I have just put new tyres on my wheels getting ready for a 600 mile trip in a coupla weeks. We don't have dedicated trailer wheels here and use light truck tyres on trailers. The tyres I have put on are a higher profile slightly wider and I have just realized are rubbing on the guards (actually, only on the left hand side). Panicking now as I have very little time to mess around before we go away....
I think cutting away some glass and mounting them on top of the beam rather than under it, might be putting the guards to close to the boat
Maybe just put an bit of aluminium strip along on the inner side of the mudguard bolts which should angle the guard up enough to keep it away from the tyre..
Has anyone else had to fix this issue - or is there a better way I'm not seeing?
I have same problem for same reason.
My temporary fix was to wedge the lower mounts of the guards away from the I beam mounting points (piece of wood) then tighten the lower bolts again forcing the guards up on an angle a bit. (ps use tefgel on the bolts if you do this - I saw some corrosion). Yes one side is worse than the other as well. I have travelled to / from Melbourne to the Gippsland lakes like this with no issue. Yes some slight rubbing but the tyres will die for other reasons (age) before this will be a problem. I have considered spacing the axle off the I beam a bit - this will require the middle bunks to also be spaced. I also have considered reseting the trailing arm on the axle spline to raise the entire trailer a bit. I guess I will try harder to get the correct tyre size next time round.
Edit: I think the latter is the best option. Raising the guards does not stop the problem of the tyre forcing the guard into the hull on a bad bump.
Take your wheel off, remove bolt that clamps your torsion arm to the splined torque shaft. before you remove arm scribe its current position or mark with nail polish,then pull off torsion arm and reclock downward, each spline will raise your fender about a quarter inch, so try going about 4-5 splines first and don't exceed moving more than 8-10 as it will affect your suspension smoothness negatively.
Jimbo,
Yep, I was going to put a wedge in there to angle the guards up a bit, but on some roads, think it will still end up hitting the guards often and I'm not sure how long the tyres are gunna last. I only drove around the block with it as is and was surprised at the amount of tyre rubber stuck on the inside of my fender..
Ray, thanks, I have never played with torsion bar suspension before, and hadn't thought of trying to adjust that. Looks easy enough, but just want to make sure Iv got this right. All I need do is loosen the bolt I'm holding below, which will allow me to pull the arm off and put it back on 4 or 5 splines downwards? Is there anything else other than what you said to look out for or is it that simple?
jimbo wrote: I have considered spacing the axle off the I beam a bit - this will require the middle bunks to also be spaced.
I would not add a spacer to the axle. There are other things that would be affected.
The torsion bar idea might be a good idea. I'd make sure to torque them correctly.
I like the shim idea. Simple enough.
Or can you take the fenders off totally. When I added a second axle, I hade to remove the old fenders. I broke the Fiberglas fenders off getting them off. Replaced with nice aluminum fenders.
I attached it with some angle iron. Perhaps you could do that also.
Yes, that's the bolt. soak it with some wd40, clean it well, wheel bearing grease splines a little on reassembly, try only 4-5 splines first, if not enough go 8-10 but not much more and check all brake line are in clear and free to move on re-assembly, all very simple but dirty....
Looks very flash Russ but I don't have the time to sort out new fenders,
Thanks for that Ray, The bolt came out easy (in fact I expected it to be tighter than it was..) but an hour of banging and prying this way and that combined with half a can of WD40, and I just cant get the arm to move. Maybe needs some heat...?... This does look like the best option though and I will have another go when I get back, but I don't have time to mess around any more. We are doing a bit of a sea trial this weekend as I haven't used the boat since January and have added new bits and pieces and changed stuff. In a few weeks we are off on our trip. Have jammed a thin piece of ply under the lower bolts as Jimbo has, and this pushes the guard up almost to the boat. Looks a bit silly but it looks like it will do the trick until I get back..
I would get a small chisel or wedge and pound into slot where the clamping effect takes place. pounding in a chisel will separate the splines outward, and should break any corrosion bond that has taken place.this is why I put plenty of axle grease on splines before reassembly.
And fully remove bolt as there is a locking groove cut into the torque shaft that the clamping bolt sets in also making it a locking bolt so the torsion arm cant slide off. so make sure you completely remove that big bolt.
probably but I havn't got one and I'v run out of time... I got some fancy spray can stuff from work that is supposed to get anything unseized. Used about half a can of that and wacked it to he point I was worried about doing some damage, but she still wouldn't move....
I'm giving up for now. Taking the boat out this weekend....
after 10-20 years of fixing stuff you'll develop an eye for predicting future trouble areas be it from corrosion, wear, age. It's always much easier to fix these things on your schedule in dec, jan, feb, in a warm garage with coffe and a donut then at the last minute before a big trip.any of the corrosion busters should work after 3-4 days of soaking. start fresh after a nice weekend on the water. watch your fenders close on your tow, right after smoking very heavily they will burst right into flames and you cant put it out with out huge amounts of water. can be bad on you boat to say the least..
