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| I lucked out this month. I was driving home from Green Bay and could feel a strange clunk/tick in my trailer. I stopped to look for problems. I found the source of the clunk/tick. The shackles on my tandem axle trailer were severely worn to the point that the bolt holes were nearly twice the size they should be. Needless to say being 2 hours from home I was a bit nervous driving down I-43 to get home. Upon further inspection once I got home all of the shackles were worn some more than others as were the equalizers and the bushings in the leaf springs were shot. I ended up replacing all nuts, bolts, leaf springs and equalizers which as it turns out was fairly easy to do. I should have replaced these parts two years ago. I have a 2003 trailer with at least 50,000 miles on it.
Point being if you put alot of miles on your trailer check the suspension every year and replace parts as necessary. It can save your boat/trailer and the safety of your vehicle occupants or other drivers on the road with you. I will try to post pictures of the worn parts. |
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Posts: 1460
Location: Kronenwetter, WI | Yup---here's one for ya'....I pull my tandem trailer up alongside the cabin and my 9 year old daughter says, "Dad, your wheel is crooked!". "Uh-huh," I grunt cleaning out the back of the truck. "No, dad, it really IS crooked!" she insists.
I proceed to walk around the back of the trailer to notice the rear tire askew. "You mean THIS one?" I ask. Then I give it a kick....WOBBLE, WOBBLE, WOBBLE....THUNK! The tire falls flat to the ground along side the trailer. Nice. |
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Posts: 16632
Location: The desert | Trailers should be inspect each time before hitting the road. Doesn't have to be a long drawn out process, just check the basic things. Trailer locked on ball with the pin in place? Lights in? Tires good? Chains on properly? Pin in the actual hitch on the truck?
We actually had someone take the pin out of our hitch, not sure why they didn't just take the whole hitch but they didn't. We pulled out of the lot and felt a harder than normal bump from behind from the trailer. We hopped out quick at the stoplight and much to our surprise there was no pin in the hitch. Thankfully we didn't get far before noticing. |
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Posts: 4
| Also, always check your bearings. On my Ranger I have cool hubs....looked good, could see fluid. We'll raining out, didn't check this trip, and bam. Driving also down 43 smoke pouring off front axle....burned up bearing. Decided to risk it, drove home.
Good news, you can have a Ranger Dealer drop ship the $60 hub assembly. Replaced myself in 30 minutes. I'm now carrying a spare with me and tools to do this change out on side of road if necessary.
Tools I suggest to have with:
Small Crow Bar (need to but load on torsion bar to hit with hammer to pop out spindle)
4lb hammer
Normal hammer
Long nose pliers (to remove cotter pin from nut on back of spindle)
Bottle jack
Pipe wrench to remove rusted nut off spindle
Gloves (keep hands from getting busted up)
Wire brush (clean off burned up metal from bearings)
Cross "T" tire iron....makes it faster
Allen Wrench for removing cover to access lug nuts
Flashlight
All of this can be carried in a large plastic bin. Removed and ready to put in truck on every trip. |
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