Protecting a trailer

Hi Red,

No such thing as "Sealed for life" - IMHO. I spoke to RM for a quote before I bought the last trailer, and they told me their trailers were so much better because of this "sealed for life" thing... So I said

"So how long is life? How long do you guarantee the bearings for?"

"Oh we don't guarantee bearings, not if you put them in water",

"So how long is the "life" of the bearings then assuming I put them in water every three weeks in the summer"?

"Oh you'll probably need to change them every year".....

Hmmm so exactly the same as everyone else then!

Now I am sure someone will say "oh my bearings have lasted 10 years with an RM" - but I know people with all makes who have had bearings last years - the answer is that it so depends what you do, how you do it, and how often you do it.

There are so many "solutions" out there the one I always heard was never put the trailer in the water when the hubs are still warm from the drive down - the cold water causes the air in the hub to contract and this sucks water in. Some of the others are -

Bearing Buddies - these work a bit after a fashion, probably do help a bit - theory being, if you pack the bearing with enough grease there is no air in there then water can't really get in much. Bad point is that on your drive home, all the excess grease comes out and splatters over your boat. Interestingly, Bearing buddies in the states are US$20 ish per pair - and they are £31 per pair over here.... Explain please why we get so badly ripped off over here!

Sealed bearings - work for a bit, but will still go eventually, if RM were so confident in them, they could offer a 3 year guarantee couldn't they?

Hub flush kits - seem to make things better, but bearings will still go eventually. I certainly found the hub-flush kit I had was very good. If there is a hose by the slip, you can actually connect up a hub flush and fill the hubs with fresh water before you put it in - the fresh water coming out of the hub keeps the salt from getting in!. Still better not to put them in the water in the first place though.

As gjgm says - best thing, don't put them in water if you can. If you have to though the best thing in my book is a good hub flush kit, then a decent drive home to dry it all out, repack with grease regularly and replace once showing signs of damage.
 
Have had Bearing Buddies on a trailer & as said seem to work ok as long as you keep them filled with grease but I find that they tend to make trailer owners lazy.............once fitted & greased up, lets forget about the bearings...........!!!!!


I have two unbraked trailers, the trailer for T15 would do upto 1500+ miles a year & the trailer for the rib would do upto 1000/1500 miles a year. On all trips I would top up the grease at the start & end of each trip/before putting the trailer into the water, ( let the bearings cool down before putting into the water ) on long trips say over 100 miles, I would top up the grease midway or on very long trips every 100/150 miles.......grease is a very cheap mechanic ;)
At the end or start of every season I strip down the hubs, clean the bearings/hubs etc with petrol, check the bearings etc & if ok refit & repack with new grease. Never had a bearing failure & they have lasted for years ( have had T15 since 1973 & the rib since 2003 ) think T15s trailer has had about 5 new sets of bearings & the rib I fitted new hubs & bearings shortly after I bought it as its trailer had only been used in sea water & I was unsure of them, when stripped they were ok ( ish ) & have them as spares.
On all road trips, I carry a full kit that would allow me to change bearings/hubs etc.



.
 
Fact is I have had the trailer for 10 years and have only had to replace one bearing recently and one pair of shoes all on the same hub. With other trailers I was regularly replacing, bearings, sets of bowden brake cable, the whole axles or the complete trailer.

Trailering for 31 years.......
 
If RM would guarantee them, I'd consider it more of a selling point - but the fact they won't, says all I need to know.

And as the posted above says - look after the bearings and you don't need to replace them so often.
 
gjgm said:
Dont put it in water is the best tip ;)
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Don't put it near salt water is a better tip. It will see lots of water on the road, some of it salty, but it is the dunking in brine that does the damage, especially to the brakes.

Note that Trailers are coming under the Type Approval regulations later this year (in principle same as cars), so unless you buy an approved trailer, you are running the risk of prosecution. There is also a registration process at the same time, but the DfT has cleverly kept this away from the rigours of DVLA for smaller trailers, where the trade body will keep the registration.
 
Yes,

My understanding is that this Type Approval will not however be retrospective, so as long as you buy one before the deadline, it won't have to go through all of that...

So if i get one i'll get one soon!
 
Yes Becktons who I'm currently favouring do also have Type Approval - however because each is currently custom made, if you want it type approved you have to pay a bit extra....

HOWEVER I wouldn't want it Type Approved, because then it will need a "MOT" every year, and a load more fuss and palava that I can do without... so I'll go non type approved please.
 
I bought a new boat trailer in France and made the mistake that many people make in assuming that the trailer was made to go in the water. They are not. They are made to carry the boat on roads. They are not "Immersion Trailers" In those circumstances the "Sealed for life" bearings will remain unchallenged from being submerged in salt water and the galvanising will only suffer normal rainfall.
After 4 years the galvanising was "fading" and after every immersion I would spray the frame with a big can of WD 40. Certainly as I am going to buy another boat shortly I will probably have to buy another new trailer. This time I will spray over the galvanised frame with 2 pack varnish.
The other thing I found myself doing was that in France nobody seems to use "washers" and its certainly easier when you are tightening things up if there is a washer in place.
With regard to bearings I found that the bearings seem to be a standard size irrespective of whose trailer you have and I now carry a spare set including oil seal. AND I practiced taking the hubs off. On 2 of my hubs the oil seal had "Blown" and grease had got past the oil seal and had covered the brake linings with grease. (so much for sealed bearings)
One thing that my trailer had which was useful was the hub bearing cap had a grease nipple in the centre, and at the back of the hub there was an relief valve. The idea was that you pumped grease in and the relief valve would flush the old grease (and any water) out the back. Fine in principal. Unfortunatly the relief valve had a chrome ball bearing which rusts as soon as it sees salt water. So you pump away with your grease gun and all you are doing is filling your hub with grease.
So for my next trailer I will buy a spare set of bearings, oil seal, split pins, and perhaps a pair of brake shoes.
 
ontheplane said:
Yes Becktons who I'm currently favouring do also have Type Approval - however because each is currently custom made, if you want it type approved you have to pay a bit extra....

