Important Safety Message...Check your (lug) nuts

[dirtydeed]

I got a call yesterday from a very good friend of mine that had a slight issue with his brand new TSC purchased trailer. He put about 60 miles on it towing a blow up water slide from his GF's house. When he was slowing down to exit the highway, he heard something that just didn't sound right to him.

I met him in a retail parking lot with my landscape trailer...to trailer his trailer home.

Here's what we found...

This is a very new style of quick change wheel/tire assembly that maybe Nascar should be looking at. The trailer wouldn't slip onto the deck of my trailer without rubbing the fenders on the spring assist mounts on my gate frame. Fortunately, he had this "quick change" style wheel that we yanked off (no tools required) and the trailer slipped under the offending spring mount


He was able to locate a new hub assembly at another TSC up the road so I swapped it out and sent him on his way with properly torqued lug nuts. I also hit them with a paint pen so that he could easily tell if anything loosened up.

So, "mind those nuts" gentleman (and ladies, of course).

 

[Nicfin36]

Dang! I've never seen anything like that. He got lucky and has a good friend to boot.

 

[GreensvilleJay]

that's the best ( or worse ! ) picture for 'loose lug nuts'....
usually there's 12 1/2 pages of 'safety stuff' with everything today.....

gee, wonder if there was any grease IN the hub for the bearings ?? !!!

 

[North Idaho Wolfman]

That blow up water slide had to be doing all sorts of jumping and a bouncing!

 

[Kennyd4110]

Friends don't let friends buy trailers from TSC

 

[dirtydeed]

Friends don't let friends buy trailers from TSC

For sure, but I wasn't "consulted" before said purchase. He still had the sold TSC sticker on the gate!

This thing is a total piece of junk. I had thought about just installing new studs but then I saw the 1/4" w x 1/4" D channel in the hub cut by the rim. You can see it in the photo. That hub was close to be worn thru entirely!

jay- the hub was packed with fresh grease (only 60 miles).

This friend is a really good guy. Likely the best most knowledgeable carpenter/construction guy I've ever known. He teaches construction trades at Vo-tech. But he's murderous on machines/auto's.

 

[GrizBota]

Two things amazing here. That it got that bad before he noticed and that it got that bad.

I was out riding SxSs with some buddies last weekend. One guy (who pays others to work on his equipment, unless it’s a two bolt bolt on) was complaining of suspension noises up front. Well now, I looked at it and noticed the sway bar links were loose and the nuts were only finger tight. It was clunking very nicely. And he’d paid someone to do that for him. But he could not “believe” that it was loose because it hasn’t been properly tightened last time someone messed with it.

 

[lugbolt]

seen it many, many times.

Normally in our case it was due to a [former] tech not torquing the lugnuts properly, or not at all. They sent trailers to us in stacks of however many, up to 8 I think, the 7 top ones riding on the one bottom one, no wheels on 7 of them. Bottom one was pulled normally. So the techs had to unstack them and then put the wheels on. Often they'd hand tighten the nuts and roll it out of the way, then come back later with the fork lift and push the trailer (with loose nuts) into the shop to tighten them with a rattle gun. This was before cordless rattle guns became "normal". Well sometimes they'd forget a trailer, and it lasted, usually about 20-50 miles before the owner would call and throw a fit. Cost us a few axles, studs, and a lot more wheels than it should have. That tech went on down the road too.

people often say that if you want something done right you gotta do it yourself. I guess that's one reason my body is completely wore out, a lot of times I had to do the job of 4 people because they'd hire the cheapest flunkie's that they could find and expect them to "work". Then he quit hiring flunkies and hired "trained" techs. They weren't much better. Out of 167 (I think) people that came/went from that shop while I was there, 4 or 5 were worth anything. One is still there, but I don't know for how long.

 

[DustyRusty]

Friends don't let friends buy trailers from TSC

I have a small 5'x8' TS trailer that I bought a couple of years ago, and I haven't had one minute of problems with it. It is a lightweight trailer and that is exactly what I was looking for. The manufacturer is Carry On. Sure it isn't the best trailer on the market, but it gets the job done at a reasonable price. Not everyone needs or wants the most expensive trailer on the market. An improperly installed tire and wheel on a $10,000 state of art trailer will have the same failure.