Flat tire on haul-out today . . .

[tpenfield]

As I was pulling the boat out for the season today, I noticed the port side front tire on the trailer was flat. Since the trailer is tri-axle, I limped the rig home at about 20 mph. (not far)
.

.
I put the spare on . . . and in doing so, I realized that I need to get some better (more powerful) jacks. I was lifting about half the load (so 6K lbs out of 12K), but I did not want to max-out the main jack. Probably will look for a couple of 4 ton jacks just to have.

Anyway, I swapped out the flat with the spare and checked the original tire for leaks, etc. (soapy water, etc), but did not see any bubbles. I am going to let the tire sit overnight to see if it looses pressure overnight. Not sure what happened . . . as I checked the pressure on all tires yesterday (60 psi).

 

[mike_i]

Did you spray the soapy water on the valve stem too? I had a very slow leak that took a couple of weeks before I saw the tire was low. It turned out to be a very very slow leak from the valve stem.

 

[tphoyt]

I would taken that as a sign to put her back in the water.

 

[airshot]

Even with nails and screws, when you move them, they start leaking....
With all the crap on the road today, surprised we don't have more flats !

 

[tpenfield]

Yes, I'll have another go at it to see if I can find out what is going on. I was not wanting to do the sharp turn down my road with only 2 of 3 wheels. So, I pulled in forward to assess the tire situation.

Tomorrow will be all about turning the trailer around to be backed into the driveway as it does normally.

 

[drewm3i]

I would taken that as a sign to put her back in the water.

This is the answer.

 

[Lou C]

We had a valve stem on the spare tire of our sons Jeep Wrangler dry rot from being in the sun & it only leaked when you wiggled it.

 

[tphoyt]

Yep been there a few times.

 

[tpenfield]

Well, the tire has not lost any pressure in the past 4 hours. Im going the check the pressure tomorrow.

 

[dingbat]

A friend gave one of these to my wife for her horse trailer.
I was skeptical, but it works like a charm
Rated to #15K

 

[flashback]

Looks like you'll be needing some bottom paint, sure is clean though.

 

[airshot]

As long as your going slow, you should have no issues with running on 2 of 3 wheels. No highway speeds, but keeping it under 20 should not cause a problem. When I worked at a marina, we often saw people moving boats on trailers with less than the required number of wheels and never an issue but they took it easy. If your really concerned, move the center wheel forward for better weight balance. For sharp turns, leave as is, or move rear tire forward. Nice looking boat !

 

[Scott Danforth]

Ted, maybe get a few 8 ton bottle jacks from harbor freight

 

[bruceb58]

As long as your going slow, you should have no issues with running on 2 of 3 wheels. No highway speeds, but keeping it under 20 should not cause a problem. When I worked at a marina, we often saw people moving boats on trailers with less than the required number of wheels and never an issue but they took it easy. If your really concerned, move the center wheel forward for better weight balance. For sharp turns, leave as is, or move rear tire forward. Nice looking boat !

Not a chance in hell would I do that. The other 2 tires are likely way overloaded and they will fail next.

 

[airshot]

Not a chance in hell would I do that. The other 2 tires are likely way overloaded and they will fail next.

That has been done numerous times when working at the marina, we are not talking about highway speeds, just a slow go to get to a repair place.

 

[bruceb58]

That has been done numerous times when working at the marina, we are not talking about highway speeds, just a slow go to get to a repair place.

He would be WAY better off just getting his tire fixed. He already has it jacked up.

Another reason I like doing things myself. Wouldn't let a marina touch my equipment.

 

[Jeff J]

I have had it happen 4 times. The first time was a failure on the boat ramp on a single axle trailer. The other 3 were on tandem axle trailers. The second one I had bought a boat sitting in a slip and the previous owner arranged the trailer. It had a low tire that wasn’t apparent until the boat was on it. I was able to air it up enough to get home. The third one was my fault. I grabbed a work trailer my first week on the job assuming it had been checked. One of the tires was totally shot and blew out half way up the ramp. I “borrowed” a tire from a different trailer. Number 4 got trashed on the ramp. The lake was low so I had to back in further than normal. The trailer fell off the bottom of the ramp and I bent the rim and fender getting it out. I called the city and told them what happened and they blocked off the wrong ramp.

Had a friend curb check a loaded boat trailer hard enough to destroy a tire and rim in town. We jacked it up and chained that axle to the frame to get it home. I also had a flat on an empty flatbed trailer. I wedged a piece of 2x4 in the spring to keep the hub off the ground to make a side trip to get the flat repaired.

Trailers are not registered here so it is generally a bad idea to let them sit unprotected anywhere. I had one stolen off the back if my truck while I was out fishing one day. The ball hitch was locked but the receiver pin was not.

 

[tpenfield]

The tire seems to be fine having driven flat the 1-2 miles back to my house @ 20 ish mph. Just doing the math . . .

> The tires are rated for 2800 lbs each. So, 5,600 vs. 8,400 with one tire out of action (of 3 tires).

> The axles are rated at 5,200 lbs each (2,600 lb/wheel) getting to the 15,600 GVWR.

> My boat & trailer come in at about 13,600 lbs or 4,533 per axle and 2,266 per tire. With 2 tires instead of 3 holding half the load, I get 3,400 per tire on that side. So, about 20% over the tire weight rating and 30% over the axle rating (one side only).

My house is at the end of a private road - dead end - no turn around. So, I usually back the rig down the road 600 ft. This time, not wanting to do the sharp backing turn on just 2 of 3 tires, I went in forward. Yesterday, I had to reverse the whole process, which was tons of fun . . . trailers never seem to back up the way they came in. I am getting better at it though . . .

In other news, the 'bad' tire has not lost any air A.F.A.I.C.T., still at the 50 psi that I inflated it to. . . So, I'll keep an eye on it as a spare. I figure there must have been something in the valve stem that caused a leak when/after I checked the pressure the prior day. Usually, I check the tire pressure just before launch/retrieval, but this time around it was an early trip to the ramp and I did not have time to check. Maybe I'll change my SOP to always check.

 

[alldodge]

Like mike_i mentioned in post 2, most likely it was the valve steam, either that or ya got some kid pranking

 

[tphoyt]

My wife caught kids letting air out of tires all the time in the employee parking lot. That and steeling valve caps. I once had a 3/8 lag bolt in my trailer tire that was buried to the head and obviously it was a perfect line drive. I always assumed someone set me up but it could have been one of those one in a million situations.