North Australian FISH FINDER forums

I know where your coming from Max. I replaced the bearings and seals on my trailer in early 2007 before I towed the boat to Karratha. I didn't worry about repacking them before I drove back at the end of November as they had only done about 7000km's at best. On the way home just south of Dunmarra I slowed down for a roadworks detour and noticed a mad camber on the drivers side wheel. I pulled up to inspect and noticed that the bearing cap was missing as well as the outside bearing had collapsed. I turned around and limped backed to Dunmarra Roadhouse and inspected the damage and luckily the axle wasn't damaged. The thing that sh@t me the most was that I checked the bearing temps every time that I pulled up, and that I carried spare bearings and grease but the hub cracked due to heat. Had to shoot back to the Hiway Inn and pull an old hub apart and fit the new bearings to the hub. The worst part was that I actually only done at most 7000km's and that I blew a tyre the day before that destroyed a mudgaurd and scratched the paint on a new tray and also blew another one just outside Tennetnt after fixing the hub, even though I was only doing about 95-100km/h due to the road temps. Put it down to experience and bad luck, even though it could have been worse if I didn't carry tools or the knowledge to repair the damage. Got too love traveling the outback.

Cheers
dicko

Good old COOPERS tyres a...... I was going to get a set for my last 4x4 but the dealer up here said that they don't offer there warrenty in the NT due to high road temps I know a few people from SA who run them and every trip they do up here (every 12 months for 5 weeks fishing) they blow tyres

As for you trailer bearing??? did you use the bearings that came with the hub??? I have seen a few that are no name china imports....not woth a knob of goat poo...... You need to get the good ones..Timken< SKF.....or similar IMHO.

Lucky you got it going again... plenty of people would have just sat there with no idea

As for the bearing 2rods they were all SKF as I went through the various trailer bearing packets on the shelf and looked for the quality ones not the Chinese cr.p they try to flog off. For the record the Coopers were just over three years old and had done over 60 000km. They were in pretty good nick till I start rock hopping and giving them a bit of a hard time on the dirt, if you can call it that. Everything is bl..dy rock over there, ask Matt. Before I left the tyres really should have been replaced but I thought I would be able to sneak one last trip in to avoid paying the adsorbent "Pilbara Prices" if I nursed them back home by travelling no faster than 100. Cost me more in the end as I had to buy two new cheap tyres and a second hand rim in Tennent Creek for $460.

Experience learned the hard way,

Dicko

Must have been just plain bad luck then dicko

I lived in Tom Price for 12 months a feew years back (10) so I know about them bl..dy rocks. I just found it strange that coopers didn't offer a warranty up here but did everywhere else That might have changed in the last 3 years too

Just a quick thought on those tyres I bought a brand new cruiser years ago when I live out at Point Stuart and put big fat Co...ps on it. Every other time I drove to town with a bit of weight in the back on I blew a tyre. Got rid of them within 6 months before I killed myself.

Good to see it was not just my mates then Grumpy.... Down right dangerous they are.