Equipment failures and getting home on a flat bed tow truck

[Ronnie]

Well, I will start by stating that I had a great weekend on the water with family and friends at the Modesto Reservoir (about 100 miles from my home). This despite:
1. A late start caused by a dead battery in one of my wave runners (no pic).

2. Breaking the stern ladder before I launched the boat.

3. Noticing a small hole in the mooring cover when I got there (no pic, the damage was so small the camera couldn't pick it up).
4. Which turned into a much bigger set of holes on the way home.





5. Almost forgot to mention that the cloth on the lower swim deck handle stated to tear on day one and completely failed by the end of it (no pic but not much to see anyway).

6. The 2.5 hour ride back took closer to 6 hours because one of the trailer's two brake calipers broke free and was spinning freely on the rotor which caused immediate and severe vibration on the freeway. This is hard to see in the pics but normally the caliper doesn't sit at the bottom of the rim.



7. Finally, The brake problem caused me to call trailer boat u.s. (Aka tow boat u.s.) who put the boat and trailer on a flat bed to get it back to my house around 30 miles away. There were more than a few overpasses on the way home that left me holding my breath as the tower tow point seemed to get very, very close to them.
The driver, Steve, almost ended our conversation with, "That will be $375" but after I mentioned trailer boat u.s. Said it was completely covered he confirmed it with his dispatcher and I gave him all the cash I had left in my wallet, a whopping $20. Like I told him, if I had more (up to $375) it would be in his pocket. Getting the boat on the trailer and towing it 30 miles in traffic looked like hard work involving a lot of stress. Notice in the first tow truck pic that the left wheels were on top of not within the trailer bed rail, it sat like that the entire time. My heart would skip a beat at every turn or bump in the road (my son and I follow the to truck home in our tow vehicle).



Ok, time to go put everything away before searching for a shop that to fix the brakes. My guess is that this will cost at least $500 to address (need at least one new rotor, possibly a caliper and brake pads, if I replace one rotor I will replaced them both).

 

[Bill D]

I would have been holding my breath the whole time the boat was riding on the back of that truck!

Glad everything worked out and you all had a good weekend.

 

[Bruce]

If a caliper, pads or rotor needs to be replaced I would replace both sides so that they are matched. The parts are reasonably priced but I imagine that labor rates are pretty high in your area.

Do you have a lot of corrosion on your suspension and axles? I am wondering why that caliper came loose.

Is your boat under warranty? Would that extend to the trailer?

 

[ar240owner]

Wow !!! That's a bad day !!!! Suck !!!

 

[bronze_10]

Adventures in boating... or should I say in boat TOWING! Glad it's home.

 

[smthng]

I think that cover is done. :S

Also... hate to say it, but when you replace that caliper, I'd get new tires on there too... that's a fair amount of sidewall cracking, which usually means the rubber's at the end of it's usable life. That reminds me, I need to get some tire covers...

 

[rkluck]

Wow what a day! Glad you made it back safe. I was also wondering about the tires and the dry rot. I plane to replace mine shortly because they look this way. I thought it was unsafe. It sucks that I have too since a don't hardly ever use the trailer but the tires that came with the trailer are not good.

 

[Murf'n'surf]

Sorry you had those troubles but you had a great plan for days like this. As the others stated -- you need new tires or you'll be in the same boat soon.

 

[Julian]

Wow....that boat is up there on that trailer.....would have sucked to hit an overpass....that would have put a seriously bad end on a painful trip! Glad you got her home in more or less one piece!

 

[Englewoodcowboy]

Sounds to me like the 4 bolts that hold the caliper bracket fell out or sheared off. I would check them for sure and replace, using locket etc.. It sucks about your cover as well... BOAT is a clever acronym...

 

[Ronnie]

So I pulled the ladder and broken handle today. I also put the new mooring cover on that I bought from jet boat pilot a few months ago. It looks great but the repositioned ratchets caused me to move my guide posts back a few inches.

I went to two shops neither of which work on boat trailers but I did get a referral to a possible boat trailer repair shop nearby. Finally I got on creeper to see what I was dealing with where the brakes are concerned. It looks like the bolts that hold the caliper in place backed out or broke off. The metal hydraulic line between the calipers also broke. I will probably pull the tire to get the caliper out of there before I take it to the shop for a full brake refurb.

I wasn't even thinking about the tires since two are barely two seasons old and the other two just finished their third season. Funny my tires get very little direct sunlight on the sidewalls.

 

[HidnNOS]

Ronnie, bring it to me, I will have/pay my techs/friends to do the repair on a weekend, you will only pay wholesale "cost" for parts, if you want. You know where I work as you helped me there long ago with your old boat. What goes around comes around, least I can do for your help back then. Sorry for your day

 

[Ronnie]

Ronnie, bring it to me, I will have/pay my techs/friends to do the repair on a weekend, you will only pay wholesale "cost" for parts, if you want. You know where I work as you helped me there long ago with your old boat. What goes around comes around, least I can do for your help back then. Sorry for your day

Thanks for the offer @HidnNOS , that is very generous of you. I'm reluctant to tow the rig very far without brakes though, so i need a few days to investigate my local options. If I end up coming out your way I will give you plenty of notice so we can plan accordingly but please allow me to cover all the costs. The work that I did for you I consider warranty / rework and since I did it there were no out of pocket costs. I can't ask you to cover the labor of someone else on this. No apology necessary either, it wasn't your fault. I try to think Of it as just another one of those lessons learned days and I'm glad to have had the experience.

