wingless' Performance Trailer Upgrade

[wingless]

My old Performance Trailer small boat dinghy trailer was purchased in poor condition and only used for slow speed around town projects. This is a small boat trailer, but I've set the carpeted wooden bunks flat so I can safely carry full sheets of plywood home using ratchet straps. I can also carry big stuff like furniture. Who needs a pickup truck?

 

The hubs / wheel bearings were not great. The tire rubber was old w/ age cracks.

 

It was recently decided to upgrade this to permit normal / safe operation at highway speeds and to not worry about this failing during usage.

 

Years ago I removed the welded 1-7/8" coupler, changing it to a bolted Curt 25470 2" coupler. I really like the simplicity of this new coupler. It does not have the rotating, latching lever to grab the ball and instead has a special size clevis pin that grabs the ball when inserted, retained by a clevis pin clip. The old coupler welds were ground off, the trailer metal cleaned up, then matching full diameter holes drilled for hardened new coupler attachment bolts / hardware.

 

It has always been impossible to remove the wheels, as the hub studs would rotate instead of the lug nuts loosening, even w/ thread lube applied. 

 

The wheels / tires were replaced w/ new assemblies. The hubs were replaced w/ new assemblies. The included hub caps were not used, instead the Bearing Buddy pressurized caps were used. The wheel bearings / hubs were greased w/ AtomLube Ultra Heavy Duty Waterproof Red Grease.

 

The new wheel / tire assemblies are very nice. The steel wheels have a decent galvanize coating. The tires are spec'd for 90 psi.

 

The new hub assemblies are provided w/ two sizes of bearings and seals, to permit usage in both configurations / applications. I was unable to get a lug nut torque wrench setting where it would click, so I just hand tightened the lug nuts by feel. For some reason the hub set set included four end caps and eight pop on/off seals, not just the required two each. I didn't use any of those hub caps because I instead used the Bearing Buddy.

 

The Bearing Buddy end caps were installed onto these new hubs. These are great devices, w/ an internal spring loaded disc to pressurize the hub grease. During installation I first hand packed the new wheel bearings, then mostly filled the void between the spindle and hub, prior to adding the second bearing and Bearing Buddy. It was "easy" enough to carefully add the correct amount of grease. I would spin the hub while adding grease to help prevent blowing out the rear seal. There were not any issues.

 

A nice dual wheel tongue jack was added. I didn't want difficulty when rolling over uneven ground and was tired of lifting the tongue by hand while moving. It was bolted on at the minimum tongue height configuration and JUST works on my Macan SUV.

 

The trailer already had decent lights, but I rewired it so it would always function properly.