Trailer Whoa.

T

Tony Williams

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Jun 23, 2011
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Nashville, Tennessee, United States
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Since the topic of trailers comes up often here, I thought I would share this. Today, my brother, my wife and I were driving on I-40 west in Arkansas with a fully loaded trailer when the left wheel and hub came almost completely off . My brother did a great job getting this pulled over to the shoulder without incident and got it towed to a local garage. Besides a broken down trailer, we were very lucky. I'll find out Monday what caused it.


- Tony Williams
 
Re: Trailer Whoa.

Tony Williams said:
View attachment 9230

Since the topic of trailers comes up often here, I thought I would share this. Today, my brother, my wife and I were driving on I-40 west in Arkansas with a fully loaded trailer when the left wheel and hub came almost completely off . My brother did a great job getting this pulled over to the shoulder without incident and got it towed to a local garage. Besides a broken down trailer, we were very lucky. I'll find out Monday what caused it.


- Tony Williams
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Failed wheel bearing. A little maintenance goes a long way.

Sent from my SCH-I545
 
Re: Trailer Whoa.

Tony Williams said:
The 'little maintenance' was done just 10 months ago.


- Tony Williams
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Still I'm betting on a failed inner wheel bearing. They get overlooked a lot. Thant's the one that got me on the Pensy pike hauling a heat pump.
Also, at the price of bearings (cheap) it almost makes sense to replace than repack and maybe miss a weakened cage or a slightly rough bearing.

Might want to think about the molybdenum CV joint grease.

frank
 
Re: Trailer Whoa.

Tony Williams said:
The 'little maintenance' was done just 10 months ago.


- Tony Williams
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Even if maintained, overload condition will still easily cause this. It has happened to me.

Mine actually caught on fire and was still in flames when I pulled over, hub and tire missing and spindle melted and gone.

Sent from my SCH-I545
 
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Re: Trailer Whoa.

Silas Pradetto said:
Even if maintained, overload condition will still easily cause this. It has happened to me.
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"It's not overloaded, there is still room inside!"

Been there, done that. Back in my "van of PA" days I got good at replacing the rear end of a Ford Econoline van, often with the wrecker holding it up. "Find me a salvage rear end and bring it, I have tools if you have a compressor on your truck". I now pay real mechanics to do repairs and I'm long out of owning full PA.
 
Re: Trailer Whoa.

Tim McCulloch said:
"It's not overloaded, there is still room inside!"

Been there, done that. Back in my "van of PA" days I got good at replacing the rear end of a Ford Econoline van, often with the wrecker holding it up. "Find me a salvage rear end and bring it, I have tools if you have a compressor on your truck". I now pay real mechanics to do repairs and I'm long out of owning full PA.
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The Ford E250/E350 series run full-float Dana 70 rear differentials, which certainly won't be blowing up with any load you can put in the van, however, the covers leak and the fluid runs out causing them to seize up.
 
Re: Trailer Whoa.

Tim McCulloch said:
"It's not overloaded, there is still room inside!"
Click to expand...


I used to work with a local outfit which owned a "solar trailer" with a few panels mounted on the outside, 16 x 6V batteries, a couple of inverters and a wind-charger interface on the inside. It was a 6' x 10', 3000 lb. trailer...typical two wheel outfit. Without much else inside, it weighed in right at or a tad over the rated (& licensed) 3000 pounds. They would routinely throw in a few hundred more pounds of stuff because they had the room.

When they "improved" the setup by replacing the original panels with larger, more efficient and heavier panels, the weight increased to around 3800 pounds. I know this because they took it to a truck scale, weighed it and stenciled the weight on the outside of the trailer. Hello!!!!! Nothing like overloading your trailer and then advertising to any cop happening by, or to any lawyer suing you after being involved in an accident.

"Hey!!! Look here!!! I'm not only stupid enough to put a dangerously overloaded piece of gear on the road, I'm going to publicly admit it." And there was still room enough inside to get another half-ton of stuff packed in.

I severed all connections with them for such knowing irresponsibility. I used to get paid to deliver it to demonstrations, shows and even used it for silent "green" PA power for a few select events. Another smooth move was their printed literature and web site classifying it as a "solar generator". The fools then had to pay for inspections because it was a "generator". Before that it had been exempt from inspections...and the attendant inspection charges.
 
Re: Trailer Whoa.

Tony Williams said:
View attachment 9230

Since the topic of trailers comes up often here, I thought I would share this. Today, my brother, my wife and I were driving on I-40 west in Arkansas with a fully loaded trailer when the left wheel and hub came almost completely off . My brother did a great job getting this pulled over to the shoulder without incident and got it towed to a local garage. Besides a broken down trailer, we were very lucky. I'll find out Monday what caused it.


- Tony Williams
Click to expand...

Weighed it recently?
My 7x12 gets up to 6800lbs often. Of course, I have TWO 3500lb axels.


Sent from my iPad HD
 
Re: Trailer Whoa.

Rob Spence said:
Weighed it recently?
My 7x12 gets up to 6800lbs often. Of course, I have TWO 3500lb axels.


Sent from my iPad HD
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I have also under-estimated the weight of gear I haul. My Chevy Express 1500's payload capacity is 2400lbs, and the gear that fits in it weighs about 3000lbs. Next van will need to be a 2500.

Threads like these remind me why I don't use trailers.
 
Re: Trailer Whoa.

TJ Cornish said:
I have also under-estimated the weight of gear I haul. My Chevy Express 1500's payload capacity is 2400lbs, and the gear that fits in it weighs about 3000lbs. Next van will need to be a 2500.

Threads like these remind me why I don't use trailers.
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I have used trailers for years.Never had an issues other than a flat with a 2 axle trailer.And even a flat isn't a big issue because the second tire will prevent the trailer from collapsing onto the road and you can pull the good tire up on a board to change the flat tire without using a jack.With a single axle,I once had a wheel bearing come apart on my dad's boat trailer.Not much you can do in that situation.Luckily I saw it before the wheel came off completely.The nice thing about a trailer is you don't have to tie up the truck with all your gear and the license and insurance is alot less.
 
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