On the 10th of February I was going to get to work on putting on the new winch handle, hubs, tires, and jack stand. However, things did not go as planned. The next day the warm weather turned to snow and for the next three weeks the entire project was on hold waiting for the snow to clear and temperatures to rise again.
A huge let down and depressing because I need to move to a more prosperous area of the state and one of the things holding everything up was the unsafe condition of the trailer.
The Old Winch Handle
The New Winch HandleI did, however, quickly put on the new winch handle. A big improvement!
On Friday, March 2nd I finally had a chance shake off some serious cabin fever and get all the other work done. After one hour of good weather and two hours of rain the trailer was finally road safe.
A while back the folks at the iBoats.com forum told me that my tires were too old to be safe so I bought new ones and installed them on with the new hubs. The above wheel was over a decade old with splitting sidewalls. Not good.
It took some doing to get the old hubs off but I got it done.Jacking up the trailer was easy without using a jack. I lifted the trailer's tongue and raised the trailer over a jack stand near the tire then set the tongue back down. The stand acted as a pivot, raising the axle up.
The other tire was in the worse shape and finally went flat a couple of weeks ago. It would never have made a long trip down the highway, anyway. Too old and prone to air leaks.They say 10 years is the expiration date on ALL TIRES. Including cars. Check your date codes!
The old jack had to go. Unsightly and it really got in the way of my trying to hitch up the trailer. I hated to crank it, also.
Out with the old. The new one is much better.
It folds up under the tongue.At last, the trailer is safe for the road and I am ready to roll out of Saginaw, MI for good. Long over due.
I caught a cold from working in the rain but it felt good that this was finally done.