3 Bearings, 72 hours, No Joke!!!
 

Went to Buckeye Lake Friday night on the count that B dock was basically full at 5pm and they were the only public docks open on Memorial day weekend at PIB. Arrived to Liebs Island around 530pm with my driver side rear trailer tire sticking out about 2 inches farther the the rest. Knew it was a bearing, because I need to go thru them all and have just haven't gotten around to it. Put the boat in and when I pulled the trailer out tire came off, no brakes on the rear axle. Monday before we left I fixed the bad bearing and headed home. On the way home we stopped and got something to eat which was probably a mistake because when we got back on the freeway the middle axle same side bearing took a dump. I'm on I71 north of Columbus, OH trying to get a tire off so I can limp it home and as I'm working 5 feet from 70mph semis theres a state patrol in the middle of the N and S bound lanes giving me the thumbs up and asked if we are OK, I'm thinking get you arse over hear and block this lane or least throw out some flares for me, nope guy just sat in his car.

Got tire off and limped home on 2 tires, about 2 miles from my house I turn down a street and hear pop:eek: front bearing driver side let loose, luckily I was right next to a gas station and I left it there, picked up parts the next today fixed it, got her parked in the barn and finally relaxing. A total of 4 bearings have broke since I've had the boat, gonna go ahead and replace the other 2 before I go out again.

Other then that boating was fun, boat ran good, having some AC issues but not a big deal the nights were cool got a HPF code on a Ocean Marine unit, the heat worked the night before and it pumped water, when I switched it to cool it ran fine for about 5 minutes then quit, never payed attention to weather not it was pumping water, I could never get it to turn back on even if I reset the breaker it just kept flashing HPF, any thoughts.

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Lol good god man.

So what you're saying is you're getting good at changing hubs on the side of the road?

Didn't you have problems a while back when you bought the boat???

Looking at your signature pic…the boat seems to be way too far back on the trailer……..

Jesus. Alignment/weight issue? That's a nightmare!

I feel the pain, had bearing and axle issues last year including a spindle snapping off tube while pulling into gas station! replaced all 3 axles, first trip out this year wiped 3 bearings, Myco forgot to tell me about the seal update and how to space them to seal, so water was in hubs all winter and wasted them..... barely any grease at al in there anymore, luckily Myco rocks they apologized and sent me all 4 sets the 3rd axle has sealed hub with no brakes that one was fine.... Myco was very helpful getting it taken care of!!

I had a bearing issue towing it home back in April. And the trailer sat was never used but 2 times a year from launch to house which is less then a mile round trip. They all need replace I just haven't gotten around to it. Thought that short tips would be ok, wrong. I have 2 left to go thru and will probably have 2 extra sets for long trips just in case. Most of the hub caps have been rusted so I'm guessing water got in thru there and then rusted out the bearings.

It sucks but it's gonna get taking care of before I take the boat out again that for sure.

I hate to type this, but I believe you are going to be forever chasing issues with that trailer under that boat. Winter storage and 2 short trips a year to the local ramp is one thing. A boat "living" on the trailer, fair numbers of trips, and some decent mileage is a whole separate ballgame.

Stop being such a Debbie Downer, Brian!!! My trailer has been sitting in a fenced in lot since last October when I put it on the lift. It's about 2 miles away from my house. I haven't checked on it.......But I'm sure it is fine!!! :D :party-smiley-004:

You have your trailer on a lift? Baller! :drink:

You can get "Timken Aquaspex" Bearings, All the metal parts are coated so they wont rust when sitting in a Moist sealed hub. Since non ferrous metals (that wont rust) cant be made hard enough for a wheel bearing, the Timken coated bearing is the best bet..

That sucks, I heard you had to go swimming for the one that launched at the ramp? I would have traded you problems for the weekend, We smoked a rocker on our starboard engine coming back from cedar point on sunday evening. Learning how to dock with one engine was interesting, I actually thought there was a hope in hell I could back into a slip....that was never going to happen. Bow in for the night, then limped over to the ramp on monday morning. Hard to complain about the boat lasting until the last day of the trip to break, but its still annoying.

2nd trip out with my 311 I smoked a leaky trans, limped it back to Catawba and loaded it with one motor and the docks there aren't long enough to walk it up, I feel your pain.

I love boating :party-smiley-004:

If I didn't boat I'd be home punishing my liver:lolhit:

Glad you made it home,I always keep an extra rotor loaded with bearings so if this ever happens its just swap and go.

Matt- Maybe take RT's trailer tires and put them on your trailer? That way there will be so much bad juju on that rig, it might cancel out?

No $hit! I thought my rag was bad till I saw his:lolhit::party-smiley-004:

You better get ready for the tires! They are next! Mines all tuned up b!tches.

I'm stuck in a time warp here.....

I got the impression you were asking about HPF on the ac.....so.....

HPF can only be traced back to three potential culprits:
High pressure refrigerant sensor
Too much heat from low cooling (water flow) at the compressor
Faulty control panel

First check point is water circulation. Easiest to check and rule out. On all of my boats, I use a check valve prior to the pump to prevent an airlock when I return the boat to the water.

Second is the HPS. If you jump the wires (not disconnect) and the ac. Continues to function (after ruling out water flow) then the sensor is the issue.

If these do nothing, then the problem is significantly more expensive.

