Proper axle sizing is important

[Jaysen]

34’ Hydrasport on a recently rebuilt trailer. Owner opted to ignore the “you don’t need beefy axles with a triple axle trailer” lie and put 3 7k axles under there (not sure what brand) when the boat is 9K dry. Blew the hub 50mi from here but grabbed the wrong “trailer parts box”. Managed to make the drive safely with speed reduction cautious driving.

This should be an interesting project for the next couple weeks. Looking for some “on trailer” part/tool storage, minor ding repairs and some electrical. Will be interesting to see what it looks like in daylight.

[Cowbro]

21K worth of axle capacity wasn't enough for a 9K boat? that seems like a pretty generous safety factor. In my experience with car hauler trailers and RV trailers, they regularly get loaded very close to the rated limit of the axles with issues only stemming from lack of maintenance. OTOH, by HMD19 weighs maybe 1000lbs and sits on a 5/6K rated axle. lol.

A sweet idea for keeping spare parts is to mount the spare tire to a full spare hub so you are all set to go with bearings, etc. One option is to weld a spindle to the trailer and then mount the hub/spare tire to that. If you toast the spindle on the axle, it might not work well, but it might be enough to get you by for a while.

Phil

[Jaysen]

In this case the it was having 14k capacity left with a "ready to fish boat" (less fuel and ice which is only about 2k for this trip) and 50mi of towing left. The spare hub on the mounted spare was unserviceable (I chastised him for ignoring it during routine maintenance). The guys I'm working with down here tow so much that once they lose one hub on a trip, it will be multiple stops. They are all decent on maint, but the salt and towing distances ... they need an even shorter frequency. At this point the "team" has a standard towing plan of 3 hubs, 4 spares and purpose labled tools (impact for lugs, impact/wrenchs for calipers, impact for hubs, etc). This boat is likely to be added to the fleet I'm supporting for the tournaments so we are discussing his setup plans.

One of the things that is really nice about JM's designs is the weight efficency. You don't need a multi-axle for most of his designs. That said, it is nice to be able to get a boat home with a block of wood and ratchet strap when the spare is shot.