Trailering: The Most Dangerous Part of Boating

 

We discovered that the passenger-side front trailer wheel was sitting at an alarming angle.

Salty Paws, a semi-displacement Rosborough RF-246, once reached 30 knots while riding the tide up New York City’s East River, but we almost always travel at less than half that speed. Contrast that with 60 or 65 mph while trailering on the highway, and there is little argument that trailering is the riskiest thing we do.  In addition to the speed difference, hard land is a lot less forgiving than water, although I will admit to hitting at least three submerged rocks in my cruising lifetime.  One other big difference is an additional complex piece of equipment, the trailer, that needs its own maintenance and inspection, before and during any trip. 

My latest inspection was at a filling station in Sherbrooke, Quebec, roughly 250 miles into our 800-mile trailering trip from Maine to Spanish, Ontario.  I had just begun when I stared at the front passenger-side tire on my tandem trailer carrying Salty Paws.  The wheel was sitting at an angle and was covered with grease. Smoke was rising from the hub, and the bearings connecting the hub to the spindle were essentially gone..

I hurried back to my tire system monitor.  All four trailer tires were at an appropriate 105 PSI, three at a temperature of 90 or so, and the bad tire was at 125 degrees, but still far less than the heat coming off the axle.  My tire monitoring system hadn't gone off because the temperature sensor is on the tire stem, a foot or so away from the bearings and axle/spindle assembly.  I hadn’t thought about this before.  I also had put too much reliance on the alarms and had not established a routine of frequently checking the monitor while underway.

Ready for the new spindle assembly,
if we can find it!.

We gingerly drove the boat to the back of the gas station and awaited the arrival of AZP Road Service.  They were highly recommended and run a fleet of vans that service large trucks and trailers.  After a 5-hour wait, and then watching the technician on his back for most of two hours, the whole wheel assembly was disassembled, leaving just the spindle sleave.

If we had caught the problem right away, the bearings could have been replaced, and we would be right back on the road..   Our continued travel along with the heat generated, however, had damaged the parts enough that everything would have to be replaced.  As to why this happened, I may never know although bearing failures can be the result of loss of lubrication.  

While we waited to determine whether the trailer could be repaired, I found myself thinking about the lessons accumulated over more than 15,000 miles of trailering.  There has been an evolving list of learning experiences.  The lug nuts on my first flat tire were so tight that they could be removed only with the help of a kind stranger carrying an impact wrench. I soon bought my own and upgraded the trailer tires from Load Range D to Load Range E.

I never heard or felt this rear tire blow.

Thirty miles from home on my first trailering trip from Maine to Florida, I was oblivious to my second flat tire until a motorist passed me with a couple of honks and pointing to the trailer.  I pulled over and found one of the rear trailer tires shredded.  I changed the tire and returned home to bang out the fender before restarting the trip south..

I had also begun carrying an infrared thermometer and a tire-pressure gauge., but I made a mental note to purchase a tire monitoring system for both pressure and temperature. 

The impact of my hitting the curb.  The remnants of the earlier
blowout are still visible on the boat.

My annual trailer maintenance has always included inspecting and repacking the bearings, replacing them when necessary, and testing the lights and electric-over-hydraulic brakes.  My next mishap added an annual check and tightening of all the trailer bolts.  On this same trip to Florida, I was slowly navigating through a tight gas station in Delaware when a tire hit the curb, pushing the whole tire and axle assembly backwards and also buckling the fender assembly.

This was followed by a trip to hell when I had three flat tires on our second Maine to Florida trip.  Nails were found in one of the tires, but I am clueless on the other two.  They were at the proper pressure.  With this experience, however, I decided I wanted to further upgrade my tires to the highest possible.  I learned that my 16” E tires weigh 32 lbs.  An F tire has another ply and weighs 38 lbs. and a G Load Range tire weigh a whopping 60 lbs.

Trailer tire worn down to the steel belt, but still holding pressure.

I wasn't about to handle a 60 lb G tire so I purchased the F tires.  As of now, I have not had an F tire flat.  In fact, the tire impacted by my bearing failure still maintained its pressure even after losing tread down to the steel ply.  What I do need to purchase is a monitoring system that tracks temperature of the bearing.

Axle label.  I later learned that the part
number is unique to SeaLion, which
explains why no distributor or online
trailer part outfits could find it.

Those earlier mishaps had changed how I maintained and equipped the trailer, but none had prepared me for a bearing failure. Now we needed to find a replacement spindle assembly.

We got a picture of the axle/spindle label, and began to source suppliers, but first AZP Road Service wanted us to move the boat and trailer to their garage, 10 miles away, where they could either install a new assembly or arrange to have something fabricated.  Dick and I decided to try to limp over to their garage with our flashers on. 

My Garmin InReach only tracks every
10 minutes,  but our backtracking is clear.

I subscribe to Hammer, one of the best travel apps for trucks.  It helps  ensure that we are on roads with sufficient clearances and stay off those residential shortcuts that Google or Apple may direct you.  What it doesn't do is provide real-time monitoring of road construction and travel conditions.  After running into three dead ends due to road construction, we switched to Google and finally arrived, having covered 20 miles for the 10-mile trip.

AZP Road Service  checked all its suppliers and came up empty.  I then contacted Dexter, the axle manufacturer.   They don’t sell retail, but gave me a list of a number of distributors including three in the Sherbrooke area.  We called, and I also left messages with where I bought the trailer and SeaLion, the trailer manufacturer. 

 Without any resolution, Dick and I decided to head back to Maine.  The next day I was on the phone for the better part of the day.  Finally, SeaLion called me back and put me in touch with one of their Connecticut distributors.  He was able to locate the spindle assembly we needed, and four days later it arrived at my home!  

Tomorrow Dick and I head back to Canada!