1997 Ski Nautique trailer bearings

[spenclo123]

I bought a '97 Ski Nautique last September with 597 hours and is in great condition. I just got it out of storage for the upcoming season and thought I would replace the trailer bearings since I'm not sure when they were last replaced. Can anyone give me any ideas or tips on replacing them and where I should go to find the correct sizes before ordering them. The trailer appears to be the stock Correct Craft trailer. I've posted a photo of the hub and trailer to this post. Thanks

[SilentSeven]

Nice! I have that exact same boat....! That one looks well loved! It's amazing to ski behind...you are going to love it!

I'm sure this is well covered in archives and you can dig deeper but here's a few staring points. Also, I'm going to assume you have hydraulic surge brakes on the trailer which are typical from this era.

- try to ID the manufacturer of the trailer. To the best of my knowledge, there is no one trailer for these boats. The local dealer had some say in what manufacturer they preferred and specified that unit. Understanding the manufacturer will help ID the parts. For example, my trailer is made by DHM and they are no longer in business.

- trailer axles and the associated hub and brake parts are best ID'ed if you just remove what you have and use those part numbers. Seals and bearing will both have standard numbers on them and you can then go online or to the local parts store and just have them cross that number and get the right parts for you.

- do you have the maintenance history of the trailer? How far do you plan to tow (local....10's of miles or some distance...100's of miles)? To really go through everything, you probably want to do the following: a) pull the wheels and brake drums off and replace the inner wheel seal. b) with the brake drums off, carefully inspect wheel cylinder and shoes. Replace anything that looks rusty or doesn't work correctly on brake actuation. c) flush the brake fluid. Easy while the brake drums are off. d) inspect the inner and outer bearing and races looking for wear. Replace as necessary. e) repack with quality marine grease f) replace hub and correctly adjust tension on wheel nut g) doing final bump up of your bearing buddies g) adjust the star adjusters on the brakes for correct operation.

Judging by the picture of the wheel, looks like the PO was pretty on it. But you don't really know unless you have records or been through each wheel.

In general, pay attention to your brakes. With a little regular maintenance, they work great. No maintenance, not your friend. The PO of my boat didn't do much for the trailer so i had to R&R pretty much everything. My trailer is a double axle so it was 2x the work. :/ I got motivated when I had a side of road failure when a brake shoe came of the backing plate and wedged in the wheel locking up that one wheel. Pretty much decided at that point to go through everything so I knew what I had and then put everything on a regular maintenance schedule. No problems since then.

Cheers!

Jeff