OH NOOS! My weelz has the smokez!!

[Swamp_Bear]

Tooling down the freeway, my wife happens to look in the rear view mirror and sees a trail of white smoke coming from the rear starboard trailer wheel. Pulled over, the smoke continued to come out, along with a steady crackling sound. Fire!

The brakes had locked halfway on, and heated up to the point that the oil in the bearing baths burst the seals and leaked out. Fortunately, we keep the fire extinguisher easy to reach on the boat, so the fire was put out before the tire caught. Tires don't go out.

Problem was traced to a rusty actuator in the hitch mechanism, which had actually stuck both brakes halfway on. Ten minutes afer I pulled over, the port side oil bath also burst its oil well seals and leaked out as the heat from the disk spread to the axle.

Bearings weren't damaged, in fact nothing was damaged except the seals and one brake shoe that got scorched. Pretty amazing, considering how hot the thing got. I have a friend who used to work at a ball bearing plant, and he advised me to have the bearings changed. Apparently, bearings are case hardened, and heat like that will ruin the temper and cause them to fail prematurely.

Keep your extinguishers easy to reach, and keep an eye on the mirrors.

 

[BarryB]

Smoke off the water...Fire in the wheel...

 

[Genelie]

Glad all was okay, I remember just getting my brakes done, and the first trip out, I got home to see smoke pouring out....I guess one wheel cylinder froze...but all is good now.

 

[Dave LeGear]

Had that happen to us years ago with our old 210, but in our case it was just steam and was able to get her home before it all went three mile island on me.

I sometimes question the logic of trailer brakes on such a configuration since they are not all that heavy as compared to a glass boat of the same size. I also know that 70% of the braking systems on these trailers that use drum brakes, are not even working from either being low on fluid from leaking cylinders, shoes out of adjustment or stuck, etc. etc. Shoot I use to run salt away through brake flush system after each use, and they still failed months after getting the trailer. I can see the huge advantage disk brakes offer, but still hear they fail almost as fast

That is why I am happy that I have a single axle trailer (pivots easier) without a brake system to go south on my 190. I did though just the other day after 4 years of use, just got mine out of the shop after one inner hub seals failed and I lost all the oil in one side. $300.00 bucks later for new bearings, seals, and new "larger" oil bath hubs (was cheaper that way) that now have a clear cover on so I can see the true oil level faster and eaiser... I hope that I will have that issue for a while

 

[mtty]

After reading about Putershark going for his second set of oil bath hubs and now this failure, I think I'll go pack my bearings. I know this seal failure was due to brake malfunction but do think Swamp Bear would have lost all his grease if he had had "buddy bearings"?

 

[Swamp_Bear]

The rear axle and wheels got so hot from the brakes, it felt like a high powered heat lamp just walking by. I think any lube would suffer significant breakdown under those conditions and require replacement at the time of repair.

As it was, I let the axle and wheels cool a little while, then I fired up the hazard lights and cralwed 20 miles home on the back roads at 35mph. There was still enough lubrication in the wheels that no damage was done, but those brakes were smoking again by the time I got to my house, requiring another application from the extinguisher.

The shop hadn't planned on replacing the bearings until I insisted, so besides probably loosing their temper, they survived the ordeal.

 

[Swamp_Bear]

Well, the boat's back home. The trailer needed a new actuator - what a difference! The original actuator shrieked like a banshee at every light, and if I didn't feather the gas to start, there was a big CLUNK from all the play. The new one is quiet, and there's no slop, no clunk.

After an uneventful drive home on the freeway, trailer wheel hubs were barely warm to the touch. Just in time for a perfect weekend...

 

[Hakuna Matata]

I had the exact same problem with my EZ loader trailer. Replaced the actuator and all was well.

-JB