Trailer roller shafts, stainless

[hodges4]

I want to replace my trailer roller shafts with stainless to try to keep them rolling for a change. Done a bit of searching at the usual ships chandlery stores and a couple of the better trailer parts suppliers without luck.
Can anybody point me to a supplier, be it pre-cut shafts or 1-2m lengths.

John

[captain rednut]

try active fabrications logan river road beenleigh.
cheers cr

[hodges4]

Thanks CR
I'll give them a go.

John

[odes20]

I want to replace my trailer roller shafts with stainless to try to keep them rolling for a change. Done a bit of searching at the usual ships chandlery stores and a couple of the better trailer parts suppliers without luck.
Can anybody point me to a supplier, be it pre-cut shafts or 1-2m lengths.

John

Hi John

Any steel supplier who sells Stainless sections as well. I bought a length I needed and cut it to my required lengths and then drilled the holes for the split pins myself with new drill bits

Was not that hard

Cheers
john

[hodges4]

odes20
I don't suppose you remember the name of the place where you bought the stainless rod from or what to look under in yellow Pages

thanks
John

[Matt76]

What size and lengths do you want mate? I may be able to get you some.

[hodges4]

Matt76
Thanks for the offer Matt.
I was really just chasing a supplier to start with to check pricing before putting it to the Leader of the Opposition for budget approval.

The shaft diameter is 5/8" and I'm after 5 x 11" and 1 x 7"
I'm able to cut and drill it myself if you can get rod or offcuts.

Can you give me an idea of cost before you do anything. Once again the Opposition must be consulted.

thanks
John

[Spaniard_King]

If they are weight bearing shafts you may want to go up in size as the stainless wont handle the weight like the gal ones.

Sounds all good going to stainless but if it bends it will be no better than the gal one.

IMo keep with the gal ones just grease em up once a year

[hodges4]

Thanks Spaniard King

I hadn't considered the stainless bending easier.
4 of the rollers are 8" which is a reasonable span for 5/8" on the keel.
I'll have to do a rethink on this
John

[hodges4]

Matt76

If you read the previous post from Spaniard King it looks like 5/8" may not be strong enough, I don't know.

I've got no experience in these things so can you hold off until I find out if the 5/8 will do the job. I'll PM you in a day or so.

Hopefully someone will reply who knows if it will do, unless you do of course.

If I have to step up to 20mm rod it then means new rollers and new brackets so it slowly bcomes an expensive exercise.

Thanks for the offer anyway

John

[cormorant]

316 Stainless is generally stiffer than any mild steel of same thickness.

Get the steel yard to cut it - usually $2 a cut and done by a wet bandsaw so it doesn't harden like it would with a angle grinder.

Cut em a bit longer and allow space for a washer and alittle end float.

Use as thicka shaft as possible.

Cobalt drills in a drill press in a pool of cutting fluid makes short work of pin holes.

Use aerosol silicon spray in a can with a WD40 style tube nozzle not grease when you put em back on . Doesn't attract grit, doesn't glug up. A 1/8 drill hole in your roller and a quick spray and no further maintainance.

[odes20]

odes20
I don't suppose you remember the name of the place where you bought the stainless rod from or what to look under in yellow Pages

thanks
John

Yep Tonkin Steel but Im in Cairns
5/8 is fine if you are using the double cradles. I mean those which have 2 rollers on a frame which is sitting on a post riser on each side. I have had mine like that for years running a 6 metre boat

If your boat is smaller and your rollers are single it shouldnt be a problem also

Cheers
John

[hodges4]

Thanks all for the replies.

The boat is a 5m Quintrex. Its keel rollers are 1 x 8" double, 1 x 6" single, 1 x 6" and 1 x 4" with an additional double 8" at the rear which doesn't support the boat once it's on the trailer.

Do you think 5/8 stainless would be strong enough or should I just stick with galvo.

John

[krazyfisher]

5/8 stainless will be stronger than 5/8 mild steel. and yes it will be stronger than you need. I have used stainless on two trailers and it works great so uch better than gal.

[Matt76]

Yep cormorant is pretty much spot on.

I am a sheety by trade and work with stainless everyday, I have never used it as a roller shaft, but I can't see any way it would be softer than gal, quite the opposite in fact. Though that is just my opinion. I wouldn't hesitate to use stainless shafts.

I will suss out my stainless supplier today and see how much for a length (4m) and then I can work out roughly what they would cost each, there may be a few blokes interested. (including myself!)

Cheers
Matt

[odes20]

316 Stainless is generally stiffer than any mild steel of same thickness.

Get the steel yard to cut it - usually $2 a cut and done by a wet bandsaw so it doesn't harden like it would with a angle grinder.

Cut em a bit longer and allow space for a washer and alittle end float.

Use as thicka shaft as possible.

Cobalt drills in a drill press in a pool of cutting fluid makes short work of pin holes.

Use aerosol silicon spray in a can with a WD40 style tube nozzle not grease when you put em back on . Doesn't attract grit, doesn't glug up. A 1/8 drill hole in your roller and a quick spray and no further maintainance.

Hi Cormorant

Will the silicone srray make them roll smoother and how often would you need to re apply it?
John

[Matt76]

Hi guys, I can cut and drill them at work.

Prices would be:

8 inch $25.00 each + GST
6 inch $23.00 + GST
4 inch $21.00 each + GST

15.88mm 316 grade stainless steel round bar with hole drilled each end, 2 5/8 stainless washers and 2 split pins.

I'm not sure if you can buy them cheaper or premade anywhere else, Thats just what it will cost me to do them.

Cheers
Matt

[hodges4]

G/day Matt
I thought they'd be expensive.
With the qty I need I just can't afford it at the moment.

Thanks anyway for your help.

John

[cormorant]

Hi Cormorant

Will the silicone srray make them roll smoother and how often would you need to re apply it?
John


Silky smooth as unlike gal ones there is no surface texture.

We sprayed them ( and I mean like half a second each) everytime the boat was to be taken out ( fortnightly) . The can of silicon spray has a solvent in it that evaporates away and leaves silicon film. Gave them a dose every time we could access the rollers. Spray was cans from Auto one or bunnings , big red and black can with 2 way nozzle , spray and were about $10. Lasted ages after the initial flooding of rollers.

Try a standard gal pin with the silicon spray as a trial

With stainless pins it is amazing how smooth and little resistance there is with rollers. A bit of silicon and they were brilliant. With the newer rollers with the conduit hard middles it worked even better.

I hated grease glugging up on gal pins as with a really heavy boat it was a bugger and a big job to do the maintainance on them so the few seconds at home or at the ramp to spray the rollers was so much better. We tried hollow gal pins with grease nipples on commercial boats and they worked well as you just gave them a couple of pumps every forthnight but it was messy - didin't matter for commercial guys as they just wanted rollers that worked and the grease pumping through kept the sand out

Johns pricing is pretty good as I think ours were at cost to us $22 for 12 inch by 7/8 inch from 6m length in 316 and a few hours work and never have to replace them again.

[finga]

This may be of interest if you can cut and drill
http://cgi.ebay.com.au/STAINLESS-ROUND-BAR-316-GRADE-15-90MM-X-1000MM-5-8-/110166363272?cmd=ViewItem&pt=AU_Business_Industrial_Industrial_Supply_MRO&hash=item19a66d4c88

Works out to be about $8.50 for a 200mm pin + 1/5th of the postage.