Yes, I still need that issue resolved. If the HPF sensor kicks on because of heat, wouldn't the system start back up after it cools? We tried it a day later and it went straight to HPF, thats why I think it is the sensor. Not sure where it is or how to replace it.

s022mag; I saw you out on Buckeye Lake Sunday. Good looking Donzi, especially running in that washing machine wake pool.

I've found parts on a boat trailer need to be checked more than a boat itself most of the time. Even then, stuff breaks for no good reason. Last month before heading to FL I checked and repacked all my wheel bearings. Then took a 20 mile test run to check for heat issues. Everything looked fine, until I left the next day and stopped to spay off the truck just 15 miles from home. Saw grease on a wheel and thought it came from a bearing buddy cap. Nope, the freaking hub had cracked in half between inner and outer bearing races...

Pulled into local parts store and tore it apart. Mine uses the 5-lug Kodiak disk bake setup, and we searched the boxes for a possible rotor/hub match to no avail. It was a Sunday evening, so I dropped the trailer and drove 35 miles to a guys shop I know who has hundreds of utility trailers and parts. Luckily he was home, but didn't have disk brake hub either. What he did have was a pile of new blank "take off" hubs from doing 5 to 8 lug conversions. $25 for one ready to bolt on with bearings and seal installed. Had to fab a wedge for the caliper to keep it from blowing the piston out, but she made it 2200 miles without further trouble. Finally received the new rotor/hub last week. But I'll keep that handy $25 hub assembly in the tool box for a road side hot spare, just in case...

Once you start having bearing issues its hard to get rid of them. The spindles could be damaged along with the races inside the hub. Don't pump grease into them in the future and expect them to last. All you will do is blow the seals out. Nothing beats taking them apart, cleaning, inspecting, and repacking. Once a year is smart but If I was you I would re do the entire trailer after the next few hauls to see if there are still problems. My guess is the bearing issues are not going to stop. Something about all that heat when they do go warps the hubs also and it just seems like a axle with a bad bearing is never the same again...........

Good luck

Can somebody throw up some basic trailer maintenance ground rules? I understand salt vs. fresh and amount of times into the water have a big factor. Seems like you guys are replacing bearings every 50 miles.... kidding.

Has anyone found one flavor of grease that works better than another?

Whole thread on it:
http://www.offshoreonly.com/forums/t...ring-lube.html

Lucas and Mystik mentioned multiple times.

Also, Do Not Pack the whole Hub full of Grease, You only need the Cone assy full on the inboard & outboard ends of the hub, leave the center between the cones empty. if you fill that whole cavity you'll make a lot of heat, which will cause the seals to fail, which will allow grease out & water in. It's a fine art getting everything right :)

I have found that to be opposite....and my spindles have fitting on the inside that pushes grease from back and out the front filling whole space up or it would not lube front bearing...

Oil bath hubs http://www.jamestowndistributors.com...ailer+Hub+Kits

I put grease on everything I just don't cake it on. I've heard that too much will build up heat. The bearings assume build heat and the grease will probably expand so I would want there to be some room for that.

Myco ships their trailers with oil-bath hub seals but packed with regular grease. I rebuild all of my hubs the same way. All of my parts are sourced from Timken.

I have been running the oil bath hubs on my extreme with Lucus oil for 5 years. I change the oil often. Texas to Ca to FL to the keys 5 summers in a row. Never lost a bearing.

I've never had a bearing issue on my first 3 boat trailers. Guess I'm due:mad:

Back on topic.....
There are two lines coming to and from the compressor.....the round black thingy. The little one is high side, the bigger is low. Somewhere on the smaller line, you will find a service port and a bung with a sensor having only two wires. This monitors the high side pressure. When it becomes too high (heat in the condenser from lack of water cooling) and the gas expands creating a potential for compressor failure, the circuit is interrupted by the hp sensor......saving you $.

Without power removed from the control panel, then returned, the system is designed to stay in FAIL after the third attempt until a hard reset....ie......power removed, then returned. Again, a fail safe to save you $.

Remove power....shore or whatever. Give it a minute....then repower. When the unit comes on again, look for water flow.

When u report back, I can tell u where to look next.

Ok......back to hubs and stuff......

Awesome, thanks for the help. It will be awhile before I get her back on the water, waiting on bearings to arrive. I may limp it up the street to a small lake and work on the trailer bearings there without any load on the trailer then I'll try the AC again.

As reference I did wait a whole day with the AC breaker off and no shore power connected and when I turned it back on it went straight to HPF, only thing that came on was the fan.

I was with Matt, and the HPF code would come on the display as soon as the unit was put in cooling mode. It wouldn't even attempt to cycle the water pump or compressor. I'm thinking it's the switch.

I now have 6 brand new bearings, new seals, new grease caps and 4 out of the 6 hubs have new races as well. Other 2 looked descent. Going up to Erie this Sunday for the night lets hope all goes well.

As for the AC unit I looked all over last night and can't find a reset switch on the unit. There a covered control panel that I haven't opened yet cause I didn't have a screw driver on me. I'm going to open it tonight and see if there is something in there to reset the system. I checked the intake on the hull and there's nothing blocking the intake. I hope to avoid opening the strainer as it looks like it will be a pita.

Thats a great idea.

You should have changed all the races. Cleaning the strainer is step one of fixing an AC problem. Shortcuts make more work in the long run. Not busting your balls, just sharing hard learned advice.

I agree, but the fact the fault comes on immediately when the unit is powered up ells me it's not a clogged strainer, but rather a semsor problem. It doesn't even try to power up the pump or compressor, just instantly faults. My be is still on the HP sensor