Wrong Bearings

[trueblue]

I borrowed a mates camper trailer the other day, and on the way home stopped to pump up the tyres.

While doing that, I noticed that the tyres were very loose in the hubs. I checked the inside of the hub, and the inner seals were floating all over the place.

Thought to myself that the blown seal had let dirt in, and the bearings had collapsed. Never for a moment did I think it might be more sinister...

Brought it home, jacked it up and stripped it down. Much to my surprise, I found that the bearing cones were about 3mm oversized for the shaft. Rattled around like a b@stard!!!

Turns out, it was a ford hub, on a holden axle. Bearings are the same outside diameter for types of bearing cups in the hub, but the holden stub axle is smaller in diameter than the ford version.

$55 later, and a new set of bearings and seals and back in business safely.

This trailer is only a year old, and has only done a couple of hundred k's to local spots, in maybe 4 or 5 camping trips. My mate would never have noticed this problem in a million years till a wheel fell off and pulled his 4x4 into the path of a truck and killed him and his family!

HTF can a manufacturer of trailers get this so wrong???

The mind boggles

[Hamish73]

u sure no one has stuffed with it since it was made???
It's amazing there was no axle damage. It's even more amazing that it wasnt noticable when driving. At least its fixed now

[trueblue]

u sure no one has stuffed with it since it was made???
It's amazing there was no axle damage. It's even more amazing that it wasnt noticable when driving. At least its fixed now

Guaranteed, I know when he bought it, and when he has used it, and this fella doesn't use spanners for anything.

Absolutely no other possibility except that the manufacturer used the wrong bearings and slapped it together. Probably some pimply nosed kid that wasn't properly trained.

There was axle damage, but filed off it was still ok to fit the new bearings. If not noticed and corrected, it would have eventually ended up in a major wreck.

[thebloke]

I lost a wheel off a 5 month old boat trailer for the same reason
When I contacted the manufacturer and told them what happened I was called a liar and told they would never do that.
I only got it repaired after telling them I had been speaking to Consumer Affairs.

I put it down to the same reason, just slapped together by cheap, untrained labour