Lessons Learned.

[scottar]

I always tell my young bloke that any day he learns something is a good day. I must have had an absolutley cracking day with what I learned this morning.

Lesson number one - When people recommend changing your trailer tires simply due to age..........they're right. See lesson two.

Lesson number two - It is near impossible to see a potentially flat rear tire from the drivers seat on a dual axle trailer - if you feel a vibration, don't just put it down to the crap condition of Queensland's roads. See lesson three.

Lesson number three - When (not if) as a result of ignoring lessons 1&2, you get the big vibrations resulting from said tire shredding itself at 90+ kph on the gateway arterial, it will have done so during peak hour, where there is nowhere safe to pull up straight away. See lesson four.

Lesson four - When you finally get to somewhere safe to pull up and change said tire, make sure you do so somewhere there is a supply of big rocks or similar. This is to do with the fact that the bottle jack from your landcruiser is both too tall to fit under the axle with a flat tire......and too short to lift the trailer high enough with what you can jack off to then get the replacement tire on. There is such a rock on the northbound side at the Old Cleveland Rd overpass - just for interests sake.

I have also learned that a new tire was $120, the new clearance lamp will set me back about $35 and that trying to find a quality scissor jack on Ebay is probably not the way to go - any suggestions. :stupid:

[Seppo BNE]

DOH!...

Did you have the Benny Hill theme song running in the background while it was all going on !! ;)
Glad it worked out OK in the end though.. How old were the tyres?? - I wonder when is a good age to do them..

I was giving the boat/trailer a good clean on Sunday afternoon and while checking tyre pressures noticed the valve stems were already getting cracks in rubber on around 1.5years old trailer??

[DAVE_S]

And lesson five i learnt jack the weight of the tyres whilst in storage to avoid flat spots in tyres . As for jacks you could try a squat hydraulic jack .

[bluefin59]

Note to self get a jack that will fit under axle when tyre is flat , probably a scissor jack . Thanks for the reminder mate I feel your pain and hadn't thought about that either .. Matt

[rayken1938]

To get the trailer up high enough just pull itup on the spare, You will probably need someone to stand on the spare to stop it skidding along. If you get a breakdown on the gateway or m1 in the clearance zones you are entitled to a free tow to a safe zone( usually the nearest shopping centre car park) where repairs can safely carried out. I blew a trailer tyre on the gateway near nudgee and was towed to the DFO car park. The towies that removen you are not allowed to do the tyre change even though they are RACQ towies but they will ring racq and arrange for a regular racq serviceman to meet you at the safe spot.
Apparently because of risk management they are not allowed to make repairs on the side of the Gateway and M1.
When you ring up to report the breakdown the first thing they say operate your hazard blinkers and get out of the car and wait behind the safety barrier.
Cheers
Ray

[inveratta]

A few years ago now was driving a tandem up the Hume Hwy ..had the same trouble...flat tyre on the tandem ..heavy load....and the bottle jack wouldnt fit under.. A National Parks 4WD pulled up as I was wondering what the hell to do...in five minutes they pulled out a chainsaw cut down a small tree , cut off about 500mm of a round from the bottom end...Put that under the axle and used the tree pole to lever up the trailer....they sat on the pole while I changed the tyre..Bet you would be waiting for hell to freeze over for that to happen nowadays!
As far as the tyres go..I believe the rule of thumb is about 6 years for a set of trailer tyres....doesnt add up to a lot of travelling hours for most people I reckon..

[Andy56]

Apparently because of risk management they are not allowed to make repairs on the side of the Gateway and M1.
When you ring up to report the breakdown the first thing they say operate your hazard blinkers and get out of the car and wait behind the safety barrier.

This is good advice. Every year we read about x number of people hit from behind on the side of the road. You still see dicks stopping on the freeway with a flat. Your life is worth more than a flat.

as for the tyres, there is a number on the sidewall that states the year of manufacture. I read somewhere that tyres over ten years of age are dangerous and should be replaced. Its to do with the rubber cracking and steel belts inside delaminating when heated.

One of the the best things ever invented is type pressure valve sensors. They are coming down in price to the point that they could become a must have feature. Flat tyres are hot tyres.

