Share Pics of People Hauling or Towing Something Wrong

[BigBlue1]

If you have grease-through hubs how often do you fully take things apart to actually check if grease is getting through the seal? You'd never know unless you pulled it apart.

Rob

 

[downsizingnow48]

I never pulled a hub on any of those trailers.

Here is a diagram that shows how the ez lube hub works. The grease goes in through the middle of the hub, then comes out through the inner bearing, and then finally through the outer bearing.

To grease it, I raise the tire off the ground, spin slowly with left hand, grease with manual pistol grip gun in the right hand. With dust cap off you can see when the new grease comes through the outer bearing. It can't get there without going through the inner bearing first.

The key is to spin the tire and grease slowly with a manual gun so that the grease has a chance to move through the whole inner bearing then the whole outer bearing. Without putting excess pressure on the seal.

 

[Redlands Okie]

Plus one on the spinning the wheel, i should have mentioned that also. Yay downsizingnow48

 

[Pflum]

Just started looking at this thread, on page 12. Keep expecting one of my loads to show up on here.

 

[TomSeller]

Get that thing ripping down a hill, and it'll recharge the batteries!!! Wait... Right??

IF he can get to the top of the hill

 

[LD48750]

I have had ez-lube hubs on 5 trailers over the last 15 years or so. 2 Haulmark, 1 Kaufman, 1 PJ, and the current LoadTrail. Never a problem of blown seals, greasy brakes, or anything else. Not hard to get it right either. I just read and followed the axle manufacturer's instructions.

Did someone take away your Man Card for reading the instructions?

 

[downsizingnow48]

I know, I should get at least a two week suspension.

 

[Ford850]

I never pulled a hub on any of those trailers.

Here is a diagram that shows how the ez lube hub works. The grease goes in through the middle of the hub, then comes out through the inner bearing, and then finally through the outer bearing.

To grease it, I raise the tire off the ground, spin slowly with left hand, grease with manual pistol grip gun in the right hand. With dust cap off you can see when the new grease comes through the outer bearing. It can't get there without going through the inner bearing first.

The key is to spin the tire and grease slowly with a manual gun so that the grease has a chance to move through the whole inner bearing then the whole outer bearing. Without putting excess pressure on the seal.

I volunteered to drive the band trailer for the high school a few years ago, and the trailer was loaned by a former band parent. When I picked it up from his house, he assured me he just checked tire pressure, greased the hubs, etc. He handed me a small tub of grease and said "just pop those off and smear the grease there" as he pointed to the rubber plugs. Hmmm. I got it home, and checked for myself. Ssure enough he had popped off the rubber plugs and packed the area full of grease, right over the axle nut and zerk. They were ez lube hubs but apparently he didn't know what a grease fitting was or how to properly pull the hub to grease it 'old school'. When we pulled the hubs to check them, it was obvious the hadn't been lubed in years. Oh, and the tires had under 20 lbs of pressure. I went over everything on it after that, bringing it up to safe standards for him (for the school really). It makes me think about how other trailers are maintained when I see them on the road.

 

[KYBOTA2320]

 

[GLyford]

It's under the hatch to keep it dry, they strap it to the roof in good weather...?

 

[Soundguy]

wow!!!

 

[boggen]

View attachment 509823

aaaaawwweeeee..... how? is that even possible.

 

[California]

View attachment 509823

aaaaawwweeeee..... how? is that even possible.

At the tops of the folding rear seatbacks there are latches that engage a substantial steel loop near the top of each fenderwell. A chain back from those loops would keep the 4 wheeler from falling out.

I occasionally anchor cargo to those loops. One example was the time I brought home four 77 lb wheel weights that I didn't want sliding around loose.

 

[IslandTractor]

aaaaawwweeeee..... how? is that even possible.

Securing it isn't a big deal. And, it is probably just a bit over the rated weight capacity, but what I want to know is how they got it in there?

 

[Ford850]

Securing it isn't a big deal. And, it is probably just a bit over the rated weight capacity, but what I want to know is how they got it in there?

Catapult

 

[dragoneggs]

Catapult

Oversized potato gun?

