A few hard learned but good boating lessons

[Ronnie]

I will start with a pic or two because I didn’t take many as there is more to this story than what there is to see.

The semi story is that 66 miles into a 100 mile tow to the water yesterday, the bearing failed on my right rear trailer tire.

I was humming along far dumb and happy thinking I would be on the water within an hour at 11a yesterday morning. Suddenly my son who is driving behind me calls to say my trailer tire is smoking and it looks like “jelly”. I tell him I’m pulling over and as I do so I hear “a sound”, look in the rear view mirror to see the wheel come off the trailer, then watch as it rolls into the road side ditch and pass and pass me, finally falling over about 30 yards in front of the tow vehicle. Yeah, it looked like something that you’d see in a tv comedy.

Fast forward 20 minutes, I put my wife in the truck with my son as one of us needed to get to the reservoir to take possession of he RV we rented for the weekend (the owner was meeting us at the gate).

I called tow boat us and aaa, I also looked for a trailer repair shop. Aaa said that as a gold member I didn’t have RV or boat coverage but they did refer me to a local towing company. The company couldn’t help because they didn’t have the right trailer. The rule is the rig must be less than 15’ high or you risk the hitting overpasses on the freeway.

I also called tow boat us. They spent an hour looking for a tow service with the right tow truck. They found one outside the 25 mile service area that would charge me an estimated $700 port to port ($175 per hour from the time he leaves the shop to the time he returns to it). I would be reimbursed $500 by tow boat after filing a claim for the same. I said let’s do it, they said the driver will get to me in two and a half hours.

After sitting for an hour a guy named ray in his companies work truck pulled up and offered to help. At first I thought this guy (in shorts, a pollo shirt and Birkenstock’s) just wants to know what happened but probably can’t or won’t help. I was wrong and gratefully so. He starts with “this has happened to me several times in the recent past, I’ve towed bob cats on trailers missing wheels 80 miles and over 400. If you want to get back on the road I can help.” He proceed to get four different hitch draw bars from the back of his truck as I got the jack out of my suv. I jacked up the trailer so that the axle of the missing wheel was further off the ground. The goal was to have the hinge between the two springs shift so the front tire on the same side would move down (it’s axle was touching the frame of the trailer) and the suspension / axle from the missing wheel up.

Once the trailer was jacked up he used his trailer hitch drawbars as a Jack stand and we proceeded to ratchet strap the rear spring and axle to the frame of the trailer. After putting everything away. He suggested that I hit a local trailer shop before heading to the water because they close soon and will be until Monday. He also took my cell number and followed me down the road for about 10 miles, called me and told me I had a lot of clearance and to take it easy and slow (60 mph max). I made it to the water safely at 330. 6 hours into what is usually a. 2 hour drive. He wrote me a few hours later to see if I was ok.

A few things worth mentioning. When it happened the outside temperature was already close to 100, when I got to the water it was 104. Ray was right next to me laying on the gravel under a trailer in the scorching heat. He even gave me a bottle of ice cold water as we finished up , he had wipes in his truck, good thing as I was sweating profusely. I could barley see as my eyes were stinging from it. I was almost begging for Ray to take the $40 I had in my wallet to at least reimburse him for the straps which he gave up and cut the excess off of without blinking an eye. At some point during the ordeal he asked if I thought the strap was good/strong enough. At that moment I said it will have to be because it’s all we have, I swear he had a halo and and wings to go with it, a true road side angel.

Lessons learned:
1. Don’t get complacent about maintenance. I filled the hubs with grease before the season started but hadn’t checked them since.
2. Good people / selfless people still exist and Ray made me want to be one like him. I’ve passed several boaters pulled over with smoking wheels over the years and thought or said out loud, “oh hating it” as I passed them. I will be doing my best to always stop and offer assistance instead or just drive by in the future. This is not easy for me as I am, actually was until yesterday, a big self reliance advocate.
3. For $55 dollars (pro rated) I upgraded to aaa’s premier service which covers my boat (RV if I had one) and increases the max towing range to 200 miles from 100. It will go into effect 48 hours later (the day I plan to break camp and go home).

What’s next? One mobile repair guy quoted me $1800 sight unseen. F that I know I can buy an axle for less than $200 and suspect the rest of the parts would be another $200 to $300. I have considered driving the rig home on three tires but won’t be pressing my luck. Instead I plan to call aaa tomorrow/Sunday afternoon and wait for them to send a “low boy” flat bed to bring the boat and trailer home. I will not call for the RV to be picked up until I get an eta from aaa.

Ps I did stop by the trailer shop but they didn’t have the truck other part to help me out. It’s a short axle and spindle that mounts to the frame on the hitch a tire may be mounted. They come in two sizes 3500 and 5000 lbs ratings. I needed the 3500 but another lesson learned, they are for emergencies only. According to the sales guy if the cup pulled me over on the way home or to a shop they may not ticket me but if I’m towing to the water expect a big ticket, not because the wheel is protruding out the side last the other wheels but because it wouldn’t be covered by a fender.
That’s it, end of story. Sorry it was so long but like I stated earlier there is a lot more to it than the pics reveal.

