Explosive Blow-out and damage...

[Doug W]

We had an excellent day sailing yesterday! On the way home, we had a massive blowout less than 20 miles from home. It was 2am and raining so I was taking it easy and putting up the hill around 55 mph. The right tire blew shredding the fender and destroying both tire and rim. They were properly inflated. I checked all three prior to this trip out.

Glad I had a spare!!! Event better, I haven't found any hull damage! Someone was looking out for us. An 18 wheeler was passing us and the whole trailer lurched left right in front of him when it blew! It shook a LOT of construction dust loose inside the boat. The table and galley were covered with fiberglass dust!

My wife found threads about tire/rim replacements but what about a 2010 fender and fender running light? http://www.macgregor26x.com/forum/viewt ... 2e3aab8482

Anyone know where I go to get a right fender? Do I call the factory or can KH or BWY get them?!!


Cheers!
Doug More Info--> http://starsloop.blogspot.com/2010/05/e ... -edge.html

[c130king]

Doug,

Glad to hear there was no damage to Galactica. Hopefully you can get your trailer repaired with no problems.

Your trailer was pretty new wasn't it? How many miles you figure your tires had?

Cheers,
Jim
Sailing on König

[bubba]

Schoolhousesteve had a simular blowout about 2 weeks ago but he has the older steel trailer with metal finders and it only took out the tire and rim. The sun is the biggest problem rotting the tires too soon along with stuff on the road. I think I will buy the runflat tires soon or get a complete second axel. If your trailer is like our trailer the steel rims are getting rusty from salt water and need replacing with galvanized rims anyway.

[Chinook]

It's pictures and stories like this that motivated me to install a tandem axle. I've had two flats while towing at highway speeds, with the tandem axle setup. The first was on a freeway on the fringe of Miami. I did a mirror check and saw smoke/dust billowing out from the left side trailer fender area. The boat was still towing just fine, so I slowed down to 30 mph or so and rolled along until I could get to an offramp. The passing cars would roll down their windows and point excitedly at the tire, which was in advanced stages of shredding apart. I simply shrugged my shoulders and drove along to the offramp. The tire was a total loss, of course, but the boat, wheel and fender suffered no damage. The second flat occurred about 35 miles short of home. That time I removed the flat tire and slowly drove home on 3, since at the time I didn't have a spare. I now have a mounted spare, and figure I can deal with just about any situation.

[Doug W]

The trailer has a manufacture date of October, 2009. With Supersport towing it out from the factory and all the mileage I've put on it, I figure about 3000 miles. I'm glad I have a spare. I've been abnormally protective of the boat and with only a single axle, have closing monitored tire inflation. I was kicking up to 70 mph at times but now will probably stay slower all of the time.

I've been kicking around the idea of adding a tandem axle primarily because I've changed so many trailer tires on roadsides over the years. Cost and lack of mechanical skill has kept me from doing it so far. I still have the old boat trailer from my old speedboat and had even considered stealing the second axle from it but the size is different and it would not fit.

It was ironic, I removed the tie-down on the return trip yesterday because I noticed that it's rubbing into the blue gel coat and wanted to come up with some sort of padding to protect the boat. So this incident happened with no rear tie-down. ack!

I've noticed that a lot of mud from our gravel road splashes up on the boat even with the fender on. Now that I have to replace a fender, I'm starting to chew on an idea of extending a horizontal extension in front of and behind the fender to catch the additional mud and road debris.

Doug

[bubba]

It's pictures and stories like this that motivated me to install a tandem axle.

Where did you get your second axel?

[Boblee]

I was kicking up to 70 mph at times but now will probably stay slower all of the time.

IMHO no one should leave the standard tyres on if they are going to do more than travel short distances to the ramp or want to travel faster than 50mph, even with good tyres on I certainly wouldn't be travelling at 70 mph even on a good pavement and with bare boat.
If I had a three ton plus truck (I have) and a tandem axle (I haven't) I still wouldn't want to tow at 70mph, anything going wrong will mean disaster for the trip and possibly the boat I just don't need that sort of drama but then I am an old fuddy duddy and 50 mph suits me fine as I can see the country instead of worrying about the road conditions or idiots.

[Chinook]

I had Todd at Blue Water Yachts do the trailer mod. He installed the second axle and put on stainless steel disc brakes at the same time. He said that, when he adds a second axle, he repositions the original axle before adding the second. This is necessary to maintain the proper balance of the trailer. I have the stock steel trailer that came with the 26X. I agree about keeping speeds down, even with a tandem axle. With my Chev 3/4 ton duramax diesel pickup in tow mode, the shift point for high gear is 60 mph, and I generally run her up to 60, then drop back to 58 on most highways. I spend a lot of time checking rearview mirrors, and if the road is 2 lane and I start accumulating vehicles behind me, I look for a convenient turnout to let the traffic get past me. On Interstates, I'll go around 60, and only speed up if I'm in a heavily trafficed urban area where the only safe thing to do is drive the speed of traffic, which is usually not faster than 65.

[bubba]

Thanks Chinook. I will have Inspiration at BWY's, (Tod's) shop the second week of June for other work so I may see if he can add the trailer too and get 4 wheels on the ground. Do you think galvanized rims on the trailer are a good idea for salt water launches ?

[Chinook]

Anything you can do, within reason cost wise, is probably a good idea in getting the edge on rust. That said, the wheel rims are pretty easy to rinse thoroughly after a saltwater launch. I've launched many times in the saltchuck, but always do a freshwater rinse down right away. I've not experienced any rust problems with the rims. They seem to be painted well. I do think converting to stainless disc brakes is a good idea though. Drum brakes are very hard to completely rinse after a salt launch, whereas disc brakes are more external in configuration and easier to wash down.

[Catigale]

Im guessing you might have hit something in the road to cause that blowout. I doubt a tire would fail that early in life unless there was a defect.

I think there is a pretty big temp difference between 60 mph and 70 mph - the energy dissipated probably goes as V2, so thats something like 36% more heat at 70. I sure like how nicely my single axle trailers at 60 vs 70.

Has anyone sourced run flat tires which are also trailer configured (type ST)???

[Russ]

Has anyone sourced run flat tires which are also trailer configured (type ST)???

Good question. Do they even make RFs for trailers?

I had Run Flats on my van. I hated them. I went through 2 sets in under 40k miles. Not every repair shop can fix a "flat" in a run flat. They can be run for a while at low speed but need to be repaired. Oh yea, and they cost twice as much and ride stiffer because the sidewalls are thicker.
The other thing is you can't tell if they are flat without an air pressure monitor. My van has a dash light to tell me one is low.

Before I'd waste the money on RFs, I'd invest in a second axle.


--Russ

[Catigale]

Doug - back to your issue - in your right hand photo of the (presumably spare tire) on your trailer - that wheel looks funny to me, like it isnt mounted straight, or there is something wrong with the axle. It might be just the perspective of the picture that is fooling me.

[bscott]

When I converted my single to a tandem I installed the axle assembly on slider rails so I could position the axles precisely under the trailer for the best tongue weight. I can slide the trailer fore/aft on the slide rails if the weight in the boat changes--like adding a big HP OB or loading lots of gas cans in the stern.

Bob

[Québec 1]

I run Super Cargo tires on my trailer, which are range G, and just finished a 6 thousand kilometer trip with no problem at all. I checked the air everyday and had to adjust the pressure a little bit to keep a perfect amount of pressure in the tires for a smooth ride. I would not have gone that distance without them.

Q1