Summer 2008 - United States Snipe Sailing

Trailer Maintenance Tips
Part II
By John Buckley
In the last issue of US Snipe Sailor, we ran an article on trailer
maintenance. We received some comments and feedback on
that article, and wanted to share them.
One reader asked why trailer-type tires are recommended
over passenger car tires. The difference is sidewall flexibility,
which affects traction. Passenger vehicle tires are designed
with flexible sidewalls in order to maximize the area of tread
that contacts the road under various circumstances, in order to
provide optimum traction. Trailers, on the other hand, simply
follow along behind the tow vehicle, so traction is not an
issue. In fact flexible sidewalls on trailer tires are more of a
liability than an asset, since this can contribute to trailer sway
– especially with heavy loads and a high center of gravity.
Trailer tires have more rigid sidewalls to counteract this.
On lightweight trailers carrying a single dinghy, this is not
much of an issue. However, if you’re loading two, four, or
even six Snipes on a single trailer - which some people do – it
adds up to a lot of axle weight and a high center of gravity. So
stability is desirable.
There’s a good article on this topic at http://www.
taskmasterproducts.com/acatalog/whybuytrailertires.pdf
Tom Townsend, of the Indianapolis Fleet, says he carries a
spare wheel hub and bearings with him, packed with grease
and ready to go. This is a great idea for anyone who travels
extensively. He also points out that Bearing Buddies are not a
panacea, and in fact they can give a false sense of confidence.
He is correct – you can’t just slap them on your wheels
and then forget about them. They are designed to maintain
pressure in the hub, but in order for them to accomplish
that, you must also have sound grease seals on the inside of
your wheel hub. Properly installed and maintained, Bearing
Buddies will maintain pressure indefinitely – but it’s all about
the grease seals.
Shortly after publishing the first article, I began renovating a
trailer for someone else. It had been in storage for a long time,
and we assumed it would need new bearings, grease seals,
and tires. However, when it was pulled out of storage and the
wheels and hubs were removed, it became apparent that the
axle spindles were also damaged (see photos at right).
It’s likely that what happened here was the bearings got wet
and began rusting. Then, at some point, it must have sat long
enough that the entire inner bearing cone rusted together.
With the bearings “frozen in their tracks”, so to speak, the
next attempt to move the trailer resulted in the entire inner
bearing assembly rotating on the axle shaft itself – which it’s
not supposed to do. Together with the fact that the grease was
either gone or destroyed by moisture, the bearing assembly
actually wore into the spindle (photo #1, below). The seal was
damaged, and had also worn into the axle shaft.
If you attempted to fix this by simply replacing the bearings
and seals, the bearings would not seat properly on the spindle,
and the wheel would not rotate around the center of the axle.
The seal would be promptly destroyed, and you’d be right
back where you started. This axle had to be replaced.
Photo #1. This is the worn spindle mentioned above. (A) is the
groove worn into the underside of the spindle by the bearing
assembly; (B) is where the metal component of the grease seal
also wore into the spindle.
Photo #2. This shows an old, but unworn, axle spindle from a
comparable boat trailer.
US SNIPE SAILOR Summer 2008 1
A
B