[Crunchy]

To get the trailer up high enough just pull itup on the spare, You will probably need someone to stand on the spare to stop it skidding along. If you get a breakdown on the gateway or m1 in the clearance zones you are entitled to a free tow to a safe zone( usually the nearest shopping centre car park) where repairs can safely carried out. I blew a trailer tyre on the gateway near nudgee and was towed to the DFO car park. The towies that removen you are not allowed to do the tyre change even though they are RACQ towies but they will ring racq and arrange for a regular racq serviceman to meet you at the safe spot.
Apparently because of risk management they are not allowed to make repairs on the side of the Gateway and M1.
When you ring up to report the breakdown the first thing they say operate your hazard blinkers and get out of the car and wait behind the safety barrier.
Cheers
Ray

Interesting, didn't know that. Had had to change a tyre on the Gateway traffic side a few years ago, very scary experience, I would have put most Formulae One teams to shame that day.

[grinner2]

Had a identical experience on the Warrego Hwy 2 years ago ( on a single axel trailer though ) not good .....Its amazing how fast 100klm per hr is when your standing on the side of the hwy trying ti fix a flat with vehicles passing by .....scary shite .

[rayken1938]

These are avail on ebay mate used to make his own years ago using 2inch hoop iron and a bit of steam pipe for the axle holder. Easy to make if you have the ability to bend the hoop iron.113567113568

[hainsofast]

bad luck mate, one of the reasons I always take my big workshop jack in the back of the ute whenever I tow the boat. Glad to see you got it fixed up and no injuries.

[aussiebasser]

Couplemate Caravan axle jack. Best $80 you'll spend.

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Couplemate-Easy-Jack-Carvan-Jacking-System-/231993987548?hash=item3603eb51dc:g:vTYAAOSw-KFXdQMZ

[scottar]

DOH!...

Did you have the Benny Hill theme song running in the background while it was all going on !! ;)



LOL. Not initially. First up it was Paul Kelly - "I've done all the dumb things". Yep the reference to an F1 team is relevant Crunchy. I carry a breaker bar and socket so no dramas with getting the old one off and under less stressful conditions in the shed this morning a solution to the jack presented itself - the second bottle jack sitting on the shelf. It will now go into the kit along with grease, bearings and the necessary tools that goes for a ride when the boat goes out. I was pretty happy with the location of being tucked in behind where the road widens at the end of the overpass bridge - not entirely risk free but they would need to have a good crack to hit me - I could comfortably walk between the car and traffic I was that far off the road and the one lucky thing was it the passenger side rear that went. I had to travel probably about 3-400 metres to get there but there was no way I was entertaining the idea of doing it on the verge prior.

The Benny Hill tune - that started playing when after getting the new tire on, making sure the nuts were tight, pulling the jack out and packing all the tools back into the car - I had one final look to make sure everything was right - only to find that some twit had left said rock under the axle plate and it was now stuck. Had to retrieve jack and go again to get it out under the watchful eye of the lads in the ute with the flashy lights. Pretty sure I know what they were thinking - :stupid:.

[alleycat]

Hi scottar, what age do you thin a tyre should be changed?, because that's what kills trailer tyres, not mileage but age..

[scottar]

These are / were 10 years old. All the experts tell you 5. I have been a bit slack and had full intention of changing them prior to my next major trip - normally they go the 5 minutes down the road to the ramp and back and the odd run - maybe twice a year to the Goldy from Victoria Point. For all intents and purposes they look near new. No visible cracking, full tread etc and it may have been a flat that eventually turned into a "blow out" but I am not going to take the chance. New round black things - coming up.

[Moonlighter]

Mate of mine is a tyre expert. He recommends no older than 5 years.

Bridgestone says on their website that

"a number if manufacturers are now advising against the use of tyres that are more than 6 years old due to the effects of ageing."

They go on to say there are 3 main mechanisms of tyre ageing (edited for brevity)

1. Rubber becoming more brittle, the tyre continues to vulcanise due to the effects of heat, light and movement and this ongoing process causes the rubber to become stiffer and more brittle.

2. Oxidisation - ozone from the air compromises the strength and elasticity of the rubber and the integrity of the rubber to steel belt bond.

3. Breakdown of the rubber to steel belts bond due to water permeating thru the tyre.

I would suspect that #3 is probably exacerbated by the exposure to salt water for our boat trailer tyres? I do know that the 2 times I have had trailer tyres blow out, the steel belts were left sticking out and they looked rust stained. Last one was about 8 years ago and I now replace tyres after 5 years. Always.

