1980 Starcraft SS160 Restoration

DLNorth

Chief Petty Officer
Joined
May 26, 2016
Messages
432
Agreed, glad you stopped and found it and are save.

Here in MN, the land of lakes and trailers, this is a fairly common site on the roads.

Because of this I hate Bearing Buddies, they promote over greasing and a false sense of security.
Trailer bearings should be taken apart and checked at least twice a year,
in spring and roughly half way through summer.
Having a replacement set of bearings and even a hub in the out of town tool kit is also common here.

Dan
another good tip is to never put your hubs in the water, let the rollers on the trailer do their job.
 

Watermann

Starmada Splash of the Year 2014
Joined
Jan 12, 2013
Messages
13,753
Whoa! That was some serious failure right there. :eek:

I replaced the entire hub and bearing assembly on my SS trailer and filled the pitting/grooves where the seal rides on the spindle after sanding them smooth. Even so I still check the hubs for heat every so often when trailering even with real deal stainless bearing buddies it's a good idea to jack up the trailer and pull the wheel off to check for play or slop every couple years..
 

baldwibr

Petty Officer 2nd Class
Joined
Sep 1, 2017
Messages
128
I redid the other bearing yesterday. The grease was all milky and thin. It must have been neglected and not have been changed in years. The further back in the hub got milkier and thin. I cleaned out the bearings completely and inspected the bearings and races and they still looked good. I got them all redone properly for the next owner.

I always felt the hubs whenever I stopped and they were always warm, but not hot. The failure had to have been something relatively sudden. And the way the grease was splattered on the back of the tire and wheel well, makes me think the seal blew or something that leaked the grease causing a rapid failure.
 

ab59

Ensign
Joined
May 10, 2017
Messages
979
Got to say that divine intervention is the right phrase to use for that one. We already experienced that bad berings situation coming back from Quartzite with a trailer full of Lapidary equipment and supplies . No fun at all and the wheel and tire were found nearly a quarter mile from the trailer.
 

DLNorth

Chief Petty Officer
Joined
May 26, 2016
Messages
432
Water. Typical on boat trailers, it gets sucked in when the warm hubs get dunked.

"The grease was all milky and thin."


This will result in the above. This is OK on a utility trailer but not a boat trailer.

"pull the wheel off to check for play or slop every couple years."
 

Decker83

Commander
Joined
Apr 5, 2011
Messages
2,592
That was definitely a blessing for sure. Like the others have said, glad everyone is ok..
 

baldwibr

Petty Officer 2nd Class
Joined
Sep 1, 2017
Messages
128
Well, this has been a fun project, but I got my 180 to deal with, so this one is going up for sale. Here are some final pictures before she gets listed within the next couple days. Thanks to you all for providing support, guidance, and opinions!!

aft.jpg

dash.jpg

deck.jpg

motor_starboard.jpg

motor_port.jpg
 

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