Ooops

Grumpy":b43wekqd said:
Boris,

I think the restraints I had would have stopped the boat. Problem is with open hooks and slackness caused by arm movement, the open hooks "jiggled" off the bow eye.
Hence I am going for something with "Pelican" type hooks.

The approved device you show is certainly strong enough :shock: but it still has open hooks.
Merv
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An easy fix for open hooks is to take a bicycle inner tube and cut an approximate 2" piece out of it. Thread this piece over the hook and it will act like a huge rubber band and keep the hook from jiggling/bouncing off. I have them on all of my open hooks......bow eye hook, trailer safety chain hooks, and rear tie down hooks.....works great. (If you keep the remainder of the bicycle inner tube available with you, I'm certain you will find other resourceful uses for it). Just be sure to inspect the "tube hook keepers" frequently for any deterioration that might occur and then you can easily replace the flawed one with a new one. Two additional benefits of the "tube hook keeper" is they are inexpensive and don't rust! :wink
 
DaveS":1t9lm4mo said:
the "tube hook keeper" is they are inexpensive
Click to expand...

If you don't have one laying around the homefront, just go to your local bicycle shop and I'm certain, that they'll be happy to give you (at no charge) a used inner tube that is in perfect condition for this type of usage.
 
thataway":1g52dybv said:
There is lots of information about the sensor valve caps on the RV Net forum.

I also carry a 1" diameter chrome plated steel rod (tire thrumper), about 2 feet long with a rubber hand grip on one end, and a taper for removing stones from the duals on the bottom. I use this to thump the tires when I check the temp--you can tell within 10 lbs of the pressure--plus it makes a heck of a defensive weapon if it were ever needed in a truck stop....
Click to expand...

I have the Pressure Pro tire monitoring system on my RV. When we headed out west last summer I added sensors to the boat trailer. I am glad I did. I also check the tires when we gas. I also thump them and use the IR temp gauge. We stopped for fuel around Dallas and all was fine. About 50 miles later the alarm went off telling me I had lost !5% tire pressure in one of the trailer tires. I started not to believe it since I had just checked the tires but then remember what my IFR instructor beat into my head. Always trust the instruments. Since it was just low on air I did have the luxury of driving a few more miles to find a suitable place to pull off the Interstate. Sure enough one of the tires was low. I changed it and was able to get to a town and deal with fixing the tire. If not for the PressurePro I would have probably driven until the tire heated up and flew apart and damaged who knows what. It made me a believer in a monitoring system. One of the reasons I had doubts about the alarm was that I had been losing the signal from the sensors on the trailer. When that happened I would also get an alarm. I finally got the receiver in a position to get a reliable signal.

Roger
 
For those who use an IR sensor, can you give us an idea of what a normal temp is and what an abormally high temp is for the wheel bearings, tires, etc?
 
Brought the boat back from Newport this last weekend with new brakes and bearings on my trailer so I watched the tire and hub temps pretty close. Outside temp was around 48 degrees and my IR temp gauge showed the hubs between 72 and 80 degrees with tire temps between 80 and 90. In the middle of summer I have seen the tire temps as high as 104 and the hubs around 95. The Kodiak disks kits come as oil bath hubs but I had to stay with grease due to the reliable sure-lube axels

This has been an interesting read as I just finished rebuilding my trailer (1995 EZ-Loader). Kodiak discs, SS brake lines, new coupler, new rollers, SS U-bolts, most all nuts and bolts replaced. The boat rides rock solid with no movement and loads much easier with rollers that roll and tilt as designed.

Grumpy sorry to read about your unplanned launch but it has brought to light some very importent issues when dealing with trailers.

stevej
 
Dave,

That's a good idea to use a bike inner tube for a hook safety. I've got one around here somewhere. In the photo, you'll see a coiled cord hanging from the safety chain hook. The hook stays in place until the hull touches the water, then Janet pulls the safety hook out with the cord.

The Orange coated chain is to hopefully prevent the unintended launch of the boat into the truck bed or cab on a hard stop or minor collision.
P1010279.sized.jpg
 
Something you might all like to check:-

As part of the actions taken to improve the security of my trailer I decided to replace the simple hook on the safety chain with a screw locking, stainless steel carabiner. In order to do that we had to break the smaller loop of the existing "S" hook to remove it from the chain.
As you will see from the 3 pictures that I have added to the "ooops" album under Kingfisher, we easily succeeded in breaking the "S" hook and then found that it had 2 pre-existing cracks almost 1/2 way through. You can clearly see the rusted portion and the second surface crack.

Also, from what I remember of metallurgy, the crystalline grain structure of the part we actually broke would indicate that it was incorrectly heated during the bending process.

Since this is at the end which is normally obscured by the attached chain, it could very easily go unnoticed.
We were able to break the hook using a hand held screwdriver as a pry bar so I strongly suspect that it would not have held any boat in an emergency, which is it's intended use.

Worth checking :disgust

Merv
 
Grumpy Merv, I'll bet you just sold a lot of locking caribiners. My only addition would be to get a good one, that's made by a reputable company. Remember that's saftey equipment, not just nice stuff.

I'm going down to change the trailers hook now.

Boris
 
Great stuff in this conversation. I can see a lot of value in a change to closed hooks.

How often do folks look at their wheel bearings? I realized I haven't checked mine since 2005.

Dave
 
Further update.

I just received some new "industrial" tie down straps from Macs. http://www.macscustomtiedowns.com/product/110/TieDowns. Excellent service with many models available.

These are rated at 3000lbs SWL and since I intend to use at least 3 of them that should be more than sufficient. After all, there is no point in putting 3each 10000 lb tie downs on one bow ring :roll: I still do not believe that one should have to use the strength of the boat to stiffen up the trailer.. but.

Nice feature that Mac's offer is the 20" velco "booties" which are soft cover over about 1/4 inch of harder foam. You can add these where the strap contacts gel coat.

Not stainless but what the heck, they will get nicks and chafes and they are not so expensive that they cannot be replaced every couple of years. In fact they are cheap insurance.

Pictures in Kingfisher album under "ooops" :oops:

Merv
 
Just to close this sordid chapter... I have now completed tie-down modifications in order to stop my trailer from falling off the boat. Pictures added to Kingfisher album.

All hardware items, straps carabiners etc are individually rated at 3000lbs SWL.
The winch bracket now has 4 bolts and will have a final 5th bolt when the final position is determined.
I added through bolted, back plated, stern "eyes" to the transom extension

Whole rig just underwent 800 miles of testing up to Port MacNeill and back with no problems, the boat did not bounce and the trailer did not disintegrate.

Some minor improvements to the terminal hardware on the straps may still be made and some of the rub strips (carpet) have been omitted.

Only casualty was the lower bow roller which I had raised to provide some support under the bow when in position on trailer. That proved to be too high when loading on a steep dock and since it is such a "sturdy, high quality item" it got destroyed the first time I merely winched the boat onto the trailer.

Now I have the trailer under control I may go back to the electric winch.

Hope this helps.

Merv
 
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