Ray saves my day and possibly my weekend. Without his help these last pics would not have happened/been taken.

The sun is out, time to get up and get to work on the boat.

 

[Ratket]

That sucks, but it seems to have turned out good. That’s awesome that he stopped and got you moving. Make sure you check the rest of the bearings when you service the trailer, personally I would inspect every thing every 200 miles/ couple of months, it really depends on how the trailer is treated.

 

[BigAbe75]

@Ronnie If you're still making calls looking for repair shops, try RV shops. I got saved by an RV shop when my brakes got locked up. They use similar axles on some of the smaller travel trailers. The 3 boat dealers I called in that town all said they outsource trailer repair. And the trailer repair shops I called all said they only worked on semi trailers... was a very frustrating experience. Great write up! Glad you're making the best of your trip.

 

[swatski]

Wow.
I don't know which trailer you have but if Shorlandr the root cause could had been the brakes.
@Neutron was kind enough to post on this type of failure with great pictures and explanations

https://jetboaters.net/threads/shorlandr-trailer-brake-caliper-replacement.23562/

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[Neutron]

@Ronnie did they determine what was the root cause of the failure?....

 

[ptwb]

Great write up. Awesome that there are people like Ray out there.

We tow to the keys and the west cost of FL a lot and I have a big plastic bin with tools and spare parts. I've replaced my own bearings and brakes before and it's not hard and so I have a "tow kit" I put in the back of the SUV with a floor jack, break bar, some wood, 2 complete caliper and brake pad sets, spare bearings, grease, even a bearing packer and a box of thin plastic gloves. Basically I keep all my trailer maintenance stuff in it's own bin so I can take it with me easily.

One tip I always recommend to people is to get one of those infrared temp guns. Whenever towing, even short local trips, I've made it a habit to take all my hubs temps. Less than 120 is great. One thing that would suck is to have the bearing seize onto the spindle or the spindle gets damaged and then can't even replace the bearing. Can't fit a spare axle in my 'tow kit'. I do think I will add some heavy duty ratchet straps to my kit though!

 

[Joshua Miller]

Sorry to hear, but great write up and I had the exact same thing happen to me when I was pulling my boat away from hurricane florence. I didn’t even see the wheel assembly come off, I was just checking my mirrors and noticed an axle spindle with no wheel attached... lucky me I was right by a lake and was able to limp to the boat launch. Geico gave me the same answer you got about not being able to tow because of the height clearance.

 

[scokill]

Trailers break down all the time. I can remember several times as a kid us being out and about and needing to get boat trailer fixed. Brakes, bearings, whatever. I've replaced calipers in mine...very cheap and easy. Need to do bearings but I'm too lazy and I only have to go 2 miles. If I have to go on a trip it's new bearings and might be time for new tires too.

 

[Ronnie]

I think the root cause is me, that is my failure to keep grease in the bearing buddy. Never again, I will be checking the grease level of every bearing before the boat leaves the driveway from now on.

The trailer brand is MFI. There are a few write ups on this kind of thing already which I will search for if I can’t get a hold of the trailer specs from MFI directly.

I will also be adding to my spare and tools list for the boat and trailer (too bad there is no place to store this stuff on the trailer), a few things on the list is the spare / extended / emergency semi axle and spindle, and 1 or 2 2” ratchet straps. I was cautioned by the trailer repair shop which is part of and across the street from their sister business RV repair and welding shops is to Not put blocks of wood between the spring and the frame of either axle to prevent the suspension of the bad axle from sagging because I would be restricting the travel and “that is when things like the welds on the spring mounts break”. Admittedly I was tempted to do just that while waiting for a tow truck, there was a a pile of wood nearby and I had a full roll of duct tape.

Thank God Ray came along. I am still so grateful and so humble for having had this experience. Ray didn’t have to stop, help, give me straps (and water), work on my trailer on the side of the road, follow me for a few miles after the repair and / text me about it, but he did without me asking and would have done so for free. If I could be more like Ray and teach my son the same, I’d consider doing so one/two the biggest achievements of my life. It’s not a cure for cancer but it is something I can and possibly my son can do to make this world a better place, even if only slightly so.

The plan going forward is as follows:
1. Get the boat towed home today and hopefully not tonight.
2. Trailer it to a repair shop in the next city over for an evaluation.
3. If the quote seems reasonable have the shop fix it in their own sweet time (this boating season is over for me).
4. If I feel like the price is too high I will buy the parts from etrailer and have them delivered to my trusted mechanics shop and have him to the work (he already said he could do it but may need help sourcing the parts).

