Prepping for the next trip.

WilliamA

I have been wanting to make a post for a bit now but I've got the bad weather blues. While I can't complain too much as I've gotten a lot done, it gets harder and harder to coax myself out of the house in my spacesuit (old nylon snowmobile suit) in the bitter cold. My fingers and joints swell up and get sore for days afterward. It's almost as if I were getting old....

The cold weather has had.me in the house poring over maps when I should be outside doing my trailer maintenance before the next outing. I have the bones of a trip assembled and need to start filling in some details. Then there's the mandatory maintenance to do. My trailer is fast approaching 50,000 miles so it's time to treat it to some fresh bearings and seals. I will be pulling both hubs and putting in fresh bearings and seals, cleaning and inspecting the brakes along with a good, proper adjustment of same, then do a thorough visual inspection of the frame for cracks, broken welds and trouble spots. The cold and salt play havoc with everything so the order of the day will be to tune up my caulking as well.

Left to my own devices, I get distracted with interesting modifications when I should be concentrating on detailing out the last round of upgrades. I will be switching gears for awhile and make a punch-list of necessary looky, checky, cleany stuff. To be fair to myself, my neurotic tendencies do a pretty good job of keeping me on basic maintenance, but like a retriever, it's sometimes easy to lose focus and wander off into some interesting modifications while ignoring the obvious maintenance bits I actually went out to do.

I DO have a couple of upgrades on the drawing board. I want to add a fold-down (up?) Countertop extension in the kitchen and that's a small affair so it will probably get done before I head out again. Then there's the 2 night camping to do so I can do a proper test of the new diesel furnace, but I can hook up and go do that on a moment's notice. The coming week is looking like there may be a bit of warm weather so I should go out today and get some wheel bearings and seals.

My timeline is to get out of town in mid to late March so all of these things are do-able without crowding, but it would be easy to get lazy and put things off. That's seldom a good way to go.

I'll post my punch-list when I get it written up and go from there...

WilliamA

WilliamA

I picked up a fresh set of wheel bearings and seals along with a fresh tub of grease so it's wheel bearing day today. I stuffed the trailer back into the shed so I can work in a dry space. I'm interested to remove the old bearings and have a really close look at them. Once they are washed, dried and inspected with a jewelers loupe, I'll make the decision to keep them for spares (greased, wrapped and bagged in ziplock) or pitch them. Then a major frame inspection needs doing. I'll be checking welds, fasteners and lighting. It will be a busy day today.

WilliamA

WilliamA

I got my wheel bearings put to bed today. I'd say the whole job took about 4 hours. I don't care much for the job because there's just no way to keep it from being a nasty, dirty, sloppy job. I used 2 rolls of paper towels keeping wiped off. I'm even more glad to have done it as the old bearings were showing their miles. I cleaned them up and had a good look and it was clear they'd been up and down the road a few times. I pitched all of them. No point is saving something I'd not put back in anyway. I'll pick up a new set for a spare.

Another good thing about the timing of the job is that I found what could be considered a pretty glaring failure. Have a look:

When I started cleaning up the caps I discovered that both of them had the rubber torn and mostly separated over the grease zerk area. Not good. That would have allowed mucho crap and water to infiltrate the hubs.

After many sessions of maintenance, they were starting to get a bit loose anyway. I had planned to peen the edge so they'd be tighter but after seeing the rubber deteriorated away, I jumped in the Jeep and ran to town for some new ones. These are much more solid, thicker and just better all round quality. I could have gotten the same exact covers that I took off with the rubber caps in them, but these will almost certainly be more rugged over the long haul. In addition, they were exactly the same price for either style. For some, the downside is that you cannot access the axle grease zerk without removing these. For me, It's no problem. I always remove the covers and adjust the bearings anytime I grease my hubs anyway.

Once I got the hubs all back in order and the wheels back on, I did a major brake adjustment followed by a minor adjustment of the handbrake turnbuckle. Everything is back together and I'm relieved to have it done. At least for 2 years, barring unforseen circumstances....

WilliamA