08 fastech 292

With up to 10 more inches of snow forecast for Indiana its time for some fun. This thread is about the crazy things that happened while you were trailering your boat. I'll start of with my list from more that 30 years of boating:

1. Many years ago we were pulling our first boat through central PA headed on vacation at Raystown Lake. Two lane road, guy driving a van comes round a corner on my my side of the road. I swerve to avoid a head on, the trailer jack knifes into a road side drainage ditch and hits a concrete drain pipe. The impact pops the tie downs, the boat goes straight up about 5-6 feet above the trailer and comes down on its side. The only damage to the trailer was a bent rim, but the boat hit one of the 12" side guide rollers and punched a 3/4" hole in the side. It was far enough above the water line that we could still use the boat on vacation.

2. Blown Bearings

3. Blown tire

4. Bolts on the winch stand worked lose and boat starts to slide forward during a hard brake.

5. More blown bearings.

5. More blown tires

6. The hitch ball works loose and boat and trailer start bouncing violently. I get stopped, safely, tighten it up and back on the road.

7. Look in the rear view mirror in time to see one of the tires leave the axle and start rolling/bouncing into the highway median.

8. More blown bearings.

9. More blown tires.

10. Coming home from LOTO 2 years ago. Driving rain storm coming through St. Louis and one of two bolts holding the disc brake caliper in place on the front axle works lose and comes out. Caliper drops back and jambs itself in the rim locking the wheel, shredding the tire and cracking the rim. Luckily, I carry a fitting to block off a brake line so we pulled the caliper, put on the spare tire and made it home.


Dave

Jupiter Sunsation

32 Sunsation on a Nextrail trailer going 300 miles each way to the Jax Poker run a few years back. Trailer recently got 6 new tires, carrying 2 spares/ HD jack/ 4X4 blocks etc so I figure this will be an easy trip (all highway). Lost ALL SIX tires in one trip! Apparently Carlisle had an issue with belts breaking and in this 600 mile trip I got to change all of them on the side of the road. Bought new 14's at Walmart for 2 of them, used the 2 spares and arrived home on 4 of the 6 wheels (only the last 50 miles on 4). One leaf spring was damaged (cracked when the tire blew). Carlisle replaced all 6 for free......

Lost a wheel bearing in the boat ramp parking lot (bad tire wobble). Decided to drive home anyway (3-4 miles), lost the tire/rim on the turn onto my street and it rolled up and dropped on my lawn!

MonkeySea2

Last summer on the way to Lake Norman, NC from NE PA, 1 torsion axle gave out and would not support any weight. Had to make the rest of the trip on 1 axle, doing under 40 on the highway and cringing every time we hit a dip or bump in the road. Thankfully I had just replaced all 4 tires with load range E vs. the original D so the single axle held the weight. But I thought for sure we'd blow a tire! Spent my vacation shipping in a new axle and replacing the bad one.

TW720HVY

iTrader: (1)

Our first boat and trailer had a single 6,000 axle, after ever use we (but this time it was just I) would wipe the boat and tailer down and when I got to the wheels one side had sheared 3 of the 6 lugs off. The lake I was on had nothing for miles around it, so I limped her towards home and after about 30 minutes I came to the first town to check on it, I was now down to 2 lugs remaining! Luck had it the house I stopped in front of had a guy sitting on his porch, came out to talk to me and with in a few minutes he offered to keep the boat on his driveway over night. The next day I drove an hour and have back to the boat, found a local mechanic and go the trailer back on the road. That side's hub ran hotter than hell and it was brand new trailer, they replaced the hub and bearings but it still always ran hot and to this day no one knows how and why that all happened.

