by woodrat » Tue Jan 09, 2007 10:48 am
I've lost wheels/tires off of my trailers before. Once, while towing my portable sawmill, I had crummy old trailer brake pads fall apart while I was cruising along at about 65. A chunk of lining fell down and grabbed the drum and the whole thing locked up. By the time I realized what was going on, the tire had blown into pieces and tore the fender off the mill as it went. it was a miracle no flying pieces hit anyone and that I was able to get everything off on the shoulder in one piece. It happened so FAST!
I had a sorry old tire on a boat trailer that I had recently bought peel the treads right off on the highway, but the tire held air long enough to actually get to a tire store, where it suddenly deflated like I was in a cartoon or something... When I first bought that boat, I was going to take the long way aorund the Sound to my brother's house in seattle to avoid paying the huge fee for taking a trailer on the ferry. In the end I got lazy and decided to take the ferry after all. About a block from his house, I hit a pothole and the axle collapsed in a cloud of rust right underneath me. It was just rust held together with paint! i managed to roll that right up into his driveway and was really thankful that my cheap side hadn't prevailed...
and last summer, I had a rear wheel on my truck suddenly fall off while I was towing a trailer. It started to vibrate and before i could get to the shoulder it was gone. Lucked out that time too and no one was hit by the flying wheel, although the rim and drum were trashed and I spent $400 on a tow truck ride home. All the other lugs on the truck were as tight as could be, and that one was actually sabotage I think, from me inadvertently stumbling into the middle of someone else's family fued. Ugh!
I've had bearings and tires go bad so many times I've lost count. I've been towing light trailers of all kinds for over ten years, and countless thousands of miles, and I've learned to be really wary of trailers that are new to me! I have another old boat to pick up next week and for that one I am loading the whole mess onto my flatbed trailer I think, and not even chancing the old, worn out tires, bearings and rusty axles...
92 Dodge W250, 5.9 Cummins, NV4500, custom steel flatbed
bunch of A2 VW's
63 Plymouth Valiant, slant six, pushbutton auto
boats and kayaks everywhere...