HOWEVER I wouldn't want it Type Approved, because then it will need a "MOT" every year, and a load more fuss and palava that I can do without... so I'll go non type approved please.
Click to expand...

It will not need a VOSA annual inspection unless it is an O2 or O3 trailer (check the VCA website for definition). Most trailers to be hauled by cars will be O1, and therefore outside of the annual inspection requirement. All trailers to be approved from Sept 2012.
 
rafiki_ said:
It will not need a VOSA annual inspection unless it is an O2 or O3 trailer (check the VCA website for definition). Most trailers to be hauled by cars will be O1, and therefore outside of the annual inspection requirement. All trailers to be approved from Sept 2012.
Click to expand...

Thank you - although reading this I disagree - most trailers will be O2 (750kg - 3500kg).

As ever it appears to simply be vastly more unneccessary paperwork so I'll certainly be buying what I buy before the deadline to avoid having to worry about it!
 
ontheplane said:
Thank you - although reading this I disagree - most trailers will be O2 (750kg - 3500kg).

As ever it appears to simply be vastly more unneccessary paperwork so I'll certainly be buying what I buy before the deadline to avoid having to worry about it!
Click to expand...

Sorry if I got the numbers slightly wrong, but I am sure that only trailers above 3500Kg will be subject to an annual inspection. The industry is not set up for inspecting the smaller trailers, and there is no plan to change this.
 
rafiki_ said:
The industry is not set up for inspecting the smaller trailers, and there is no plan to change this.
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With respect, It has nothing to do with the Industry. You have to remember that the UK is the "Odd one out" Forinstance although Britain invented the MOT in the early 1960's and is now at 3 year intervals, because we are in Europe we will shortly be moving to the European practice of Mot every 2 years and when the car is 4 years old.
So I would bet that when we do, at the same time we will change our trailer laws to conform with Europe.
I have just sold a European Spec Trailer I bought in France. In France (and presumably elsewhere in Europe) Boat Trailers have their own Registration Number. And to get one you have to take it to a MOT Station (Control Technique) for the first inspection and they give you the document for you to register it.
So this will arrive in the UK at sometime soon. Lets face it, it gives Swansea another source of charges.
Perhaps the only boat trailers which be exempt from Euro Specifications will be the ones carrying boats under 750 kilos where there are no brakes. Therefore no MOT.

Am I wrong ???
 
Guys, I will check on the detail on Monday, but only trailers in use by "Operators", those is use for commercial reasons, will need plating annually. There are no plans for a trailer MoT to my knowledge, and no plans to register at DVLA. As I said, I will check details on Monday.
 
I have checked this morning, and annual testing by VOSA (not an MoT test, but their more thorough Plating Test) is required on O3 and O4 trailers, these are above 3500kg load, and all semi-trailers.

The Eu regs require a registration process, and in the UK, the trailer is registered by the retailer, thus the trailer does not require a DVLA registration mark.

Therefore, the vast majority of leisure boaters who trail, will be outside of the annual inspection requirement.
 
Well, who can predict what will happen in the future, but the current, and the soon to be introduced regs called the Recast Framework Directive are all compliant with Eu rulings, so no need to change. Vehicle registration detail is down to the Eu country, and the rules tend to differ country by country.
 
Bit of a drift....in 2000 my engineering mate built a new trailer for our racing dinghy. We had it galvanised at the local place....£38 then.
Trailer fitted to the boat....well it did not...but some deft work with a hacksaw soon had it in order. I was pretty annoyed about that seeing it was my £38 that had paid for the galvanising and we now had bright raw steel facing us.... but we needed to use the trailer. So I dived in the shed and came up with an old tin of Hammerite primer...a sort of brown paint that turned nearly black as it dried. We daubed that on intending to overcoat it when we had time...that was 12 years again...but it is still on the sawn steel and there is no overcoat and not one speck of rust despite several thousand miles of travel between race venues across Europe.
I am sure the paint formula has changed because of VOC regulations and I am not impressed with the rust-proof qualities of modern Hammerite itself but that old primer was bloody good.
On the European trailer rules there are other tales to tell....German and possibly Dutch trailers have their own registration...not the same number plate as the towing car. A sailing associate... a country boy not at all versed in the ways of Europe came racing with us in Holland bring his old boat on an even older and very tatty trailer. The event over he got within about five miles of the ferry at the Hook for the return when a rusty wheel collapsed. While he was scratching his head the Dutch Plod arrived to see what the problem was. They were horrified and pointed out about ten major defects on the trailer...faulty lights, no mudguards, penetrating rust on the main beams etc and rightly explained the contraption should not be on the road. Our rural lad " Well blast... if it had hung together for a few more miles it would not on the road but on the ferry"
The Dutch police officers could see the logic of this and, no doubt, the piles of pointless paper work involved in trying to ban/prosecute a foreigner and when another English boat came past with a spare wheel they flagged it down and helped our rustic friend fit the spare and then escorted him at very slow speed to the ferry terminal where the problem was removed from their lap.
At this point we were approving of European trailer regulations but actually any reasonable rules would make the roads safer but the British do not not seem very interested in checking until things go wrong.
 
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