FYI - My son who is 12 years old right now stuck it out with me through the entire ordeal, I feel privileged to see how well he handled the situation. By the way, We didn't suffer alone on the side of the road while we waited for the tow truck. My wife and sister inlaw who were towing pwcs with another vehicle waited with us until the tow truck showed up and we all ate dinner before taking quick power naps in our vehicles. Yeah, it could have been a lot worse.

My current plan, if I don't fix it myself with some help from my neighbor (a retired post office mechanic) Is to pull the tire to remove the loose caliper before towing it to a local shop with the surge brake lockout key in place. I'm 0 for 2 right now on finding a shop that will work on boat trailer brakes though (one is a brake and tire place the other a mobile trailer / tractor trailer shop). I now recall having a big o tires work on my boat trailer brakes years ago so I may give them a call on this but also remember that not all big O tires offered this service.

Funny, until this happend I would never have thought I needed to maintain / check and tighten the caliper mounting bolts. I just assumed that the only things I need to maintain are the pads, rotors and bearings. I've had the boat for three full seasons now, I think, and estimate that I put less than 4,000 miles on the boat's trailer per year (not sure what the first owner put on it in two years but doubt it was much). If anyone is in a similar situation and haven't already checked that the bolts holding the calipers in place are secure I would recommend doing so before your next outing. Hopefully, you have already identified a shop that will work on your trailer.

 

[HidnNOS]

Once again, sounds like you turned a potentially bad day into the best it could have been, with your son/family. If I can help, don't hesitate to ask

 

[rkluck]

There are several places here that sell trailers and will make trailers to whatever spec you want. Most of these will also repair a trailer but don't advertise the that.

 

[Ronnie]

No trailer manufactures around here but I was able to find a shop willing to work on it. I have to wait until Monday to bring it in but that is ok. Thankfully it's close and based on the pics the shop owner said it should be simple and "inexpensive" job. Oh, I also got rejected by the uhaul place they originally referred me to if I wanted it repaired closer to home.

Here are a few more pics of the ladder and the caliper that broke loose. The threads in the mounting holes of the caliper are intact which makes me think the mounting bolts just vibrated loose.





I ordered two new boarding straps/handles. They were $13 each, two because shipping was $11 whether I ordered one or more.

I also started the warranty / repair process with wind line. Even if I have to pay to get the ladder fixed it should be a lot cheaper than buying a new one. Incidentally, Yamaha sports plaza sells them for around $250 whereas wind line's price is $160.

I have determined that the two tires that I bought from the guy tow boat us/ trailer boat us sent out to help me last year (when I got two flats on the same day) are the ones that are rotting. Turns out they are over 12 years old. Whereas my other two tires are just two years old. I'm not sure yet if I will be buying just two new tires or four/five of them (including the spare) but that can wait until I have the brakes fixed.

Lastly, I came home yesterday to find a written warning on the boat. I have three days to move it off the street in front of my house, too bad I needed four as of yesterday. My gutless neighbor at "work" once again. He or she claimed it had been parked there for over a week. It's been four days as of last night so I guess he or she was just rounding generously.

Once again, this has been quite an experience and a rude reminder that, "experience is what I get, when I don't get what I want."

 

[njmr2fan]

Windine is great. I had spoken to them regarding my ladder and the agent reminded me that if Anything at anytime goes wrong with my ladder they will repair it. She then said, we've repaired a lot of ladders that were left out and driven around with. Maybe they'll just ask for yours back and send you a new one. Here's hoping everything works out well for you.

 

[Ronnie]

Wind line has already replaced this ladder once at their cost, I caused the damage to that one as well (although it wasn't visible too me). So if they come back this time around and plan to charge me to repair or replace it I'd understand. I just sent in the requested pics and expect to hear back from them soon.

I'm just trying to get the trailer road worthy ASAP so I can enjoy the boat a little more before the end of September during which I will be off work for three weeks. At the same time I'm starting to get sick of this (the warning for parking in the street may just be the tipping point for me) and am considering letting my brother buy in or just gift him in so that I could keep the boat at his house, have him maintain it and use it whenever I don't want to. I could just as easily focus my free time on other activities and hobbies like corvette clubs and quad copters.

 

[msavold]

For God's sake, it's a boat - and a very nice one at that, not some beat up old rust bucket or manure truck.
Can you move the trailer a bit (brakes or no brakes)? Like, to, oh, say, RIGHT IN FRONT OF THEIR HOUSE?
Then it wouldn't be "continuous" parking, would it? (And, of course, I'd photograph with date stamp where it was and where it is just in case!)

Why does every neighborhood seem to have to have one like that?

(Good luck with the brakes, BTW. It sure seems like the bolts backed out - checking mine this week end!)

 

[Murf'n'surf]

What does the note on the back say?