Trailer failure - need a consult

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SolarAndWood

SolarAndWood

Minister of Fire
Feb 3, 2008
6,788
Syracuse NY
Was headed home with a load of wood tonight and felt the load shift. Looked on the right side mirror and saw sparks. Got it off the road and it looked like the wheel was still attached to the hub but the whole hub assembly had come off the bearing. The bearing looked to also have moved out. The axle looked fine and the bearing surface did not appear to have been damaged. I've looked at the diagrams of the axles but it isn't obvious to me what happened. Does this sound like I need to replace the hub assembly or replace the whole axle assembly? It is a 6 bolt 5200 axle with electric brakes.
 
My guess is either the big nut on the end of the spindle came loose or your hubs are made by tie down engineering.

If the spindle isn't obviously damaged, the axle is probably fine. You probably just need to replace the hub. If it isn't obvious to you drive it to the closest trailer maintenance place after replacing the hub and get them to evaluate the rest of the trailer. Shouldn't cost much.
 
hmmm...seems that finding a hub on a Sunday is going to be a challenge.
 
Most hubs can be rebuilt for short money. There are tapered bearings that get pushed in against the races which are set into the hubs. Both are replaceable and easy to get. There is a nut that holds this all together and then a cotter pin that locks the nut in place.
I second the idea to take to a good mechanic and have BOTH sides rebuilt. Sounds like the cotter pin rusted out or something. That whole area needs to be packed in grease. The side the hub that came loose on needs to be inspected carefully. If the axle had a grove cut in it from wheel coming loose, this could cause a stress crack over time... and... you could potentially have axle shear off....
Rob
 
Getting it to the mechanic is going to be a challenge...downside of a single axle trailer.
 
Don't know how you situated presently. But jack it up. Push wheel back on. Push outer bearing back in. Then there might be a tab washer. Slide that on over the bearing with the tab in the grove in the axle. Then tighten down the "castle nut" as it makes contact with the bearing and washer start rotating wheel by hand and keep snugging up nut. Eventually the nut will tighten and the wheel will slow down because of the increased friction. Stop when it is snug..... Now back off the nut about 1/8 of 1 turn until you can get a cotter pin down through the castle nut and into hole in axle. You DON'T want to tighten up the nut on the bearing like you normally tighten any thing else. You just want to snug it and then back it off a bit so you can lock it in place but not have constant lateral pressure on the bearing. If you have lateral pressure on bearing you will overheat it. You want it slightly loose so the bearing sits down in the race. But not so loose that it wiggles around.
 
Cool thanks. I assume that is a take it super easy until I get it to the mechanic solution? I think I found the bearing kit at NAPA and they are open in the morning.

The trailer is 30 miles from home and full of Sugar Maple.
 
Should be able to chain up that axle so it's not dragging and get the trailer off the road with just the other axle. I'm really surprised that the equalizer had enough movement to allow one axle to drag the ground even.
 
Single axle.
 

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Outer bearing failure most likely. Happens quite frequently. Single axles trailers are convenient but can leave you stranded. I personally reserve them for very light duty use.
 
Yeah, the outer bearing was completely gone. Inner didn't look too bad. Spindle took a little abuse. NAPA had the outer (not at etrailers price BTW), so I threw it in to get the trailer off the side of the road and the 5 miles back to the farm. I need to take it back apart and take a good look at the spindle.
 

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SolarAndWood said:
trailer is 30 miles from home and was full of Sugar Maple.
Click to expand...

There. I fixed it for you. ;)
 
Good post
Reminded me to check the bearings on my trailers.
Think I'll pull, inspect & repack the bearings now.
Hopefully I'll prevent the same from happening.
Be ready for spring. :)
 
babzog said:
SolarAndWood said:
trailer is 30 miles from home and was full of Sugar Maple.
Click to expand...

There. I fixed it for you. ;)
Click to expand...

lol, nope, it is still full of Sugar Maple largely due to the kindness of the gentleman that let me back it into a nice level spot on his property and give me until the next afternoon to move it. The full trailer is back to 42 miles from home at the farm though.
 
Wood is pretty heavy stuff. I just noticed that you have side boards on trailer roughly doubling the capacity of trailer. You should check the weight rating of the trailer and the weight rating of the tires.
When you repack consider doing the whole thing.... Bearings / races / seals / new pin. If you doing a lot of miles per trip in the long run it would be worth it. That stuff is all cheap.
You should also check the spring shackle bolts. Have had one of those break. Commercial ones you grease, probably don't have the ability to grease those so they can be an issue too.
After you get all rebuilt a good check is after you have pulled 10 or 15 miles stop, put hand on tire rim and both sides should be warm but not hot. Both sides should be roughly equal temp too. If hot, you may have bearing issue still or dragging brake on one side.....
Cheers Rob.
 
I run right at capacity. 5200 pound axle with LR Es rated at 2800 each I think. The trailer is almost 20 years old and definitely well used for a lot of heavy material: manure, compost and stone in addition to firewood. I think I will probably end up replacing everything on both wheels from the ends of the axle out. As long as I'm doing that, it might be time to strip it completely down and paint it. Also time for a set of those LED lights in the steel enclosures as I have spent many time the cost of them on the plastic ones over the years.
 
Cool thanks. I'll check them out once I get my shopping list together.
 
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