 

[95XL883]

I volunteered to drive the band trailer for the high school a few years ago, and the trailer was loaned by a former band parent. When I picked it up from his house, he assured me he just checked tire pressure, greased the hubs, etc. He handed me a small tub of grease and said "just pop those off and smear the grease there" as he pointed to the rubber plugs. Hmmm. I got it home, and checked for myself. Ssure enough he had popped off the rubber plugs and packed the area full of grease, right over the axle nut and zerk. They were ez lube hubs but apparently he didn't know what a grease fitting was or how to properly pull the hub to grease it 'old school'. When we pulled the hubs to check them, it was obvious the hadn't been lubed in years. Oh, and the tires had under 20 lbs of pressure. I went over everything on it after that, bringing it up to safe standards for him (for the school really). It makes me think about how other trailers are maintained when I see them on the road.

For people like me who don't tow often, it is would be easy to make a lot of mistakes. Years ago, one of my boys had an old F150, the first truck in our family. I took it to get a load of sand for a sandbox for his little brother. I'm not sure why but I gave the truck a once over and topped the tires off at 1 lb less than the max cold rating on the tire. When I got to the sandlot, the loader asked what the tire pressure was in the tires. When I told him, he said okay, I'll load it. He then explained he had seen too many people come in with underinflated tires and they never even made it out of the yard. I was also smart enough to take the low speed back roads home rather than the interstate.

Fast forward to last year when I bought my first trailer, a used light duty 5x8. The guy was selling it because he moved from KS to MO and was going to have all sorts of problems because KS doesn't require titling/licensing small trailers and MO does. I live in KS and use it only in KS so it's no big deal to me not to title or license it. A couple of things I noticed was that the tires were so old they had severe weather checking and didn't seem to be fully inflated and that the trailer lights were broken. But it didn't look like it had been abused or pushed past its low weight limit. It wasn't too bad of a price so I bought it and then realized I didn't have a bolt/wire/lock/anything to make sure the latch didn't pop up. (I was smart enough to have the right size ball, 2", on my hitch but I never thought there might be different strengths to the same size ball. I'm pulling light enough it's not a problem but it is something I never thought of.) I made a slow run to a nearby Lowe's and bought a couple of small locks for the latch. I did know enough to cross the safety chains but I've never thought to check to see if they had too much slack. Researching tires, I soon learned that trailer tires take a lot more air than car and light truck tires. The old tires had 35 lbs, probably good because with that weather checking they would have probably popped at their limit. By now, I'm guessing you get my point that newbie towers don't know what they don't know. I read threads like this one partly for entertainment and partly to learn from others "adventures". I replaced the lights long ago but need to better secure the wiring. Something snagged it a little on the last use and some of it is now hanging. I keep the tires at 85 lbs, their cold limit. I'm used to sealed bearings and it pulls easily by hand so I haven't worried about the bearings. (It doesn't have zerks that I have noticed so I made a probably erroneous assumption that they are sealed.) But I will check them soon. I'm guessing they probably need grease.


I'm sure I need to learn more about trailering but I tow light, stay below the speed limit and out of heavy traffic. I am meticulous/obsessive about tieing loads securely. (I almost died because some idiot didn't secure his load and I wound up a high side at 70 mph.)

Speaking of not securing loads, on the way home last night I saw what I thought was a big cardboard box on the interstate. As it was very windy, I moved to the far lane and slowed a little to give me a lot of room should it move. As I got close to it, I realized it wasn't a cardboard box but a large well built dog house. It had survived coming off a vehicle or trailer at probably 70 mph and looked to be in good shape. Just another example of somebody not realizing how easy it is for anything on the back of a truck or trailer to come off at speed.

Sorry for the ramble. It's just the perspective of a newbie who is trying to figure out what he doesn't know.

 

[Howling]

Securing it isn't a big deal. And, it is probably just a bit over the rated weight capacity, but what I want to know is how they got it in there?

May have include the phrase "hold my beer and watch this." Does have lots of room for the cooler in front of the tractor.

 

[California]

For people like me who don't tow often, it is would be easy to make a lot of mistakes....
just the perspective of a newbie who is trying to figure out what he doesn't know.

I learned a lot from a book on camping trailers I found years ago. One example: the 8" (rim) tires on my 40" x 48" HF mini-trailer that I use as a 'Jeep trailer' are rated for 80 or so psi. However: for the under-400 lb loads of camping gear that actually go in that trailer, tire charts show 26 psi is sufficient. I run 28. That substantially reduced the way it wanted to hop down the road. This wouldn't have been obvious before seeing that chart.

 

[JPRambo]

On the way to work this morning in the wee hours. I noticed the car a few hundred yards ahead swerve around something. It was a wheel barrow. Wheel up in the middle of the road .I bet the driver did not know he lost it 'til he got to the job. Too busy with traffic or I would have stopped to get it.