Flynny
Petty Officer 3rd Class
- Joined
- Jul 22, 2011
- Messages
- 86
That was the axle of our trailer. Supported by some scrap wood in our local yacht club's yard.
Days before this, I thought one of the tires on the trailer looked crooked, but it wasn't bad so I didn't think too much of it. We trailer our boat and launch anytime we want to go, so when we launched the boat on the day this happened, it was like any other launch. We've done it so many times we could probably do it in our sleep, so I didn't notice both tires were crooked now, very crooked. It was only 3 hours later when we came back to the boat ramp and my dad was backing the truck down the ramp that I noticed the tires were terribly out of alignment. I decided to take a look underneath and I saw that crack starring me in the face. I pretty much had a panic attack.
The axle is supposed to be bent like that by the way, it's not a straight axle like most trailers. But it sure as hell isn't meant to be cracked. I knew there was no way we were gonna put 2000 pounds on it, so my dad pulled the truck up the ramp and I docked the boat out of the way as we decided what to do. Luckily the ramp is at a yacht club and there were some friendly skippers there willing to help (although they had been drinking, just a little bit). One of them graciously lended us his mooring until we got the trailer fixed. Long story short, we had to have a new axle custom made because they no longer produce that axle. We carefully towed the empty trailer back to our house where we had a mechanic cut it out and install the new one. In the mean time we put on new bunk brackets and bunks, new leaf springs, new U bolts, new safety chains, a new jack stand and I completely rewired the trailer and installed LED lights. I felt like we should have had a show on HGTV "Trailer Renovation". Money well spent on a trailer that sees service twice a week or more in the summer.
So what caused that crack? Obviously the axle was weakened by the rust you see, and the drain hole that's supposed to let water out after you dunk it was very small and almost completely blocked by sand and rust. So the axle had saltwater sitting in it for hours after every use. You think that would do some damage over time? haha
Moral of the story, get fresh water inside your trailer to wash it if you have a box frame trailer, and most importantly get water inside your axle if it is not sealed! I spend a good 20 minutes washing down the whole boat and everything on the trailer after I flush the engine after every-time we take it into saltwater.
