On my way to the Desolation Sound trip I had a few problems with my King trailer.
First I have the original bias-ply tires. Since this is only 1yr old I only have about 3k miles on the tires. Before leaving I noticed that I had some uneven wear. I set all four tires to the max pressure of 35psi. By the time I got to Oregon I was wondering when the cords were going to start showing on one tire. It was wearing on the outer edge. Just before Portland I stopped and changed to the spare.
I also had noticed that my right rear wheel felt significantly hotter than the others. I had greased all the bearing before leaving. I add more grease but it just pushed out the still new grease.
On the Thursday before Labor Day I called King trailer and decided to stop by for them to look at it. John the General Manager came out and looked at my problems. They were short handed but went the extra mile to help me out.
First the tire wear could have been due to a couple of problems. The hitch was too low which can contribute to wear. Also I may have run the tire a little low on my previous trip and once a tire starts wearing it will continue to wear with that pattern. They also checked the trailer alignment and it was spot on.
They looked at the wheel that was getting hot and found that the disk brake was dragging - nothing wrong with the bearings. The reason for the dragging was moisture getting into the system causing small particles of surface rust wich can clog the small passages in the calipers.
I left the boat and trailer there and went top find a higher hitch insert while they flushed the brake system.
They said the brake system should be flushed every year. I did not see this in the manual or have heard this before. I will do it from now on.
Also the factory is now putting radial tires on all new trailers.
It took a few hours out of the trip but they gave me grate service and I did not have any problems on the way home.
Steve
First I have the original bias-ply tires. Since this is only 1yr old I only have about 3k miles on the tires. Before leaving I noticed that I had some uneven wear. I set all four tires to the max pressure of 35psi. By the time I got to Oregon I was wondering when the cords were going to start showing on one tire. It was wearing on the outer edge. Just before Portland I stopped and changed to the spare.
I also had noticed that my right rear wheel felt significantly hotter than the others. I had greased all the bearing before leaving. I add more grease but it just pushed out the still new grease.
On the Thursday before Labor Day I called King trailer and decided to stop by for them to look at it. John the General Manager came out and looked at my problems. They were short handed but went the extra mile to help me out.
First the tire wear could have been due to a couple of problems. The hitch was too low which can contribute to wear. Also I may have run the tire a little low on my previous trip and once a tire starts wearing it will continue to wear with that pattern. They also checked the trailer alignment and it was spot on.
They looked at the wheel that was getting hot and found that the disk brake was dragging - nothing wrong with the bearings. The reason for the dragging was moisture getting into the system causing small particles of surface rust wich can clog the small passages in the calipers.
I left the boat and trailer there and went top find a higher hitch insert while they flushed the brake system.
They said the brake system should be flushed every year. I did not see this in the manual or have heard this before. I will do it from now on.
Also the factory is now putting radial tires on all new trailers.
It took a few hours out of the trip but they gave me grate service and I did not have any problems on the way home.
Steve