WARNING!

[papajoe222]

Okay, I'm sure we've all heard it more than once: Maintain your trailer bearings and tires, or you'll pay the price with a ruined outing or worse.

I just went through what I consider worse, a month plus of lost time on the water because of trailer bearing failure.  I thought I caught it before it did any damage, just switch out the bearings and I'd be on my way (I keep a spare set just in case). No such luck.  The bearing race fused itself to the spindle before the bearing fell apart rendering the spindle useless. Of course the entire hub is welded on to the axle, so I had to have the entire axle replaced and it would be two weeks to get one in stock.

A new trailer would only take three weeks and seeing as mine was over 12 years old and starting to rust, That's the route I took.  SIX WEEKS later it finally arrived.

HEED THE WARNING. Maintain all your gear guys and gals, including your trailer and don't be to macho to stop every hundred miles or so and check for excessive heat at the wheel hub. It could save you precious fishing time, or half a season.  

[Glenn]

Completely agree!  It's a thing that is often overlooked until a problem occurs.  Then it's, "What happened?".

 

 

 

 

 

[papajoe222]

Yea, I've seen the videos Glen, but I've been getting lazy with up-keep and just added grease to the Bearing Buddies rather than clean and repack the bearings the last couple of years.  Paid the price, too

[tander]

Last week I was heading home from fishing and looked back at my boat. It was really vibrating. shaking. Before I could find a exit ramp, I had a tire blowout., of course it was raining. It took out the fender so I ended up with 2 fenders (had to get a match) and two new tires. While I had the wheels off, I did grease the bearings.

[Further North]

I had a similar thing happen a few years back...but in my case it was a recently serviced hub that let go...and in my case, the wheel came off at 70 MPH.

 

Because of conditions (dry, sunny, not a lot of traffic) and experience (I've been towing trailers for almost 40 years) I was able to keep it under control and get it off the road safely, but things could have been a lot worse.

 

Just like the OP, the axle would have needed to be replaced, but I was "fortunate" in that the cost of doing so exceeded the value of the trailer...I was able to find a new old stock trailer for less than the cost of the axle replacement, so with the help of a great dealer and top notch insurance rep, I was back on the water before the next weekend for the cost of a deductible and an extra tank of gas to go pick up the boat on the new trailer.

 

Could have been a lot worse, and I'll back the advice above: Do the maintenance, or have it done.  Not worth screwing around.