86BassTrackerV17 1st fishing trip w/son 10/11/13 vids p15

[DaveInGA]

Trailer hubs now ready to be installed:

Hubs ready to go. Any leftover grease from packing was wiped off in the hub to help fill it with grease.

Installing castle nut. First, turn down as far as possible by hand.

Tighten down with slip joint pliers. Keep tightening until you "feel" the bearing press against the face of the shoulder in this case. At this point, the hub should be difficult to turn and is "too tight."

The back of the hub and you can see the hub is now overlapping the thicker portion of the axle like it should be. This allows you to place your cotter pin and have proper tension on the castle nut along with proper movement of the hub.

Backing the castle nut off enough to place cotter pin.

Don't forget the cotter pin and don't forget to bend it down to lock it into place! About ready to install bearing buddies.

 

[DaveInGA]

With the hubs and cotter pins installed, it's time to check the the hub movement to ensure the hub moves smoothly without binding while not wobbling.

Grabbing the hub and spinning it. If it moves smoothly and spins a couple turns on it's own, it's likely good to go. If you're not sure, have a mechanic check it.

Time to install bearing buddies. This is the side that goes in.

This is the side that goes out where you pump grease into. Note the rubber with a grease fitting and the spring. The spring pushes the rubber and thereby pushes grease into the hub for you.

Place buddy by hand, then tap with rubber mallet until line on buddy is flush with end of hub. Ensure buddy is even all the way around by tapping all the way around the face of the bearing buddy. You should feel the bearing buddy bottom out.

Finished and ready to grease.

Pumping grease in until spring is depressed and bearing buddy is relatively full of grease.

When the grease comes out of the bearing buddy weep hole, you have it about as full as it can go. Here, the excess grease will weep out and I'll have to clean it up. I was a bit too enthusiastic. No harm done though.

 

[DaveInGA]

Final tips:

Don't forget the buddy caps!

CRC makes cleaning non-marine grease out of my new hubs much easier. One of the two hubs I bought had been pre-greased. Airport trailer was kind enough to let me know none of the "pre-greased" hubs come with marine grease, so you're better off buying dry hubs and bearings and greasing them yourself. Since he only had one dry hub, I had to buy a greasy hub. But he was kind enough to remove the greasy bearing and give me dry bearings, so I only had to clean out the hub.

Cleaning the axle with CRC. This is the stuff Airport Trailers recommended. I sprayed generously, then wiped off the axle with a wrag. Worked great.

One of the hubs installed with bearing buddy. Ready for a wheel and tire.

Those cheap nitrile gloves from Harbor Freight kept the grease off my hands, along with any old filth. I highly recommend a roll of paper towels, a pack of these gloves and a pack of the red shop towels. Make things a lot easier/cleaner.

 

[TNtroller]

very nice work, attention to the details is great, hope you continue to make good progress on the boat. The hull cleaned up really nice, didn't even look like the same boat.

 

[tccanoe]

Dave, Glad to see ya back at the boat. You must'a worked a long stretch. Did you see the post on making a solid glass transom? It looks like something you could tackle. I'll find it and add it to this post. My problem with bearing buddies was I always blew out the back seal from over greasing. Does the weep hole keep that from happening? I guess you did see "how to pour a solid glass transom" Seeing as how you asked a bunch of questions of da guy. My bad.

 

[DaveInGA]

very nice work, attention to the details is great, hope you continue to make good progress on the boat. The hull cleaned up really nice, didn't even look like the same boat.

Thank you for the compliment. I'm in the process of sandblasting the trailer right now. It's going slow because I only have a siphon blaster, which isn't very powerful and has to be held very close to actually get the paint to strip, thereby taking forever. Therefore, I do a little bit at a time each day. Slow going.

 

[DaveInGA]

Dave, Glad to see ya back at the boat. You must'a worked a long stretch. Did you see the post on making a solid glass transom? It looks like something you could tackle. I'll find it and add it to this post. My problem with bearing buddies was I always blew out the back seal from over greasing. Does the weep hole keep that from happening? I guess you did see "how to pour a solid glass transom" Seeing as how you asked a bunch of questions of da guy. My bad.

I looked real hard at the solid glass transom as a viable idea, but the material costs were prohibitive. It costs significantly more than any other solution. I think I'm going to do a spread sheet with the costs of a glass transom, a aluminum frame transom and a wood transom, both hardwood and plywood. Right now, due to vehicles and being sick eating up a big chunk of my fund, I'm having to look real hard at plywood again. It's appears to be the cheapest solution, but that's on the surface before adding in all the variables.

On the bearing buddies, I think the weep hole does keep that from happening if you don't get too crazy with the grease. But a weep hole can only leak so fast and if you cram in enough grease fast enough, I'm sure you can blow out a seal. I was just lucky I stopped in time.

 

[DuraCraft]

Wow, Dave, wow! Man, what a great rebuild! About the only thing I know anything at all about is greasing the bearings; my old bearing buddy has a red indication line that you are supposed to stop pumping in grease when the spring held thingamabob reaches the red line. It pushes out as you fill with grease, and you stop when it reaches the red line. Now, everything I have is like me - geezer stuff! Old. Only problem is me brain got stuck at about 30 years old, but me body kept going!

Now, not only do I need to move my seat back, but I need to paint my trailer too. Thanks :x not really, it does need painting. Can hardly wait to see more of your work.

 

[DaveInGA]

Duracraft, thanks for the encouragement/compliments.

