Time to Check your Trailers

We have had a few failures the past 6 months with both our trailers. We serviced everything well enough we thought, we did drive to Missouri 3x this past year though. Point is check everything.

box trailer we had a caliper fall off and rub on the wheel, I guess this is pretty common, we were told to safety wire the bolts on. The major problem here was that the bolts are m11, not easy to find on road.

2nd was on our warrior we had a bearing cage fail after 17 years of use. Plenty of grease as the rollers were still there and stuck to everything. Unfortunately this took out the brake assy and our roadside repair meant replacing the axle when we got home. 
 

I try to pull everything apart once a year but these were weird failures

 
Just did mine a few weeks back also

frame welds were showing some cracking so added gussets to all the hangers

Dexter ez-flex

all new drum assemblies rear plate to studs

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man, I had 2 buddies just in past 3 weeks with axle issues.

One lost an axle bearing on his enclosed tortilla wagon he delivers in, and come to find out, his axle was a 4" drop and noone could source one.

He ended up sending the wife down to Dallas to pick one up. Meanwhile he has to lease a box truck to get by. Finally got it in and all is good. 

It's amazing how they seem so simple, but once you dig in, sourcing parts is tough.

I just had my 20" trailer in the shop last week, had some steel work done, and the trailer place was saying he is the lowest on parts he has ever been, and been in business for 30 years.

 
Great thread.  Let me share my experience.

I had a 2014 Attitude 32 GSG (32 foot TAG).  It towed ok, then progressively got worse.  It would start the whole tail wag.  I looked things over, checked tire pressures, checked my truck, all the normal things.  I tried loading it different.  Nothing helped.  Fast forward several years, I got a new truck.  Worked a lot better and then got worse again.  I ended up selling and and found out from the buyer that the frame was cracked, not a little...A LOT.  I bought it back and took it to James at RV Lifestyles in Quartzite.  He welded everything and boxed both the channels.  New shackles, mounts...thing towed like a dream.  I still sold it but it made a believer out of me that taking the time to really crawl all under and not just look but inspect the frame and underside was worth it's weight in gold.  

 
Yup.. I try to go down to storage and start the Gen every 6 weeks (latest) .. I think it might have been that long. .. was told by the RV folks, you need to put 220 load on it.. so that's either a Microwave, Hairdryer or A/C for 20 minutes.. obviously you'd choose the A/C... I didn't know that before, I used to just run it for 20-30 minutes, but I guess the 'load' maybe is clearing both jets (if it has 2)??

Anyhow, since I got the bad ass solar and 4 6v batteries, I don't even really need a gen. It's crazy 14.6v every time I check it.. even after a day of lights or a night with the heater, etc. .. or lowering/raising the landing gear.. never seen it below 13.2 volts.

I HIGHLY recommend the move to 4 6V and a high dollar solar system. .. the old 2 12v system SUCKS.. can't tell you how many times I replaced them and had to jump the batteries before getting the 4 6v and solar.

Season's coming.. very .. VERY excited!

abc

 
Just put new tires on mine. I had a cabinet blow apart so I am looking at doing new cabinets.

I have time though as I have nothing to put in it :lmao:

 
Dunerking said:
Has anyone swapped out the drum brakes for disc? 
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I have not but I've been considering it.  A few years ago I bought all new backing plates, bearings, shoes, noids, etc.  Buy really should have just bought 2 new complete axle assemblies.

 
Bobalos said:
I have not but I've been considering it.  A few years ago I bought all new backing plates, bearings, shoes, noids, etc.  Buy really should have just bought 2 new complete axle assemblies.
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If you are talking about converting electric drum brakes to disc it's fairly expensive. You have to use an electric over hydraulic actuator. Something like this:     https://www.etrailer.com/s.aspx?qry=Disc+Brake+Conversion+Kit&furl=-vw-1-pg-Brake_Actuator

Then you have to do the backing plates, calipers, rotors, etc. Depending on number of axles you are easily into several thousand bucks to convert. This is why you don't see them on many trailers using brake controllers. I've also heard the electric over hydraulic set ups aren't all that responsive so not sure what you gain by doing this. I find a properly maintained and adjusted drum brake set up with a good quality controller actually works pretty darn good. 

If you're talking surge brakes like on a boat trailer that's much different. This is an easier conversion as there is no electric involved. You just need the right type coupler with a disc brake actuator then the rotors and calipers. Most of the newer boat trailers do this. I converted my 40 year old Boston Whaler trailer to disc and it was pretty easy. And yes, the disc brake set up works much better in this type of arrangement. 

 
wow............... that is a lot more complicated than I thought it would be.  And yea......... with cost delta, you better REALLY like the trailer....

 
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