Trailer Repair

[Allen]

I just bought a used '99 26X. The boat looks fine but the trailer wheels look pretty scary. The buddy bearings are encrusted with rust as are the lug nuts with areas of superficial rust on the wheels. Most of the rest of the trailer doesn't look that bad. The previous owner had the boat in a slip and hadn't used the trailer for a couple of years.Should I:1. Try to clean up the bearings and see what it looks like? I'm a newbie here. I used to repack wheel bearings on a prior boat but am not familiar with this set up. Is there a way to educate myself. Or2. Have this fixed by a pro? And if so, what heading do I look under in the yellow pages to find someone who does this work?Thanks for any suggestions.

 

[Doug Rodrigues]

How deep is the rust?

How deep is the rust? Get a cheap slag chipping hammer (about 8 bucks) from a welding supply store and use the pointed end to try to chip a slab of rust off the trailer. Also, try that chipping on the wheels. If a thickness of rust chips off, estimate the thickness that is remaining on the base metal. Only then can you estimate how much less strength there is in the structure. Use a hard blow. If the metal is okay, nothing but a small pit will result. If not, a larger slab of rust will chip-off. What may have appeared to be a rusty surface often goes deeper.

 

[Don]

Inner;/outer bearings

I found the inner bearings and race pretty rusty on my 15 foot single axle boat trailer.The outer bearing looked fine but the inners were pathetic. And the trailer had not seen that many submersions. I did not have a place to buy a new bearing and was forced to clean up the old one. Light emory cloth cleaned up the race. The bearing I first soaked in kerosene to get old grease, rust and crud off. I think you could wire brush it also but don't hold me to it. After cleaning I put some axle grease in the palm of my hand and kept working the grease into the roller bearings. It took awhile but when all was said and done I towed the trailer and boat 600 miles with no problems. You could try this approach and just tow the trailer a small distance pull the wheel and see how it is doing. Otherwise must trailer boat places stock new bearings in most sizes. I have also seen trailer bearings for sale at selected K Marts. For trailer frame rust that is not of structural nature I would suggest painting it woth Por-15 which produces a very good protective coat.