I bought this trailer to transport my mobility scooter... been shopping & burning fuel (misleading ads... hating the lieing SOBs! Did they think I wouldn't see the rust?) So this one was cheap, $200... because the seller honestly stated it needed work. It has a drop in plank at the rear, no ramp, tilt trailer.

When I arrived, he had his compressor out but couldn't get one tire to hold air... dry rotted anyway... so I bought 2 New tire/wheel assemblies at Harbor Freight $105 & he put them on. Trailer lights were there but not working... I high-tailed it. Near an hour drive, highway through major urban area... tried to use the truck signals & leave enough room & did not make the aquaintance of any fine LEOs.

I did not think to take the set of spare trailer lights I made up to move a covered wagon some years ago... (the wagon's fitted trailer had been hidden in a pasture & I knew better than bother with the lights at the last minute... why did I not remember?) I'll rewire the trailer with plastic conduit while the deck is off.

Most of the rotted deck was still there when I arrived home. Rotted plywood over the rotted & termite eaten planks... I optomistically stopped at Home Depot & bought new PT planks. I have some green cuperinol & I'll give the decking some additional treatment before installing.

The trailer after...

I brushed & scraped the rotted wood out of the channels. There is some scaling that was hidden by the wood... everything exposed is good. I'm thinking the sides add a lot of strength to the trailer. I'm thinking the hidden areas might be a good place to learn about POR15. The exposed areas probably just use paint.

The decking minutes later...

Notice my little plastic stool, a place to sit... My legs were pretty done, so I cleaned up my tools for the day.

I'll have to grind the welds off the strap that hold the planks down... I wonder if I should have it welded back or bolt it down? The latest PT is not as good as before & I'm concerned that the holes might be a place for rot to start... but bolted through with carriage bolts would make servicing much easier for me.

Well, here's todays picts.

I don't know what the brown mud was in the bearings & hubs...  maybe just very old standard grease.  It wasn't just hot water...  over dose of detergent too.  I have washed off greasy hands lots of times with detergent.  My favorite was "ABC" (Automatic Bilge Cleaner) intended to clean grimy boat bilges with cold salt water. 

 

4 NAPA branded bearings cost me 27.56...  the 2 NAPA seals cost 20.98.  Since I knocked out all the races, they'll be all new. 

 

I found some small amount of fine grit in the sink after it dried.  I've decided to spin the hub in the lathe & (now that it is de-slimed) use the wire brush / abrasives on a dowel & compressed air until I stop getting loose grit...  Which could contaminate the bearings.  Hopefully on the home stretch. 

 

There is no bolt on hub, it rides directly on the axle.  That would have been the choice, to replace the whole axle.  I should take a picture or 2.     

You can buy just the trailer hub to go back on your old trailer spindle. Most of the time it will just come with new races installed already.

 

Something like this maybe? This is what I meant by hub assemblies. You can get the full kits for not much more than about $30-$35 per side anymore.

Edited April 30, 201410 yr by Ilikeoldfords

Yes, that's what I thought you meant, as opposed to the bolt on spindles. 

These hubs are obsolete.  I think the industry is more standardized now.  These races have the OD of the common modern 1" axle but go on a bigger spindle.  I can't seem to find my note now but the spindle is 1 1/8" or 1 1/4".  A modern replacement hub would likely had a bigger bearing OD and the casting would have been bigger OD as well.  If it had a bigger bearing, it might have been an improvement, so long as the center hole in the wheels would still fit. 

I actually looked for complete replacement hubs...  no wonder I couldn't find them! 

 

Well, I'm into it now, so must keep on going... 

Ya some of the older trailer axles are getting hard to find kits for. The worst ones are when people take old mobile home axles and use them when they build home made trailers. Those axles were really only meant to get that house to the property then be trashed. I have seen all kinds of weird bearing/race sets in those things. Most of the time we end up replacing the axle in those cases.

How you doing with the bearings, Russ? Got it on the road yet?

No, I got diverted to a re-enactment last weekend & returned home dead tired...  despite a bunk of Pirates (re-enactors) who turned out all hands to take in my display for me.  Kindred spirits with a love of things that go BOOM! 

My big outdoor (electric) scooter was balky so I had to pull the covers to get to the batteries.  (2 group 27 Acid Glass Mat 100 amp for 24 volts).  The batteries seem ok, 3 years old but carefully kept indoors.  So likely a microswitch is croaking.   

This is the scooter that trailer is to transport...  I had to use the bigger trailer this time.

Edited May 7, 201410 yr by flagmanruss

I've been so wiped out...  I haven't got back to this one. 

 

Had a reenactment to do...

Had a bad fall (MS SUCKS) put a divot in my head & assorted other bruises.  Also have nasty stomach problems at random just to F--- with my life.  Oh, yes, having a heat wave & that is bad for my legs. 

Wife announced ATV battery is dead with acid all over.  90 day WalMart guarantee is expired. 

 

And our big reenactment trip...  is in a couple of weeks.  Camper still leaks after having a new rubber roof put on, fixed some leaks but coming in somewhere else.  But the way my legs are, I can't go up a ladder to even look at it.  The way the roof slopes forward, I'm suspicious of the clearance lights on the front.  I have new LED lights to install & underwater rated Life Caulk...  if I can just get up there & back down 

 

Wife has announced roof top Air is making clicking noises at random but every few seconds.  It will be impossible to sleep with that noise.  She also complains the crappy battery indicator says weak batteries...  I haven't got in with the voltmeter but the interior lights are bright & the onboard charger is humming per normal.  I'll copy this last off into a separate topic.   

