Dinghy trailer woes

[camelgas]

My youngest daughters sailing dinghy trailer is an hayling combi with the Indespension type damping being integral to the axle (rubbers inside box section, with trailing arm and stub axle).

It has comressed the rubbers to the point little damping is left, it is not obvious how/if it comes to bits !.

Will it come to bits and is it serviceable ?, or or do I have to make new mountings for independent bolt on units ?.

Cheers. J

[Nos4r2]

It's unlikely to come to bits and still go back together. Those axles are assembled using extreme cold and a press.

[camelgas]

It must have been assembled after the frame was made ! as axle is welded to trailer frame and the whole thing is galvanized.

Its looking like a welding and galvafroid job.

[9D280]

What flavour Is it (the dinghy) ?

As an example, have a look at Alba towing - they do some pretty lightweight suspension units (like 150 KG light) - you might be able to hacksaw off the old suspension arms and U-bolt a set of independent units on?

Also is it a Combi? Then you might be only looking at replacing half of it? - I have an awful old Snipe T- frame thing, It was great under my Laser, but when I got the 470 and got a launch trolley to match the pair of them(bizarrely the two boats had identical balance point to bow dimensions!) so one new launch trolley under the dinghy and a mast support bolted to the drawbar & job done..... except I've never been 100% happy with the way it sits. Probably just paranoia, but you know how if it don't look right..... but I digress, and it's happily done a fair few 1000 miles.....

But my point is you might get away with simply a new road base. (and if it wasn't a combi then the upgrade is well worth the £££

[camelgas]

Yes its a combi, I have bought a pair of 250 kg mounting plates to weld on to the frame, should be fine with a good dose of galvafroid as the road base will never go in the sea.

Its a wooden International Cadet dinghy, its been around a bit in its time, including the worlds several times.

Repairs are looking like sub £100 including new bearings all round and inner tubes, bank of Dad not broken this time. ;-)

One of our ex cadet juniors is now a ISAF top draw 470 man, the skills the cadet dinghy teaches the kids with its 3 sails are hard to beat.

[camelgas]

Made a start today, as no work and no rain for a change !.

After striping the wheels, mudgaurds and hubs off: I heated the arm of the pressed in unit until it was glowing and the plastic/rubber internal bits were smoking well.

Then using a big hammer beat the arm outwards away from the trailer/ axle, the arm came out fairly easily. A bent bit of wire cleaned the last of the melted gunk out, leaving a clean bit of box to weld the mounting plate to.

Bits just ordered from Trailer tek who seem to do reasonable quality stuff at a better price than fleabay non brand.

HTH someone else in the future.

[paintman]

I've had quite a bit of stuff from TrailerTek & no issues at all.

[camelgas]

Originally Posted by paintman

I've had quite a bit of stuff from TrailerTek & no issues at all.

Thanks, Thats good to hear.