What trailor maintance is needed

[johnboyy7]

After reading the thread about trailor conversions and rebuilds, I started wondering what trailor maintance do y'all do. What should ibe doing as far as keeping the brake system in working order? I rely pretty heavily on them working.

[jmo]

RE: What trailor maintance is needed

Do you have disk or drum brakes? For my trailer I periodically (twice a month) check and make sure the bearings have clean grease, check the tire pressure, and make sure the brake fluid is topped off. Only takes about 5 minutes to do these checks. Most of the time they are all fine, but last year I discovered that one of my brake lines inside the frame had rusted through because the fluid level would drop after one trip around the block. At the end of the season I double check the pads on my disk brakes, and cycle enough grease through the bearing to replace it all. I tow every weekend about 30 miles and then do one long trip in the Summer.

[bobchris]

RE: What trailor maintance is needed

that seems a little excessive but I guess before each outing you should check tire pressure and the fluid level for the brakes but if your pumping grease each time then it's going to make a mess on the back side of the hub and if it truely needs the grease then the seal is bad and/or bearing/race. But once a season for bearing adjustment and clean and repacking them with grease but if the seal are in good shape every other season is usually plenty. But if your using it a ton like jmo is then you have to step up the program and do it more often it all depends on the amount of use.

[thedude]

RE: What trailor maintance is needed

Check/replace trailer brake pads when needed in addition to what was said above...also check for lights that have burnt out. If you have the oil bath type bearings just check the sight glass to make sure there is oil in there.

[sodbuster88]

RE: What trailor maintance is needed

Agreed...oil bath bearings just need checked...the best way to go IMO. If you have bearing buddies or greased bearings, the best thing you can do is make sure there is no water or moisture in the bearing cavity. On a regular basis, just jack one wheel off the ground at a time and give it a good spin checking for excessive bearing noise. A bearing re-pack shouldn't be necessary unless you start to get water in the bearing on a regular basis and start to hear some noise....then repack a/s/a/p. If you are popping the bearing cap off, use some RTV to seal it up when you tap it back on to the hub. You can also give the wheel a good shake to insure it is snug with no play. My biggest concern on the trailer has always been tires.

Enough was said about the brakes above. A couple of other things to keep an eye on is the electrical and the emergency brake actuation mechanism (to deploy in the event of the trailer detaching).