Dang, when it rains it pours for you, Russ! Hang in there, it has got to get better. Be glad you aren't trying to do that stuff here. The temperature is 35* with rain and a 30+mph wind all day. Might get into the mid to upper 40s tomorrow.

New priorities, back on this one.  Seated the outer races in the hub (great fun).  The inner inside race does not want to slide over the spindle.  I used a wire wheel in a drill to clean up the spindle...  also used brake cleaner...  and razor blade & sharp scrapers.  The inner inside race with (roller bearings) is a very tight fit on the 1 1/8" spindle.  I am about 1/4" from the inner race seating on the spindle shoulder...  the seal rides on the larger section beyond that shoulder.   

After I got the broken down grease off, I'm finding scoring like the bearing seized at one time & that inner race rotated.  Not a lot of scoring but I'm not getting that race seated.  I'm stopped for the night.   

 

I'm thinking I need a slight application of abrasives.  I'm thinking either a sanding wheel on a Dremel or a strip of emery & shoe shining it.  Obviously don't want to remove more than necessary but I can't force this because of the seal.  

 

Any better ideas?     

About the only thing I can come up with to help you  is use a fine flat file, then emery cloth and like you said "shoe shine it". Sounds like it is going to be a slow process.

I thought of the file too.  It's pretty hard to work on because of limited clearance on the steel fender.  (I can easily shoe shine the top but the bottom will be pretty hard.   The inner races are a very tight fit so it wouldn't take much to screw it up.  That explains why I had to cut the previous race off the spindle. 

 

I'm going to give it another go.  Either I'll succeed or need to put preservative on it until we get back.    

I wasn't able to do anything useful yesterday.  The strings of yellow pine pollen filled the air...  I never used o get Seasonal Allergies but I now get this one.  Pollen Allergies IS an incorrect immune response.  MS is an immune system problem & any infection or incident which up regulates the immune system makes MS symptoms worse.  As a matter of fact MS treatments are various types of immune suppressants.  My couldn't trust my legs at all so was on the walker both day and night (I usually use it at night.)  Hoping today will be better.

Just hang in there, Russ. You don't need to push too hard to get this trailer done. You went this long without it so a couple more days won't hurt. Just keep at it and you will have a nice trailer when you are done!

I found a few minutes today.  Tried a file on the spindle.  I am 100% use there's a burr or raised edge to the scoring where the old race spun but man that spindle is nearly as hard as the file!  I'm barely scratching the surface with my files.  I don't know what it's going to take to get the race to slide over the scoring. 

I have researched on line...  Google is your friend...  "repair scored spindle"  Well, yes, this is caused by inner bearing failure, bearing seizes & the race spins on the axle.  I wonder how many turns it made?!  The articles note the worst damage is on the underside, where the weight would bear.  The spindles are welded into the axle & the best solution would be to replace the axle or to not have bought this trailer at all.  I am declaring this "bargain" trailer a MISTAKE as the original title of this thread asks.  All I reused from the trailer was the frame & axle. 

 

Unfortunately,  the only way to salvage the money I've spent is to finish the job.   There's room under the spindle (to the ground) but working up hill with a file is not working.  If my backhoe was running, I'd flip it over & work from the bottom.  I might yet.  I feel I'm pretty close...  need to lay cardboard down & get down (hope I can get back up) & look up at it.  Or use a mirror.  I keep coming back to the idea of using a fine stone mounted in a drill to gently reduce the raised area...  cut & try...  until I can get the inner race on.     

If you had a Norther Tool store around you could buy another axle reasonably. I would turn the trailer over and see how bad the underside is and make a decision from there. Even if you get the raised edge taken care of is the spindle actually round to support the new bearing properly?

Turning the axle over is going to mean cutting the U bolts.  There's a Tractor Supply store nearby.  Might have to look around.  It this axle comes out, it's going to get springs, U bolts, new hubs (can't match to obsolete old ones). 

 

I am still hoping this axle is salvageable.  But it is wise to know what the options are. 

I didn't mean turn the axle over, I meant the whole trailer like you said you could do. My though is to make the area where the problem is more easily accessible and possibly easier to repair.

I haven't run the backhoe in several years & it was last run a couple of years ago.  I can't climb up on it without help (legs).   The last time I used it...  my buddy & I drove up to Maine, bought & loaded a tow behind road grader onto a trailer (loaded by hand).  2 1/2 hours of sweaty heard work.  Towed it home.  The next day, I picked the grader up with the hoe & set it on the ground in 15 minutes. 

Interesting idea to turn the trailer over.  I just picked up a flexible sanding wheel...  instead of the hard grinding stone I had in mind.  A flexible wheel will curve around the axle...  hardened axle at that...  I think there's only a few thousandths of raised material that need to come off.  Light passes working evenly around the spindle.  At least that's the idea. 

Not as good as having the spindle out & in the lathe...   apply a tool post grinder & problem solved.  But like we said, this spindle is welded solid into a tube axle. 

Sooo, I'd have to get help but if other things fail, it's still an option. 

Edited May 19, 201410 yr by flagmanruss

Sounds like you are just going to have to sit down with it and take your time with the soft wheel. Kind of a PITA, but that's about your only option.