So if you are looking at a trailer sailor that is not nearby, it is usually pretty easy to get wheel/tire info beforehand so you can purchase & carry new ones with you. But what about bearings? How do you know what to take? Most sellers seem clueless. The axle weight limit MIGHT be available. Waiting until you get there seems like it is looking for trouble, especially if you & the boat are several hundred miles away. Asking for a friend...
Ziradog, WOW!! What an Optimist, YOU are!! ;D
Quote from: Ziradog on Jun 23, 2025, 08:20 PMit is usually pretty easy to get wheel/tire info beforehand so you can purchase & carry new ones with you
Really? ???
4 lugs, 5 lugs, or 6 lugs? ???
4.5" lug spacing patterns or 4.75" lug spacing patterns? ???
What speed range? L? M? N? ???
What load range? B? C? D? ???
Get a new tire with the wrong combination of letters, and you can easily overload the tire AND exceed it's rated highway speed. :(
And without getting the entire rig weighed on a scale, you are doing very little more than whistling in the dark.
If you KNOW what the weight is, THEN you can figure out what load range to get.
If you KNOW what speeds you are going to travel at (slow rural roads, or high-speed interstates?) THEN you can decide what speed range you need to purchase.
After all, you have no way of knowing if the trailer size/numbers being given to you are in fact, the right ones for the rig.
A tire might be wildly overloaded with the seller having no idea that is.
Weight slip is everything, My Man.
Quote from: Ziradog on Jun 23, 2025, 08:20 PMBut what about bearings? How do you know what to take? Most sellers seem clueless. The axle weight limit MIGHT be available.
Bearings are very similar.
To be sure, they are far better than in Ye Olde Dayes, when different manufacturers had different ways to measure bearings.
Nowadays though, you can walk into a well-stocked trailer store and ask for trailer bearings for a 3500 lb axle and the counter guy will immediately know that you need L44643 inner/outer bearings and L44610 inner/outer races and 204507 seals and it won't even matter if the bearings are made by Dexter, Timken, DTK or whoever.
Should work the same for a 2000 lb axle, right? ???
Uhh . . . . . . . . no. :P
Some 2000 lb axles use a 1" spindle and some 2000 lb axles use a 1 1/16" spindle.
Everybody has an opinion, but a caliper dial always reads in black and white.
Asking a potentially "clueless seller" to measure the axle with a tape measure, is probably beyond them.
Even if they did remove the hub dust cap, remove the cotter pin and nut and measure across the front of the axle face, how accurately do you think they are going to
be able measure it? ???
Nope. Trust your own Mark I eyeballs on a dial caliper, or nothing.
Your best chance (and it's a very small chance, indeed) would be if the seller can find a number on the edge of the bearing, when they pop the dust caps off, remove the cotter pin, the nut and the washer and wipe off all the grease.
Hope this helps,
Charles Brennan