The trailer launch - again

J

johnny_h

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Joined
4 Apr 2008
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Location
Fowey
www.reservoir.biz
I posted a while back about my trailer and the wheels getting seized because they were immersed in salt water. I've now had the wheels repaired at a hefty £500. The advice from the people who sold me the boat and who have now repaired the trailer is to only launch with the bottom of the rubber of the tyre in the water.

Is this going to work from a steep slipway with variable tides?

Is this my only option other than to accept wheel repairs every few years or to remove the brake system completely?

The trailer I have is an Admiral roller coaster one - are they any good?

I'm annoyed because the original advice from the boat seller was to take the trailer in deep - but it now turns out the person who said that didn't know anything about boats and has now left the company! Anyway, no use moaning - I'm keen to make sure I don't get another bill for trailer repairs.
 
As you have discovered from your last thread, every one has a different opinion on this. There's just too many variables, boat, trailer, slip, tide, waves etc to be able to give a definitive answer.

FWIW I have never been able to launch and recover any of my boats without getting the trailer hubs wet, and even on occasion the car hubs. I really wouldnt lose sleep over this, its better to not get the hubs wet, but if you have too make sure you give them a really good blast with a hosepipe as soon as possible after the launch.

I have made a system for spraying water directly onto the drums, from standard hosepipe fittings and tie wraps. Works OK so far.
 
I have seen a system where each of the drums (brakes) had a brass hose fitting tapped into inner edge, facing inwards towards the centre-line of the keel.

Permanently clipped onto the hose fittings were, in this case, four lengths of garden hose, running neatly forward, tied together and secured to the frame, to a simple manifold where it was easily accessed near the stem of the boat.

Simply plug in the hosepipe to another male fitting (one in and four out) and internally flush all hubs at once, for as long as you need.
This will be a low cost arrangement, the manifold could be left out to make it cheaper, but it would take longer to flush the drums individually.

As I said previously, I'm no fan of drum brakes on a boat trailer, but this system along with a yearly dismantle and lubrication of the working parts, may assist to minimise future problems.

The water to the bottom of the tyre is an odd response, do they expect you to launch onto the concrete?
 
I tried every way of washing the drums.. nothing made any difference. In the end I just accepted that you need to put the trailer into the sea to launch, and a consequence of that is the brakes get knackered. Actually, its often the bowden cables that seize, so not releasing the brakes.And you cant wash inside the cables!
Dont leave the the handbrake on,when you store, of course.£500 is quite alot, for that I d expect pretty much a whole new brake set up on twin axles, and sealed (Alco) bearings. For taper bearings on a single axle, shouldnt be anything like that cost
 
The simple answer is as others have said the trailer needs to be far enough down the slipway to launch and recover the boat - if the wheels get wet so be it. Even if you have to spend 500 a year on maintenance on the trailer (which would be suprising) that is still a fraction of the cost of keeping the boat in a marina, anti-fouling it every year, changing the anodes every year and hoping that a seal doesn't fail in the outdrive.

Compared to that lot a couple of wheel bearings and brake shoes a year is small beer.
 
Concur. The trailer needs to be as far in as it needs to be. Wheelbearings are cheaper than drives, props and glassfibre repairs.

The most important thing is to allow half an hour for the hubs to cool after your journey before shock cooling em in saltwater and sucking in seawater. Or fit bearing savers.
 
Trailers

The majority of manufacturers fit mild steel brake parts to boat trailers and will always be a issue, we installed a flushing kit, thinking that would solve the problem, but over time it rusted away the back plate that the brakes shoes are secured too, lucky the incident happened local to home, so its worth regular checks on the condition,

Some manufactures rivet the back plates on to the suspension arms, so are not easy to replaced, we found it was more cost effect to purchase a complete axle with bearings, shoes, drums and cables complete and just jack up the trailer, mark up the position of the U boles and unbolt and install, reconnect cables and adjust cables, time line 1.5 hrs.
 
Many years back, when I trailed, I had the trailer wheel bearings disintegrate. I had no problems with the brakes, which I kept protected with a thin coating of water-resistant grease (then Valvoline X-all, became Duckhams, now called something else).

I solved the bearing problem by silver soldering a short piece of tube on to the grease cap. Before entering the water, I pressed a soft rubber bung into the tube to pressurise the hub so that water would not be drawn in as it cooled. Removed the bung during the day and did the same on recovery. Apart from an annual check and re-grease, no more problems.
 
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