Boat trailers are an expensive necessity.
Our Club’s 5.8m RHIB, MORO, is kept at Largs Yacht Haven on a “dry berthing” basis. This means the boat is stored on its trailer and launched and recovered on demand — an excellent service. On the face of it, it’s not cheap, but when compared to the cost, hassle, and time involved in towing a loaded trailer between Kilmarnock and Largs every time we want to dive, it makes perfect sense.
The Club owns two trailers. One remains at Largs for dry berthing duties, while the other is used for road towing to more distant dive sites.
The problem with boat trailers is that they spend their lives going in and out of salt water. Over the years we have rigged up all sorts of flushing and washing systems, but at the end of the day, the salt always wins. As a result, I have become fairly adept at changing wheel bearings, brakes, cables, hitches, and all the other bits and pieces that trailers consume.
Despite our best efforts, it became obvious a couple of years ago that our road trailer was no longer structurally sound enough for safe road use. A replacement was required.
New trailers are eye-wateringly expensive, but after a lengthy search we eventually located a solid, near-new example at an affordable price.
Inspection revealed a substantial twin-axle trailer. The vendor assured us it had new brakes, new wheel bearings, two new tyres, and a spare wheel. A price was agreed, and off we went.
We loaded the boat at Largs and I set off for Kilmarnock.
About five miles down the road, a loud scraping noise suddenly came from behind. A quick glance in the mirror revealed that, while rounding a bend, we had lost two wheels.
We pulled over immediately and began searching back along the road. One wheel was eventually recovered. No great issue, we thought — we had a spare. Unfortunately, while we did indeed have a spare wheel, it was fitted with a five-stud hub, while our trailer used four-stud hubs.
After a considerable amount of improvisation and roadside engineering, we eventually managed to get moving again and made it safely home.
Subsequent investigation revealed that the previous owner had indeed fitted new wheel bearings — unfortunately, they had been installed the wrong way round, with the oil seals facing outward, allowing salt water ingress. Worse still, the split pins designed to lock the hub retaining nuts in place had not been fitted at all.
That omission was the reason the two wheels came off. It could very easily have been all four, with potentially catastrophic consequences.
New bearings, seals, and split pins were fitted all round, along with the correct spare wheel, and thankfully we were back in business.
The moral of the story?
Never blindly accept a seller’s assurances. Critical items such as wheels, hubs, and bearings should always be checked thoroughly before towing a loaded trailer on the road.
One final thought: trailers require constant care and attention — but even that pales into insignificance compared to the endless failures, breakdowns, and frustrations caused by rear lighting board wiring and fittings.
But that’s another story…
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