Like anything, this is about risk management.

Eg a PC expert will tell you that a hard-drive for your computer is reliable for the first 3 years, but after that, the failure rate rapidly escalates. So anyone who needs a reliable machine for work or business and where the consequences of failure can therefore be bad, replace every 3 years. Mr Jones down the road who only uses his for emails twice a week and a bit of web surfing takes the risk and leaves it till problems start, then gets it replaced.

Same with boat trailers. If you only ever go 5 minutes to the local ramp at 50-60 kmph then you could get away with stretching it a bit further.

But if you do any towing at freeway speeds 80kmph or greater, then the risk and consequences rapidly escalate.

Spare tyres need to be watched too, we often forget them. Keeping them covered keeps the light off and helps extend their life too.

[Noelm]

Funny you mentioned the spare, not that long ago I had a flat in my old 100 series 'cruiser, the car was about 11 years old, and the spare was the original that came with the car, brand new, but 11 years old! anyway, I got the spare down, using the shit tools supplied in the tool kit, the tyre looked like new, except it was dirty as hell, and the rim had a million stone chips over it, tyre still inflated, all good! changed the tyre, drove for about 50ks and the tyre just went flat...I got out and had a look, and the tyre was just in bits, all kinds of crap hanging out everywhere, of course, now I was buggered, because I hadn't got the original flat fixed yet!

[Moonlighter]

Yes Noel, it definitely is somethingbto watch for.

Some years ago, a mate of mine bought a Pajero from a deceased estate. The owner had been very old and basically the car had been driven once a week to the local shops in the past 10 years. Tyres basically looked 95% tread. The next weekend he drove to the Gold Coast, or tried to. Tyres just couldnt handle it and half way there one blew, others had bits lifting off etc. Had to get towed home and buy 5 new tyres, spare was shot too.

[MikeyS]

Thanks for posting the lessons Scottar. I now feel better about having shelled out for 2 new sets of trailer tyres (boat and horse float) recently due to age rather then lack of tread.

[scottar]

Thanks for posting the lessons Scottar. I now feel better about having shelled out for 2 new sets of trailer tyres (boat and horse float) recently due to age rather then lack of tread.

No problem Mikey. The rubber industry is going to do alright out of me this week - 5 new ones for the boat trailer and most likely 5 for the cruiser as well (age and just about worn). Those make the trailer ones look somewhat cheap.

[Moonlighter]

No problem Mikey. The rubber industry is going to do alright out of me this week - 5 new ones for the boat trailer and most likely 5 for the cruiser as well (age and just about worn). Those make the trailer ones look somewhat cheap.

Talk to local BJ Tmart. I got a 4 for the price of 3 deal there recently. It was a ridgy didge one too. Both Bridgestone and Continental tyres had theis deal going. I got the Conti LT tyres for my boat trailer, put 2 there and 2 onto my box trailer (they were about 15 years old!) Conti's are very good quality European tyres.

[Fishbait]

I think BJ tyres had 4 plus fifth one free for their LT Yokohmas this month? Unfortunately, I got my 5 last month before the deal.

[ShaneC]

I carry a big workshop jack in the back of the ute for such hassles, as I have tried in the past with blocks of timber under a bottle jack and lifting from the trailer chassis and the load sharing qualities of the trailer would not allow us to change the tyre properly. Can't exactly remember why but we had a fantastic time on the side of the road sorting it out. Workshop jack under the axle is a beautiful thing, quick and easy and safe if done properly.

As someone else said water getting into the tyres degrades them in an accelerated way, also if you like in a tight cul de sac like me and have to do a tight u turn and/or sometimes push your boat into tight places around sharp bends with a forklift this places enormous strain on the sidewalls and roots the tyre to a condition that is much worse than it actually looks.

[FisHard]

Have been there done that with the blowing old tyres on a boat trailer. It was a single axle unit on a trip to Airlie Beach :( blew one, then got it replaced (running on the spare) then blew the other one!
Ever since then I've replaced tyres on age, not tread. In fact a new old boat I've just acquired, was fitted with new tyres before I drove it out the yard. Not going there again!