Boat trailer trouble

Uh Huh, I see. What you really needed was an excuse to get that Sawzall..

BTW there's a recent thread around here somewhere about SS screws and nuts where I tell my experience with them galling badly.

I know this is a little off topic, but a mechanic recently showed me an advertisement for a small, hand-held induction heater with a coil that you stick over the rusted nut. It heats the nut red hot without endangering anything close by.

Pete Stanaitis

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Clark Magnus> I just bought a 20 year old boat trailer.

Save this and repost it when we get another don't-fix-it-unless-its- broke joker.

Bearing buddies are your friend. So is a good quality waterproof marine grease.

??? Frozen on the spindle or something worse? I have successfully cut a bearing race through to the spindle on one side and taken it off before. Even if you get minor damage in one spot to the spindle its no big deal.

Last axle I bought came complete with springs, but if you insist a torch is your friend. Say goodbye to those u-bolts and have some new ones bent or buy some pre bent if you have a good trailer or farm supply store nearby.

I'ld, have just cut them off with the torch and saved 9 hours and 45 minutes. Then spent an hour of that time going to get some new ones.

Sorry. Can't help you here. All my boats arte on bunks trailers.

Use some never seize on the threads and use nylon locking stainless nuts.

Demand heaters are so much more fun.

Asa motorcyclist I hold boats as one of the most dangerous things on the road. You never know when the wheels will come off, if the lights work, or what is going to fly out of them. I have been nearly hit by a giant donut, life jackets, beer cans, etc. Did I mention beer cans? where did the beer go? One time I was watching froma distance, until it was safe to pass, a life jacket doing an orbit for a while. it would pop up, swing to the side, sissapear, repeat. Then, it came up high, the wind caught it and out it came, taking a 5 foot wooden oar with it.

Please, use bearing buddies, wash out and inspect the bearings every spring, and secure the contents. And leave the beer to the passengers.

Stupe, I assure you, absolutely NO donut, gigantic or otherwise, would escape MY boat (especially the cake-type, dusted with owderedsugar, ----yumm!). It would prob be secured along with a pint of hot chocolate or hot cider, long before the wheels were allowed to turn.

Bu on that note, the week before last, I did have one spinning rod disappear from way down in the bottom of the deck, It was new, and prob got light-fingered while we were in getting the donuts.

Flash

"Stupendous Man" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@mid.individual.net:

I do the inspect and repack in the fall. No need to let it do damage all winter.

Sure! Send it to us for a quote.

A) You used Breath of the Dragon and still could not get the nuts off?

[I'm curious re: this induction heater another poster mentioned..]

B) You are worshiping a false prophet. The road to enlightenment, Grasshopper, comes via an offering called "Never Seize". As you travel through life; spread the offering widely and proselytize your friends to do so as well..

All that is hard work, which I avoid whenever possible..

Use an angle grinder with a 1 mil cut off blade, about 30 seconds to cut through each side of the U bolt, say 5 minutes total including moving to other side of axle for 2nd U bolt. Absolutely no point in trying to save a rusted U bolt for re-use.

I find that the 1 mil blades last far longer than thicker ones for most jobs ( unless twisted and snapped ) and do a better job on sheet metal.

Alan Alan, in Gosnells, Western Oz. VK6 YAB VKS 737 - W 6174

Clamp the sheet between two *heavy* pieces of structural steel and bend it a little at a time with a big hammer. I pound on a piece of

2x4 instead of directly on the sheet metal to protect the finish and make a sharper corner at the bend line. You could build a bench for this with 1/4" or 3/8" angle screwed to one edge as shown in the Gingery sheet metal books but separate lengths of heavy angle or channel are more versatile and easier to store. The edges of smaller WF beams may not be stiff enough.

You can also cut sheet metal with a chisel by clamping the sheet the same way. The chisel will mess up the surface of the steel a little so don't use your best piece of rusty scrap for this.

I've been using my home-made bending brake as a vise to shear sheet metal with a chisel. Since metal being bent is pressed upwards against the clamp bar, scratches on the frame below don't transfer as long as I file the edge clean. I wouldn't mistreat a commercial brake this way but the frame on mine is bolted to the hinges and can be easily replaced.

Jim Wilkins