To do trailer maintenence! :spank: First official day of vacation and getting ready for the BPG nats. I deceided to pull my trailer apart and do some much needed maintenece. Good thing too. One grease seal must of failed and one of the inner bearings came out with rusty grease on it!. Thankfully all the races and bearing rollers look good. I have to run out tomorrow morning early and find a set of grease seals. Then clean all the bearings in mineral spirits, regrease/ repack all the bearings and put some anti sieze on all the studs. I have a set of Goodyear marathons on there which are from 2004. Boy time flies! I didnt think they were that old. They have the slightest dry rot on them. Im not comfortable using them anymore. Im dropping the tires off at the local Goodyear for a new set. The peace of mind is worth it. The Marathons are a little pricey but the only other tires available are Chinesium. They said $130 a piece mounted and balanced. I have to do some research tonight and see if thats a good deal or not. I should have this wrapped up by tomorrow afternoon. And naturally, I had to re register the trailer and get it inspected this morning. At least the truck is ready to roll. Remond me to do this stuff earlier next time! :blast: Im looking to leave for the nats in the wee hours of Thursday morning. Hopefully getting there by mid afternoon or so. If you se a tired looking guy in a blue Ford towing an Aquamist GS on I80, be sure and wave!
Jason, Make sure you get steel valve stems for the trailer. Some of the guys have had problems with the new rubber ones blowing out and shreading the tires before they got the trailers stopped. Ask James Weinman about that. Duane
Good idea Duane:idea2:. I'll do that. I was going to use one of the old tires for a spareo No:. Im hoping I dont have a need for one! Maybe keep a second non mounted tire in the truck as a back up. In doing some research, the Goodyears are now made in China:spank: I just took a look at my old ones and those were made in New Zealand of all placesuzzled:. I know some people arent fans of the marathons, but I really dont know what else to put on
I bought 8 ply radials for our trailer. They were a special order. The cost to upgrade the plys is very small.
Jason, Its good you changed the tires after 8 years. You should ask John Csordas (spelling?) when he changes his. He follows a schedule and has had very few problems since. Duane
You need another wheel .What are you going to do break a tire down on the side of the road???? ( I got a big picture of that happening):eek2:
Jason 570-367-8007 is my cell if you have trouble. I have 2 spares for my trailer and you are more than welcome to stop by on the way and pick one up if you need one in case of an emergency.Even if you want to borrow it to Ohio and back... I have 15 inch 5 lug ones..I am right off exit 192
Thanks Pat! Its always nice knowing there are friends along the way to help out in case theres trouble:TU:. I have a spare wheel and tire. I wasnt planning on getting two flats at the same time. At least if I had an extra tire, I could stop at a tire place and have it mounted.
You all know if you have trouble of any kind or have to abandon a car to a safe haven,My place is available. I also have a trailer in case of trouble as well. I am right off exit 192..
Believe it or not my marathons are 12years old.same boat as you Jason,been contemplating new tires every year when I get the trailer inspected but they say tires are still good,no dry rot,I park the trailer on black top and I cover the tires to keep the sun rays off them.dont know if there are any tires made in the USA anymore for trailers,took it to Syracuse last week and performed great, no issues, joe
Funny but true story. Back in 2006, I hauled a MASSIVE load of Buick iron from BPG/Columbus down to Mark Reeves at Then and Now in Atlanta in my then new trailer I bought from Glen Stringfield. No flats, no problems, just a big heavy load heading to the South. After unloading everything, I headed West on I-20 toward Texas with an empty load. Well I got a few hours down the road and had a flat on the passenger side rear of the trailer. No big deal after changing the spare we were back on the road until the drivers side rear blew out. Now we have a problem as we didn't have a spare. Since the trailer was empty and a tandem axle, we limped into the closest GoodYear store. While the tire tech was removing the blown tire in the parking lot, the tire next to him on the trailer blew the rubber valve stem out and he jumped a mile high. That's when we discovered the other two wheels were missing the valve stems, and they recommended I upgrade to the metal stems. I've haven't had a flat since. It gets better. In 2009 a bunch of us Texas Buick Nuts head back to BPG for the GSX Reunion. I learned my lesson on using the metal valve stems, and tried like hell to convince my friend Greg King to do the same. He said "to hell with that - I've never had any trouble". Well, he had three blow outs on the way home and all were due to the rubber valve stems blowing out. He still gets pissed when I bring it up, but he can't say I didn't warn him! :bla: It's your turn, Jason! :Smarty:
I've run Marathons on all our enclosed trailers for years and have had nothing but good. Jim, are those trailer tires? Or 8 ply load range "E" tires?
Guy, Goodyear Marathon tires are available in Load Range, C -Light duty, D - Medium duty (8-ply) and E - Heavy (10-ply). You can even go higher but for you guys with the car trailers you won't need that high of load capacity. I would still recommend the Marathons over any other trailer tire or truck tire even though they are produced in China. Be sure to look at the build date on the sidewall of the tire to make sure the tire hasn't been sitting in the back of the tire store for four years already. Its a four digit code like "3212" meaning the 32nd week of 2012.
Trailer is DONE! all bearings and drums were cleaned in mineral spirits and blown dry with compressed air. Repacked with fresh Kendall Super Blu. New grease seals installed. I replaced the breakaway battery and switch, fixed some wiring and grounds and replaced a bulb. Registered and inspected, ready to go. If nothing else, i bought some piece of mind. So far the talley is $1500 for tires on the truck and trailer and parts for the trip. And I havent even left my driveway yet. Wouldnt it be ironic if I broke down anyway even with all my precautionary maintenece and repairs? Someones gotta buy me a soda when Im there because Im not going to have any money left!! :laugh:
