[Draino]

My neighbor invited me salmon fishing in Muskegon, well the fishing stunk but thats not the story.

His boat is a 24' SportCraft and is on a dual axle trailer. After fishing we get the boat back on the trailer and when turning a corner to pull into the tiedown area BAMM.

The left side of the front axle comes loose and the left side tires come together. Upon inspection we found that one of the 2 u-bolts was missing and the other was being held on by only one of the nylon locknuts. Fortunately we were able to find a similar size u-bolt on the retrieval winch and we were able to get going in about 2 hours.

I have to say that my friend takes great care of his boat and trailer and had checked all the u-bolts last year when he replaced the breaks.

We had just that morning pulled this boat/trailer rig 3 1/2 hours to get there and had no problems, I cannot imagine the destruction that would have happened if this had occured on the freeway.

Our only thought as to a reason, is that he does back the rig into his driveway and has to make a sharp turn to get it into place, the tires do scrub during the slow turn and could be the reason for the failure. He has since checked all of the other u-bolts on the trailer and some needed a tightening. He also has ordered all new u-bolts for it.

Draino

 

[Woods Before Water]

Hmmmm. Very interesting probably a good idea for anyone with dual axle trailers to check if making a sharp turn into a driveway while backing up. At least nothing bad happened.

 

[BCBpIV]

I wonder if this wasnt someones funny idea while you guys were out fishing... Find it hard to believe that going that far, then it would just come loose at the launch after putting the load back on the trailer. I think someone thought they were funny, or wanted that u-bolt for their own trailer...

 

[troller11]

lucky was in a parking lot on not on e-way when it happened but definately sucks

 

[snowman]

Ny-lok nuts just don't come loose in my experience. Somethings fishy. Good idea to check over the trailer thoroughly though.

 

[Woodfan]

I,m afraid I have to agree with Snowman on this one fo sure.

 

[fitsus]

QUOTE(Woodfan @ Jul 22 2009, 10:10 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>I,m afraid I have to agree with Snowman on this one fo sure.

That was the first thing that came into my head

I know a friend hit a huge chuck hole by the ramp with a twin jet ski trailer and it just set the axle back an inch or two.

 

[Woods Before Water]

I have to agree also after talking to a couple of my buddies that have bigger boats. They said they always back there boats in and have to make pretty sharp turns to get them in the driveway and have never had any bolts loosen up let alone just come off. Sounds a little fishy to me. Like maybe you made someone mad and they took them off or just some kids screwing around. Just my .02

 

[Chefnutz]

Makowish just had his trailor plate stolen at the crocker launch for the scs fireworks. I agree with snowman also.

 

[BCBpIV]

Last year i had my plate stolen at crocker. After looking around there were 5 other trailers that were all taken also. I hate the idea that people feel the need to take what isnt theirs! Its only like $5 to get a replacement trailer plate though, i though i was going to get popped for the entire permant plate fee again.

I have since reinforced my plate, i have nice stainless steel bolts, and to nuts. Then jacked up the threads so there is no way to get the nuts off... They will have to cut my entire bracket off now! Hopefully they will just move on to a different target.

 

[snowman]

Good idea to screw up the threads for the plate! That just became tonights project!