Trailer Maintenance. - Snowmobile World : Your #1 Snowmobile Forum

flyin-lowe · 12-21-2006, 10:49 AM

I completed my oil change on my sled the other day so I thought while I was in the mood to work I would go ahead and check the bearings on my trailer. Its an 02 Tritton aluminum 2 place. It doesn't get a whole lot of use as we often go with a guy with a 4 place. But it sees between 400 to 700 miles a year. The trailer is stored inside all year round. I noticed that the lug nuts were rust and I had not had them off in two years. Last year I just greased it with the bearing buddies. Anyway I tried a 4way lug wrench and the tire was spinning on the concrete. So I get out my impact gun and it would not even budge these lug nuts. I tried all ten of them and thought that I had one and when it was said and done I actually twisted the stud out of the hub. So I took the cover off and pulled the entire assembly off of the axel. I took it to a friend who owns a tractor shop and he put his HUGE impact on it that runs 160 PSI. (they use it on farm tractors and semi's). It only took one lug nut loose all of the rest it twisted the studs out. I ended up getting all new bolt tupe studs so there will no explosed threads and am going to apply some never seize. I (and my friend) had never seen something that was only a few years old in such bad shape. It was like the lug nuts were welded onto the stud. All of them had twisted a few turns but even once they got started they still pulled the studs out. Im done ranting now I just hate a job that should have been about an hour turns into a two day event and I have to spend more money. I'm glad a did it though because had I had a problem there would have been no way to get the wheels off along side the road. New bearings, seals, and lugs, ready to ride.

Icerider · 12-21-2006, 11:10 AM

Yep my 2 year old trailer was rusted on also, mind you not near as bad as yours. I covered everything in never seize also. What a pain in the butt it was to do the bearings but it was needed. I would love it if someone made a good trailer with nice big tires and big bearings. After seeing the size of the bearings I thought “my good this is all that keeps my wheel turning” I want a 2 place sled trailer with full side car tires on the outside that is low to the ground like a utility trailer with a ramp. I do not care if it weighs 2000 pounds.

paul yarek · 12-21-2006, 05:38 PM

all i can say is use the anti-seize and wash the trailer after every use. hopefully it won't happen again now that you know what to watch for.

flyin-lowe · 12-22-2006, 08:12 AM

This was my first trailer to own and I am glad I did not go with the steel I can't imagine what those things can look like. I noticed that the hub for these smaller triton trailers can be bought pretty cheap. I was thinking about just building a new hub, running a zip tie in to hold the bearings in and keeping it a box on our next long trip. It would be in expensive and you could change that it a matter of no time with a pair of channel locks and a small screw driver.

FishHog · 12-22-2006, 08:31 AM

never seize is your friend. Salty environments are pretty hard on trailers.
the spare hub idea is a good one. I've been thinking the same thing.

fishhog

JasonF · 12-22-2006, 04:52 PM

Probably next time just to be safe go out the day before and spray all the studs down with penetrating oil. I have used Kroil oil with good luck. :thumbsup:

Phroziac · 12-22-2006, 08:46 PM

Quote:

Yep my 2 year old trailer was rusted on also, mind you not near as bad as yours. I covered everything in never seize also. What a pain in the butt it was to do the bearings but it was needed. I would love it if someone made a good trailer with nice big tires and big bearings. After seeing the size of the bearings I thought “my good this is all that keeps my wheel turning” I want a 2 place sled trailer with full side car tires on the outside that is low to the ground like a utility trailer with a ramp. I do not care if it weighs 2000 pounds.[/b]

You could probably get a custom one.

I have a 12 foot utility trailer that has full size car wheels, dunno about the bearings though. It's apparently not very heavy. And by the way, you can comfortably fit one sled on it, and two if you put one backwards...

Oh, and be careful when messing around with the bearings. My dad had an open race car trailer a few years ago when he was racing, and he had a bearing too tight or something.....wheel fell off. Luckily it was a tandem. He pulled into a gas station and the wheel went rolling off by itself, and someone handed him the wheel, "Looks like one got away from you!". That used mobile home axles and wheels.

ravine rat · 12-24-2006, 07:04 AM

Well when we got the dump of snow two weeks ago I decided to go pick up my snowmobile trailer. It was sitting back in my friends bush lot. Normally in the off season I lift it up, remove the wheels, put grease on the studs and cover the wheels. Dielectric grease on all electrical connections. This year I just parked it. Fully expecting to go out and do the above.

Once I got it home I read the above post. I've neve had a stud pull out of the hub before and figure I do good enough maintance for this not to happen. Well removing the wheels three studs came out with the nuts seized on.

I took a wire brus and cleaned up any exposed thread on the studs. dropped them in a small container of oil to soak. I cleaned up the hub removing all the grease (outside). Pulled the bearings out and checked them out. I find my rear seals always leak and the back of the wheel is alway covered in grease. I have bearing buddies on and this really keeps the bearings in great shape. I picked up new bearing kit since they are pretty cheap. Since it is Christmas I couldn't find anywhere that had new studs.

So now with my hub cleaned up and the studs cleaned up a bit I reinserted the stud. I use a breaker bar and rachet. I have 24" piece of pipe as an extention on my rachet. So I tightend the stud all the way down with the nut attached. My studs thread in. I took a hammer and gave the nut a whack on all sides hopfully to break the bond/rust. I took my ratchet with the extention and gave the nut a few turns toward tighten. This seemed to move the nut and break the bond. I then removed the nut. A few of them had to have this procedure repeated to get the nut off without the stud comming off. So I got all the studs back in and the nuts off. I have the new bearings all installed and will put everything back on the trailer today.

I sure took a lot of work to fix what a proper storage will do.

One thing I do is place a plywood sun block against the hub while parked in the driveway. I find the sun heats up the outside bearing/hub and the grease melts out. This has helpped with keeping my bearings well greased and no failure.

RR

flyin-lowe · 12-24-2006, 03:42 PM

The above mentioned problems were after a night of soaking in penetrating oil (PB Blaster, man I love that stuff). Hoepfully all is well now.

JasonF · 12-26-2006, 12:56 AM

Quote:

The above mentioned problems were after a night of soaking in penetrating oil (PB Blaster, man I love that stuff). Hoepfully all is well now.[/b]

Wow now that is bad, normally a good soaking will free em up. You got me worried now, my 4 place sat outside all summer (empty), I better go out and spray em down now as it doesn't look like I'm trailering anytime soon :whatever: