From Bad to Worse

[1stindoor]

Friday I went fishing...was having a decent enough day, although I got rained on most of the morning. Ended up catching three...none of them worth bragging about, but three good fish none the less. Went home Friday from the lake in the driving rain. Hating that I would have to leave the boat uncovered for most of the week due to all the rain we were supposed to get. Get to the house, back up the boat in the driveway, unhitch the boat and when I started to pull the truck away from the trailer, the surge brake cable gets tangled in my hitch, catches, and snaps. XK!@#$$%%R!!!! Since it's pouring down, I figure this will have to be something I tackle when there's a break in the weather....and then comes Saturday.

Saturday morning is not too bad, weather wise, and since there's no rain I figured it was time to look at the trailer. I worked on the brakes and made sure all the tires turned and the brakes weren't catching and then called the trailer shop to get it worked on. They said they could fix it (I probably could have done it myself, but between time, weather, and disposition...I was in a "point and pay" frame of mind). So off I drove to the trailer place (about 5 miles away). When I was about ONE mile away from the shop...one of the tires on my trailer caught on fire! To make my timing even worse...I had just locked all the hatches as my boat was going to be at the shop...so I had to scramble for the keys to unlock the storage where where the fire extinguisher was. As best I can figure I hit a bump or something and partially engaged the brake. Only one rim/bearing appears to be damaged.


After checking everything out and seeing no other damage, I chose to pull the boat at about 5 MPH for the remaining mile to get it to the shop...where it sits right now. Hopefully by the end of the day or tomorrow I'll know what the damage will be and how much it'll cost to fix everything. I'm guessing at a minimum I'll have to redo all the brakes and the bearings.

Anything else I need to check for?...besides the tissues?

[NoZero]

sorry - the week will be behind you soon enough. - looking forward to that for you. Maybe mountain bike in Bentonville while you wait?

[1stindoor]

Not a bad idea. I'm actually going to use the time this week to pull the kayak off the wall and clean it up. I may be using it for the next few weeks.

[BMCD]

I actually had my brakes drag on me this weekend, they got pretty hot. You can release the breaks on the top of trailer tongue. Did did this and never had another issue this weekend. Towed my boat back to my house in Katy with no issue.

[1stindoor]

Thanks. Yeah, I did that before pulling out of the driveway. I made sure all four tires rolled without any issue...or at least I thought I had. I'm thinking I hit a bump or braked hard enough to have one of them partially catch. The other side of the trailer had no issue and the hubs were cool. The "unaffected" tire on the side that caught fire seemed okay, but it's hard to tell because both were a mess. I probably blew a seal in that one as well. I'll update once I hear from the shop.

[Nailbender8]

Man, when it rains it pours. Glad to hear all that is behind you though, hopefully the first time you go out after getting it back you can you will slay them and forget all about it.

[1stindoor]

So, as an update...I'm still waiting. The shop where the boat is currently sitting is not an authorized dealer/seller for Tie Down Engineering; unfortunately the shop's not willing to replace the Tie Down stuff with other brands, so I'm waiting on a shopping list to go buy the parts. A new trailer from Tracker would be $4550, and take about 5 weeks. I'm now waiting on a callback to see if I can order one without the fiberglass fenders....actually with no fenders. If I can that should speed up the timeframe and lower the cost. Then I'll just unbolt the ones I have and put them on a new trailer. It would probably still be less expensive to rebuild the hubs, brakes, wheels, etc....but I'm tired of the lack of movement. Meanwhile, fished from the kayak and had a good Saturday on some local ponds. Then turned around and bought a new kayak on Sunday. My wife thinks I have a problem.

[Cphil]

If a replacement trailer becomes the easiest route, check with budsmotorsports.com.
He buys and sells left over Nitro/Tracker/Tahoe trailers and they are always in great
shape, great price.

[1stindoor]

Thanks. Will do. Funny thing...I got a callback from BPS. Brand new trailer, matching fenders, gel coat, etc. $4550. Ordering one without the fiberglass fenders...$4550! I asked how in the hell is that even possible. Their answer?...when you buy a new boat, the fender cost (roughly $800 a piece) is rolled into the cost of the boat. I told them that still doesn't make any sense.

[moetorola]

Ummmm,,,NOOOOOOO way.... should brake, bearing, hub replacement be even approaching the cost of a new trailer.

[1stindoor]

Yeah I know...I'm being impatient. It's been 2.5 weeks since I've been deadlined. I just had it towed (add another $300 to the bill) to BPS yesterday. At least they're an authorized dealer for all the parts and can get it ordered and started sooner.

[Wisfarmer]

Put a plug in actuator and Eliminate all 4 brakes that's what I did with mine on my 16 brakes are junk all they did was rattle and never worked

[1stindoor]

So the boat is finally home. I had BPS reconfigure the bill with my mil discount for all the parts ordered. Saved my about another $100. Plus I had about $250 in gift cards that I threw against the bill. All told it was about $1700, though that included getting a keel guard and the prop reconditioned, so I can't complain too much. The most expensive part was the actuator ($355)...and labor was brutal.