Check Ya Nuts!!

[bobt]

Now that gotta ya ta look

I could be posting this in the wrong spot. But it is a dummy spit I am having.

Just a little tale to keep you entertained. Took the boat down to the beach in December launched it into the water.. I moor it for summer as I do not have the greatest amount of patience when it comes to queing at a boat ramp and watching people who cannot back their trailer or know how to prepare their boats.

The Boat is a 1983 5.2m Half Cabin I have had it for a long time. This summer it gave us some grief, the power trim failed and meant the boat had to come home a couple of times. The trailer did not behave the way I liked almost as if it had flat spots on the tyres. It got new low profile truck radials in November.

A couple of weeks before Easter I brought the trailer home without the boat to give the trailer a good once over. We pulled the wheels off took the bearings out thoroughly checked it all out. Everything seemed fine, so put it all back together again and took it back to the beach. The trailer lives in a 'boat trailer park' away from me and the caravan while it is not in use.

Easter came round time to pack everything up and bring it all home, including the boat. So my son was kind enough to take the boat home for me. He uses it more then I do.    He was happily motoring along the Mornington Peninsular Freeway and feels a bump, hears a bang and looks in the mirror to see the boat and trailer on a funny angle.





Sure enough he lost the wheel off the trailer.

So I get a phone call, 'hey dad, where is the spare wheel'   -  'Its at home in the garage' - I have new tyres on the trailer why would I need the spare, besides the boat was full of stuff coming home.

Got the RACV out, Total Care, they were terrific took the boat and trailer home for me and dropped it on the grass next to the drive. 2nd time I have used them in under 12months getting my moneys worth.

We suspect that the trailer may have been tampered with in the park. Not happy I lost an XE Fairmont Ghia mag with a new tyre on it.     But wait it gets better   Look for the tyre, yes we did but he was travelling at about 100kph when it came off. Your guess is as good as mine where it ended up. It did not hit another car, lucky.

So lets see where are we..    are yes..    moral to the story, - (1) Check ya nuts before you tow your trailer anywhere. (2) Carry ya spare wheel. Yep that would have been good except the studs were cactus. (3) If you have roadside assist make sure it covers what ever it is your towing. I am right..

So got home jacked up the trailer, knocked out the 2 bent studs found another, got the spare. All I wanted to do was get it off the grass and put the thing in the garage. And guess what.. The spare, I stole out of the back of my XC Falcon (in 1993) before it went off to a better home did not fit the stud pattern. It was a bloody holden wheel, strangely enough it will not go onto a hub with a ford stud pattern. So I have been lugging this wheel around for years only to discover it was the wrong one. Lucky I didn't buy a new tyre for it.

The joys of motoring..

[ForumMod]

Interesting story, bobt. You've got me thinking about whether the spare wheel sitting on the front drawbar of my van is actually the right one for the van. I've always just accepted that it was, but I should really double-check that it does in fact fit. I even had a new tyre fitted to it before setting off for Broken Hill recently. Would have been a shock to have a flat tyre and find out the spare doesn't fit.

In my pre-trip preparations, I took both wheels off the van and cleaned the surface rust off the wheel studs. Then I put a very light smear of wheel bearing grease on the threads of the studs to make it easier to unscrew the nuts if I needed to. The wheels I've got on the van are galvanised steel, and the galv coating will wear a bit with the contact of the wheel nut and the rotation of the wheel. I check the wheel nuts for tightness every couple of days when on the road.

cheers,
Al.

[bobt]

The bit I negleted to tell.

I bought the falcon off my uncle who had owned it for many years. He was ford thru and thru I had it for several years before I 'removed the spare' and sold it on. How did a holden wheel end up as the spare for a falcon?? Obvously it never got used as a spare on the falcon..