A little time ago my able assistant and I were heading
towards the local tip with the trailer well loaded. All was well and this was not the first time
we had made such a journey. Then, as we got near to our destination, I imagined
I could smell burning, and suddenly there was a terrific bang! I thought at first ‘engine trouble!’ -- but on stopping to inspect discovered the
tyre had been catching against the trailer side, got very hot and so burst! The solid axle had twisted to cause this to
happen and a major repair was needed.
So what could we
do? We could not leave the disabled
trailer here on a public road and it would be very expensive to get it removed.
Our first task was to empty the trailer. We loaded the contents into the car
and took them the short distance to the Tip.
It then took more than
two hours to get the empty trailer back home. This including picking up the
spare wheel, freeing the jammed wheel hub and lots of ingenuity to keep the
axle in approximately the right position so it could be towed. We had to keep
stopping to realign the axle and I/we really thought the mission was
impossible! But finally, by some miracle, we got the trailer home and into the
back yard. Here it rested for two months or more and the axle was taken to a
local garage for some patching together,
Then recently, after
lunch, we tried again to fix up our old friend. We added bolts to the axle to
help keep the patched welding together. Also we ran a piece of angle iron from
the axle to a wooden block to stabilizer
the angle and stop axle movement.
“Why don’t you just
buy a new trailer’ people have asked me. Well” I said “I like this trailer it’s
been with me for so long and while I have had 3 or 4 different cars --- ‘Now I decided to go to Lidle and take the trailer,
empty, for a trial run.
I get onto that twisty lane near the church, there is sudden
scraping noise and I notice a small wheel overtaking me on my LHS, running in
the grass and foliage at the side of the road! I realise that the nuts on the wheel
hub were not tight and so the wheel had come off! At first I thought our under
carriage repair had failed - so it could be worse.
So think I “ it’s poss. to borrow 2 nuts from the wheel still in place to fix back the wheel now in the hedge. I ring DMB who comes along with the correct wheel wrench. On Dorrette's arrival she manoeuvred the wheel in position while I lifted the trailer up. We went home and wheeled the trailer to it’s parking spot.
So think I “ it’s poss. to borrow 2 nuts from the wheel still in place to fix back the wheel now in the hedge. I ring DMB who comes along with the correct wheel wrench. On Dorrette's arrival she manoeuvred the wheel in position while I lifted the trailer up. We went home and wheeled the trailer to it’s parking spot.