Thanks again for the replies and support. Hopefully some of you will learn from my experience so you won’t have the same in the future.

FYI - I am now considering mounting a small tool box (for spare parts and a grease gun) on the trailer’s tongue or just under the winch post.

 

[swatski]

FYI - I am now considering mounting a small tool box (for spare parts and a grease gun) on the trailer’s tongue or just under the winch post.

I believe @BigAbe75 might have done that ?

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[BigAbe75]

I did. Take a look at the link in my signature for my SX210 mods. Then search for “trailer toolbox” or just start scrolling down. It’s 2nd to the last one, I think.

If I was doing it again, I think I would go with a smaller box, and I might spend the money on an actual water sealed box. I went cheap and was battling water intrusion the whole time. I ended up putting all my gear inside rubber maid totes and on a 6” raised shelf. Then drilled a drain hole in bottom so the water could escape.

This year, we are towing more with my truck than the Tahoe (not positive why... just working out that way). So, the same totes are traveling with me but are in the bed of truck.

I took the box off the trailer when I traded it, so still have all the materials if a pic of something specific would help.

 

[ptwb]

I also did something similar. Had a spare big plastic sturdy toolbox laying around and I bolted it to the inside of the frame with some U-clamps as far forward as I could. The bottom of it went into the water when putting in but the inside stayed dry, but, maybe in the rain, somehow water would get inside, so I too drilled a small hole for water to drain and inside the toolbox in a plastic container I keep some simple spare stuff, like brake fluid, spare rear drain plug, etc.

I use to keep a small grease gun in there but they would always leak. Even if I put it in a plastic bag, somehow that stuff would find a way out.

 

[Ronnie]

Update:
I took the boat and trailer into a local pacific trailer shop today. The quote so far is $250 for a new axle plus $350 for a pair of rotors, calipers and pads. He said the parts maybe in by the weekend. He went on to help me put a wood spacer (18” long 2”x4”) between the good axle and the frame of the trailer to give the remaining tire on that side more clearance from the fender, noting that this shouldn’t cause any problems because it is not putting any undo stress springs or welds.

I also cancelled my premium aaa plan. They ended up giving me $33 in credit (not a refund) of the $55 they charged me on Friday. So it cost $22 to cover my family of three for three days or put another way I paid $22 to wait 3 to 4 hours for a confirmation that they could not help me. That’s their “premium service”.

 

[Ilmmct]

Great post, very informative ... thanks for sharing your experience. We should offer Ray an honorary jetboaters.net membership

 

[Evil Sports]

Always read your posts Ronnie for years, Did you happen to have a picture of the ratchet straps installed

 

[djetok]

FYI - I am now considering mounting a small tool box (for spare parts and a grease gun) on the trailer’s tongue or just under the winch post.

I put a container in my truck bed. It has a spare anchor, 4 way tire tool, grease gun, ratchet straps, tool kit, a trolley jack, dewalt 20v impact with a impact socket set, and wheel chocks.
This same container will stay in the truck minus the anchor and grease gun when it gets colder.

 

[Georg]

In my box are both types of spare wheel bearings too.

 

[Matt Phillips]

Hey @Ronnie ...Call Orlandi Trailer down in San Jose by Valley Fair Mall. I take my trailers down there every two years for bearing & brake service. They also give the trailer a general look-over for safety. I was totally shocked after 2 years on my old MFI when they replaced the bolts holding the springs on...they were worn about 2/3 way through already. They upgraded the bolts and I never had a problem with them again.

 

[Ronnie]

Two straps were installed , one a heavy duty 2” strap and the other a cheaper 1” version from Home Depot. They don’t show up well in the pic and but the straps themselves are only about 3’ long after Ray cut them so they wouldn’t drag. The goal is to keep the suspension with the missing wheel from dragging while on the road, the blocks of wood are there to give a little more room between the remaining tire I will try and post pics later.im I’m building my trailer tool box now, again I wish I could store on the trailer instead of in the tow vehicles.

 

[BigAbe75]

Two straps were installed , one a heavy duty 2” strap and the other a cheaper 1” version from Home Depot. They don’t show up well in the pic and but the straps themselves are only about 3’ long after Ray cut them so they wouldn’t drag. The goal is to keep the suspension with the missing wheel from dragging while on the road, the blocks of wood are there to give a little more room between the remaining tire I will try and post pics later.View attachment 103410im I’m building my trailer tool box now, again I wish I could store on the trailer instead of in the tow vehicles.

Something else on the toolbox that I thought of, was going with a top loader. That way the lid is up and never under water. You might need a gas strut sized appropriately to hold the lid open while you’re digging around in it, but not hit the boat with the lid.

I wanted the convenience of a side loader before, but top down with the benefit of being water sealed would have been worth it.

Here’s the pic of my mostly finished project. Then bottom pic is after I added my shelf.