We received a phone call recently from a young man who mentioned he needed a basic brake and bearing service on his jet ski trailer.  This is nothing out of the ordinary for us as mechanical caravan and trailer servicing is one of our core services.

Our Customer mentioned his trailer hadn’t been maintained for some time but should be okay because it had barely been used.

We attended onsite the trailer’s location in Barragup (just outside of Mandurah) and to our surprise, the wheel was being held to the axle via what resembled a clothing coat hanger!!  Talk about improvisation on the owner’s part!!  We do not recommend this type of ‘make-do’ as an option, ever.

 

 

Because the trailer hadn’t been serviced regularly, the bearings had overheated and ceased onto the axle causing the bearing race to disintegrate.  The wheel and hub were spinning directly on the axle and had worn away the retaining nut thread.  For those of you less mechanically minded, this basically means the trailer was CACTUS and in no state for the road!

You know you’ve been there yourself.  We all have.  You know you need to get it done, but no one will know if you put it off another few months or even a year.  Save a few pennies.  It can’t hurt right?  WRONG.  Not having your trailer or caravan serviced yearly or every 10,000kms can cause expensive damage to your asset or even worse, can put your safety and the safety of other drivers on the road, at serious risk.

What could have been a simple service, ended up being quite a job and an additional expense for the owner because he left it too long and had attempted some works himself.  We had no choice but to replace the axle, two new hubs and install new bearings throughout.  And while we did whatever we could to take care of our Customer and his trailer, had we not gone out there, things could have got dangerous!

 

 

Despite the extra expense, the trailer is now good as new and ready to rumble for the upcoming boating season and luckily no one was injured or killed!  The owner has told us that he will be in touch BEFORE next year’s boating season to have his trailer serviced again.  Lesson well learned he said.

A HUGE thank you to this Customer for trusting us to repair his trailer and for allowing us to use his story to educate other trailer owners out there.  If you have been putting off getting your trailer or caravan serviced, then call us today.  We look forward to ensuring the safety and comfort of your caravan or trailer so you can focus on getting the most from your adventures.