Here's an update:

I'm hoping to do some more work soon. Been through another go around with those two teeth again. Turns out original dentist cracked roots on both teeth, so no way I was going to be able to keep them. Had to have both teeth removed and before that happened, got another infection/abcess that caused my face to swell up and shut my left eye again. Lost about a week's worth of work, both on the boat and at work between being sick and recovering from the teeth being removed.

I'm going to a buddy's house to get some minor welding repairs done on my trailer and a couple mods to reinforce an area or two. He's also got a couple spare ceramic nozzles that fit the sand blaster I have. I bumped the nozzle on the blaster I have against the frame trying to clear it and caused it to crack and shatter, so I need another one. ](*,)

 

[Brine]

Darn Dave! Sorry to hear the mouth acted up again, but glad to hear you got it taken care of.

We need you healthy! You're one of the few working on a build right now. :mrgreen: and it's been a great one to watch thus far.

 

[Troutman3000]

Feel better buddy!

 

[DaveInGA]

Thanks Fellers,

I'm on the mend now and will be working on the boat this Saturday. Daughter is in town with some grand babies, so that's taking priority as well.

After welding, I'm going to finish off the sandblasting of the trailer, coat it with Ospho solution, let that dry over night, then hopefully if the temperature hasn't dropped below 35 degrees F, paint the trailer. Also going to order ultimate bunkboards, etc. if things go well.

 

[DaveInGA]

Lots of delays due to teeth, family visiting, son-in-law's van needing a radiator, etc., but managed to get in a tiny bit of work on my boat trailer this weekend.

I'm using the plastic deckboard for the fender "bunks" and for the side steps. In order to do this, I felt a repair to the fenders where they had begun to separate from the frame and reinforcement of the step area (and some welding repair to the original step supports as well) were in order.

I called a buddy of mine who owns a small TIG welder setup with gas and he agreed to do the work for beer. (Gotta love this payment system, as after the work is done, we watch college football on his TV while drinking the beer and his wife feeds us.) My wife was going to be out of town Saturday, so I headed his way and arrived at 10AM.

He had lots of steel surplus ladder rack (You guys in the IT and Telecom industries know what I'm talking about.) to supply the steel we'd need, so I didn't have to buy anything but a twelve pack of quality beer. (What can I say, he's a cheap date. LOL) We got to work and had the work done in a couple of hours.

It isn't pretty, as he's an amateur welder, but it's sturdy (yes, we tested all the welds via big ball peen hammer) and it'll mostly be hidden by either the board I'm putting on or ground smooth and painted. Here's some pics:

The left fender reinforced/repaired. He did the best job on this weld.

The left step reinforced and repaired. Welds aren't pretty, but they're solid and the framing will do the job. The original supports had a weld added vertically to eliminate the possibility of their original thin and rusty welds failing.

The right fender reinforced/repaired. Again an ugly weld, but I'll smooth it out a bit and with some paint, it'll do fine. I checked it and while ugly, it was strong.

The left step reinforced and repaired. Again, ugly repairs, but with some blending and paint and most of this covered up, it'll do the job I need it to do. It'll prevent me from falling through the step and breaking an ankle.

Lastly, I picked up a couple of nozzles for my sand blaster up from my buddy, so I'll be able to finish sandblasting the trailer this week and paint it. Finally! Some progress!

 

[tccanoe]

Thanks Fellers,

I'm on the mend now and will be working on the boat this Saturday. Daughter is in town with some grand babies, so that's taking priority as well.

After welding, I'm going to finish off the sandblasting of the trailer, coat it with Ospho solution, let that dry over night, then hopefully if the temperature hasn't dropped below 35 degrees F, paint the trailer. Also going to order ultimate bunkboards, etc. if things go well.

I know it's hard to keep a good man down but this man stays up AND positive to boot....

 

[Troutman3000]

How many if those fish elites were left? I really want one but dont want to wait until 9 to go if there were only a few left.

 

[89Suburban]

Dave, you are doing one hell of an amazing job on that boat and trailer, excellent thread, keep it up. Thanks for the pics and desciptions and step by step posting. There isn't enough time to get the job done to begin with and when a person takes the extra time to put this on a forum is a lot of work, dedication and pride.

=D>

 

[DaveInGA]

How many if those fish elites were left? I really want one but dont want to wait until 9 to go if there were only a few left.

At the time I bought mine, about 2/3rds of a box/case.

 

[DaveInGA]

Dave, you are doing one hell of an amazing job on that boat and trailer, excellent thread, keep it up. Thanks for the pics and desciptions and step by step posting. There isn't enough time to get the job done to begin with and when a person takes the extra time to put this on a forum is a lot of work, dedication and pride.

=D>

Thank you for the compliment. It's been slower than usual, between work etc. I planned on picking up some more sand blasting nozzles today, but I was called into work and won't be able to pick them up until Monday. I'm probably going to make a trip to Northern tool to get some media with more bite on Monday along with picking up the nozzles and a face shield then.

Then hope is to finish sandblasting Tuesday if all goes well, order Ultimate bunks Tuesday night/afternoon. I'll Ospho Wednesday, let dry and paint Thursday. Pick up hardware Thursday afternoon and assemble Friday. My fingers are crossed. I really want to finish the trailer and get back to the boat, but everything, including the weather, isn't cooperating.

 

[Troutman3000]

Did you get the 480 or the 640? They didnt have any of the color ones when i called.

 

[DaveInGA]

Did you get the 480 or the 640? They didnt have any of the color ones when i called.

I bought the 640 online a while back. I got the 480 at Bass Pro on Black Friday.