Similar story but this time with our current boat, after driving 4 hours in 102º heat for a long weekend of boating we were on our way home, and after almost an hour of driving we ran into one of the couples that was with the group. He called me to bust my balls that I had missed a spot one the back of the boat, after BS'ing for a few I asked his if he felt like the road was rough, he said it was a little only to be followed with "holy **** dude your wheel just came off!" Same deal, sheared lug nuts! I had people tell me the torque was off, but I don't believe it was, I check them and the remaining 3 were fine. Another mystery. The ladies made lemonade out of lemons in the form of lemon flavored drinks while we repaired the hub in an O'Reilly's parking lot.

MonkeySea2

That photo looks like my brother-in-law and I in a mini-mart parking lot trying to support my broken axle with blocks of wood. Of course it was like 98% humidity that day!!

TW720HVY

iTrader: (1)

These problems never seem to happen of those beautiful 70º days! Everything like to come apart in the very cold or really hot/humid days!

Jupiter Sunsation

Not while towing but......I had left the truck/trailer in front of my house overnight, truck facing oncoming traffic figuring white truck/headlights/chrome bumper would be easier to spot than the back end of a boat. Street is a cul-de-sac so most of the traffic is people that live there.

Neighbor stops the next afternoon to apologize for sideswiping the truck or trailer the night before. I couldn't find a single mark on the truck and just a scuff of red paint on the trailer fender. Then I looked at the side of his red Viper.......ouch....trailer fenders/tires ran a nice scrape/crease down the side of it. I told him thanks for the heads up but no damage to my stuff.....He was rough on cars, too much HP for him especially after drinking all night!

Plum_Crazy

Cruising down the freeway at 70, the trailer starts to sway violently. I get her to a stop a 1/4 mile down the road and walk back to find the 3rd axle is gone. I never once had a bad bearing or tire issue as I was always doing the proper service. But, I never expected the axle bracket welds to break and let go. This is why I will always have more truck than I need AND more trailer than I need from now on. I was very lucky to have no boat damage whatsoever. Even though it was on a busy freeway, everyone managed to avoid the axle sitting in the left hand lane.

tomtbone1993

iTrader: (3)

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I worked at Discount tire in High School....I thought I had changed a bunch of tires....I swear I have changed more trailer tires on the side of I-10 than I can count. This was a guys trip in 07 on the way to Ticfaw...I am the one taking the picture not in it

ItsPeanut

I was towing up to goto PIB from Jax and decided to drive thru the night. I made it till about 4am and couldn't do it anymore so my buddy Wildbill takes over. I normally wouldn't trust him with my bicycle but he did good. I catch two hours of sleep. We just pulled into marrieta ohio so we switch and I continue on. I get onto 77 driving about 65ish and no less than a mile later i hear boom, bang followed by my boat what looked like two feet higher than where it normally is in the rearview mirror. I start jack knifing but was lucky nobody was in the lane next to me so i was able to get get the situation under control. We get out and look and the first thing we see is a tire perpendicular to where it needs to be sticking out of the back of the trailer. Upon further assessment the ubolts holding the front axle onto the leaf let go. When this happened it had no where to go but into the rear axle tire. It shot straight up first smashing the fender into the bottom of the boat. On its way down it pulled it self over enough to where the rear axle was able to roll over the front axle. I had a nice assortment of tools with me so due to the long haul so I was able to pull off what was left of the fender and get the axle out also so i could pull the boat another half mile to the rest stop. I unhooked the boat and left Bill to babysit. I was lucky enough that exit 1 in ohio had a bunch of stores that sold a variety of parts and pieces to get me up and rolling again. We made it Venitian marina and the the bay but their was one more problem that was not known about till i got to the casino. The impact of the trailer jumping over the axle damaged my fuel tank in the boat. The top welds gave out on the tank. The boat smelled of gas bad. Im glad we didn't blow up. You always hear to prepare before towing a distance. Bring spare tires, bearings,,jack, grease gun etc... Im glad I had all those things and a few other items. After that I always brought some extra ubolts, nuts and some misc hardware. Oh, and thank god for tow straps, It could of been a lot worse