My kids and I were in our front yard yesterday playing football when I notice this guy turn a corner onto our street a couple hundred yards up the road. I recognized the boat. It's always parked at a house about an 1/8 mile or so away from us. I had never seen it moved before. I immediately notice smoke coming from the underside of the trailer. I assumed a brake was sticking. As he was coming towards us I started to walk out into the street to stop him. I then noticed the rear left tires was flat. Just as he comes up to our house a tire blew out. My kids thought it was a gun shot. He kind of pulls over a bit into the half circle across from our house. His window was down so I said he's got some flat tires. As I walked around the trailer I saw the left rear was flat, right rear had just blown out and left front was already flat as well. He got out and told me he had just put the four tires/wheels on the trailer. For some reason he had good tires and wheels on the trailer but he took them off and put them on a box trailer then used these one. After looking a bit closer I saw the wheels had way to much backspacing which put the tires into the frame of the trailer. There were tabs welded to the frame to mount the fenders (they were gone). Two of those tabs had loose bolts/nuts in them. The fourth tire still holding air had a clear rub line to the steel belt from where that bolt was pressed against the tire. It would have blown out too in no time. The other two tires had been rubbing on the tab, causing their failures.
My kids and I jumped into action. We aired up my air compressor and grabbed my tools and floor jacks. We went all NASCAR and had the tires off in no time. He went back to this house and grabbed the right tires that he had put on his box trailer. One lug nut was galled up and seized up on us. We got it off, but the threads were junk. I removed the bolts in the tabs, and also took a hammer to the tabs to bend them vertical so they couldn't rub anymore. We went back to playing football.
He came back a while later with 4 brand new tires on the original wheels. I didn't understand why he took the good wheels off and replaced them with the wrong ones, but he did. He said he was heading up to his brothers house about 40 miles away, on the freeway so his brother could rebuild the boat. It hadn't moved since 2011. He said he would try again next weekend. I told him to check his wheel bearings.
He'd have been in a rough spot if those tires would have made it another mile to the freeway.
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Our Boatmate trailers can have rub issues as well. Especially with the larger OD tires. If the trailer doesn't ride level the tires can rub on the fenders. There is a round tube/rod welded to the inside of the fender that I think is intended to offer support to the fender. It can rub a groove into the tire tread, leading to failure. My trailer sits higher than my new truck, so I need to make adjustments to my tow ball height to make it ride level. I'll do that before our first trip. I also have airbags to install to limit squat. That will help out as well. Maintain your trailer at least as well as your boat.
My kids and I jumped into action. We aired up my air compressor and grabbed my tools and floor jacks. We went all NASCAR and had the tires off in no time. He went back to this house and grabbed the right tires that he had put on his box trailer. One lug nut was galled up and seized up on us. We got it off, but the threads were junk. I removed the bolts in the tabs, and also took a hammer to the tabs to bend them vertical so they couldn't rub anymore. We went back to playing football.
He came back a while later with 4 brand new tires on the original wheels. I didn't understand why he took the good wheels off and replaced them with the wrong ones, but he did. He said he was heading up to his brothers house about 40 miles away, on the freeway so his brother could rebuild the boat. It hadn't moved since 2011. He said he would try again next weekend. I told him to check his wheel bearings.
He'd have been in a rough spot if those tires would have made it another mile to the freeway.
IMG_4178.JPG
IMG_4179.JPG
IMG_4180.JPG
IMG_4181.JPG
IMG_4182.JPG
Our Boatmate trailers can have rub issues as well. Especially with the larger OD tires. If the trailer doesn't ride level the tires can rub on the fenders. There is a round tube/rod welded to the inside of the fender that I think is intended to offer support to the fender. It can rub a groove into the tire tread, leading to failure. My trailer sits higher than my new truck, so I need to make adjustments to my tow ball height to make it ride level. I'll do that before our first trip. I also have airbags to install to limit squat. That will help out as well. Maintain your trailer at least as well as your boat.
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