Lucky Flat Tire

[Wally15]

Not often does a misfortune like a flat tire turn out to be good thing.
For Memorial Day activities, mostly involving taking the grandkids tubing on a local lake, I brought the boat home from Lake Eufaula. My boat pulls them a lot faster than the family pontoon boat. Much to the chagrin of their grandmother I might add. At home I noticed the left rear tire was low. Removed the wheel and found the inner rim was coated with grease. Inspected the hub and found about 100 yds of braided line had wrapped around the axle shaft and destroyed the inner grease seal. These axles have the Dexter Vault system, which is very good but somewhat complicated to service.
Fortunately, by catching the problem early, the spindle wasn't damaged and the bearing races looked good. A few hundred bucks later, good as new. At least I hope so. Probably been 50-60 years since I rebuilt a hub assembly.
Had it not been for the "lucky" flat tire (picked up a nail, easily patched) I would never have noticed the hub damage until the entire assembly had locked up.
No idea where the braid came from. It certainly wasn't mine. I guess I'll have to add this inspection to my periodic boat/trailer inspection.
The older I get, the farther away the floor gets!
Oh, the attached pic is old, I upgraded to a Suzuki 200 4 stroke 5 years ago. The Zuke is a good engine, but I downgraded my wallet a lot more than I upgraded my boat.
GA Mike

[Keta]

I am very careful to make sure I leave no spectra in the water, glad you caught it.  Getting on the ground is hard, getting up is harder.

[Wally15]

I am very careful to make sure I leave no spectra in the water, glad you caught it.  Getting on the ground is hard, getting up is harder.

True dat! I'll be 76 next week. Just had my quarterly dr visit. He's been my primary dr for over 30 years. He's a health food and exercise nut. Been telling me to "quit smoking, lose 20 lbs, and exercise an hour a day" for at least the past 20 years. He now says that I'm in the 4th quarter of my life. It's up to me to determine how long the game will actually last. Can't really argue with that.
See you in about 10 weeks or so.
Mike

[Keta]

Yup.  My almost a doctor only wants to sell more drugs for her primary income source.

[Gfish]

Fishing line in the water, on the bank, wherever, I wish people would ball it up and stick it in the garbage!

[Keta]

Mono is very bad, Spectra is far worse.

[Rancanfish]

Yup.  My almost a doctor only wants to sell more drugs for her primary income source.

We must have the same one. I was ordered a few meds on the first meet. I took one, got a bad stomach ache and said nope. I have been on zero meds my entire life. I guess God willing I'll stay that way.

[foakes]

Good observing and repairing, Mike!

I pull a lot of line off of reels every year.  The line goes into about 3-4 large "burn boxes".  Then when Autumn/Winter comes around, and we are burning slash piles —- I just toss the boxes on the fire.  That way, even in the landfill, birds won't get tangled up in the old line.

Some years ago, on my utility trailer, I had a guy do some welding work.  He seemed competent, so I asked him to repack the wheel bearings also.  Well, first time down to the Dump an hour away, I got 1/2 mile from home and the driver's side trailer wheel started a bad whining.  Pulled over, the wheel was loose inside the hub assembly.  Nursed it back home, pulled the wheel & hub —- it was dry as a bone, and the bearings were falling out, and half were missing.  On top of that, the welding work was lousy, rough, and amateurish.  The passenger side was freshly packed and OK.

So I went down to the local trailer supply in Fresno, and purchased a completely new axle including bearings, hubs, and new attachment brackets.  Took it to a guy who is an excellent welder, and he properly installed it.  Plus he redid the other guys welding work, and added some hooks and much better reinforced areas where needed.

The lesson I learned —- if not doing the work myself, is to verify and check the work done afterwards.

Even when going to a tire shop (I use America's Tire, Costco, or Les Schwab) I watch the install, and also ask them to use a torque wrench for the final tightening (and I give them the specs).  Then I still check the lug nuts on all vehicles and trailers a couple of times each year. 

I use torque wrenches on any mechanical work I do myself on our vehicles, trailers, etc.  I just look up the torque specs in my shop repair manuals, or online.

Best, Fred

[Midway Tommy]

I always pack my own trailer wheel bearings. Never trusted anybody else to do that since they usually just do halfast job.

Used to use bearing buddies but found out they seldom get grease into the inner bearing & race. There are much better greasable hubs available nowadays so I converted everything over 8 or 10 years ago.