A couple of recent developments

Just lately I had occasion to buy a new trailer. While in the past I have favoured Snipe trailers, this time I decided to buy a custom built trailer from the builder of my motor dinghy.

Bearings

When I went to collect it I asked what sort of grease was packed into the bearings. I was told that the bearings were completely sealed and required no attention. in fact there were no grease nipples on the hubs. This sounded like very good news.

These new bearings are made and fitted by the manufacturer of the rubber suspension units; a German firm called AL-KO Kober. Their British address is AL-KO Kober Ltd. GB-Consett, County Durham. I will report any troubles in a future Bulletin, although if anyone already has any experience of them, good or bad, we would all like to hear.

Because the hubs get quite warm on the journey, the cold water on launching causes a contraction of the air in the hub which sucks water into the bearings. To prevent this I normally use a grease gun to top up the hubs just before launching. The trouble with doing this at a marina or sailing club is that the grease which squirts out of the bearing has to be cleaned up in case it causes a nuisance. The excess grease also tends to fly out of the hub during the journey and plasters the bilges of the boat. All in all I would be glad to get rid of this messy chore. I should add however that since I started this routine using Aqualube grease I have never had a bearing failure although I no longer strip and clean the hubs each year.

Safety Strap

It is now a EU regulation that trailers should be supplied with a supplementary attachment between trailer and vehicle in case the ball joint comes uncoupled. Most of us use a length of chain or strong cable but have to make it long enough to reach a suitable attachment point on the car.

My new trailer has a very simple system consisting of a loop of heavy wire rope, connected into a circle by a Talurit type splice. It is retained under the front end support of the trailer and thrown back behind the hitch when not needed. After the trailer is hitched on the wire loop is dropped forward over the neck of the ball joint; simple and quick and impossible to lose.