cross section area of the shaft for the bearings you have found...

I'm not too enthusiastic about the idea of putting different suspension units on opposite sides of the trailer.
And if you can find the exact same unit, wouldn't that lead you to a source of the bearing?

My recollection is that its not uncommon for wheels to fall off boat trailers, especially if they have been used as launching trolleys... A few (OK a large few) years ago, my winch-equipped car transport trailer was called for to recover a friend of a friend's (at that point one-wheeled) trailer (with speedboat) from alongside a busy main road. After that, I kept on noticing them at the roadside...

Green Man

Joined: 23 Jul 2006
Posts: 5272
Location: Rural Scotland.

Posted: Mon Jun 25, 07 3:14 pm Post subject:
Welcome to the world of boating.

RichardW

Joined: 24 Aug 2006
Posts: 8443
Location: Llyn Peninsular North Wales

Posted: Mon Jun 25, 07 4:14 pm Post subject:

dougal wrote:

Thats how I moved it as far off the road as it is but as the track is to rough for the trolley jack so is not stable to move it further. If It was not so windy I would pick it up with the tractor & move it to where I want to work on it.

Small = 14' by 6'

If I change the suspension it will be both sides.

Have just found out that 31.5mm (1" 1/4) is the standard old tractor & agri trailer hub shaft size so will look in that direction. Failing that my mini digger has removable road suspension that I can weld suitable mounting points onto the trailer for.

Justme

	Downsizer Forum Index -> Fishing	All times are GMT
Page 1 of 1

View Latest Posts