Trailer scenario

Csail

Csail

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Trailer bearing went on the motorway so i left it and the boat there.
So would you-
A- get a local garage to fix it then drive back to collect it (200miles)(£200)
B- Pay for transporter to bring it home (£200)
C- Hire flatbed and go and get it (£70 £ fuel & it still needs fixing)
Longer its there the more it might get stolen.
 
Well i got it off the motorway.....just. Anyway good news is after a quick call its on route to my house. Upgrading RAC cover for trailer next year though. Our policy was through Tesco club card which can't cover trailers or caravans! You need to go direct to RAC (Or thats what they said)
 
I've been meaning to buy a spare hub with bearings to keep in the car. Must do that!
Hope it's fixed OK.
 
We lost a wheel from our trailer on the Severn Bridge once towing 2 Hurricane 5.9 catamarans stacked up. Wheel came off & bounced along the lane while we made it to the side of the road with a shower of sparks following. Call to AA, a cop car parked behind us for safety. AA got trailer to safety despite them telling us that due tothe length we should have had commercial cover. Our driver went off into Avonmouth and returned with a slack handful of castle nuts to replace the one which had bounced into the brown gloop below. We had a spare bearing but the old one had welded itself onto the axle, some hammering & sawing later & we were back on the road, got to destination in time for more than a few celebratory beers.
 
You need to be careful with most breakdown cover. Most will recover the trailer if the car breaks down but will only arrange recovery of a broken down trailer at your cost.

Many years ago the AA recovered my trailer after a breakdown, but most breakdown services seem to exclude this now. Reading the RAC Terms and conditions it sounds like they also will only arrange recovery at your cost (p8 and p21)
 
I took out breakdown cover based on trailer recovery, RAC wouldn't, AA seemed the best option.
Used to tow a rally car a lot, about 3000miles a year. On a four wheel trailer one bearing failing isn't too much of a problem as you can take the wheel off and progress slowly to safety and then replace the bearing with a spare which I recommend you carry! Best thing to do is inspect/check the bearing play and noise regularly and strip/re grease every year, if your trailer goes into water regularly yearly is unlikely to be often enough.
 
Nigel_Ward said:
You need to be careful with most breakdown cover. Most will recover the trailer if the car breaks down but will only arrange recovery of a broken down trailer at your cost.

Many years ago the AA recovered my trailer after a breakdown, but most breakdown services seem to exclude this now. Reading the RAC Terms and conditions it sounds like they also will only arrange recovery at your cost (p8 and p21)
Click to expand...

Some years ago, a forumite posted about boat/trailer recovery, for a European trip, and I did some real serious research. Most of the normal car recovery services in the UK, even in the UK, put some serious limitations on overall length of boat and trailer, and weight, which excludes many rigs, and they are unlikely to actually tell you at the time unless you ask.

I discovered through some other forums that there are some specialist recovery schemes aimed at horse boxes or caravans, who are more than happy to cover boats/trailers as well. Not only are their prices good, but are specialist at trailer recovery, and have much better length and weight restrictions, and even have good European cover if necessary.

All that research is years out of date, so you'd need to do it again, but probably worth the effort
 
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