Frequent Sea underway

Bob

Wish this years trip for Marie and you had been two months so we could have enjoyed that much more of your narrative. Hope you manage more Southeast Alaska trips. Would love to cross wakes with you two up there next year or sometime soon there after.

If you don't mind I would sure like to see this moved to the Grand Adventure Forum for the many of us that would like easier access to it in the future.

Jay
 
Bob,

Thanks for the excellent narrative. We looked forward to each report. We hope to have our TomCat in SE Alaska next summer. We retired in 2002. i was 56 and Dixie was 53. Give us a call or PM when you get close to Powell. We would love to have you and Marie stop by.

Brent and Dixie
 
Bob and Marie, great story, hope you travel safely as you head back to the lower 48! I know you'll miss that great boat, make sure the new owner knows about the Brats and will keep us posted on Frequent Sea's life!

The R-25 you passed there was "norbhat" who is doing the inside passage. Here's his latest post on Tugnuts.
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Inside Passage 2009
by norbhat on Sat Jun 27, 2009 1:24 pm

We are into Day 5 of a weather hold here in Prince Rupert, BC. No weather window yet in sight. Trip was spectacular until this set in. We're trying to take advantage, if you call it that, of the weather to do some routine (and not-so-routine) maintenance.

Hope all is well way down there.

Norb

Posts: 46
Joined: Mon Dec 22, 2008 5:14 pm
City: Lafayette
State/Province: CO
Ranger Model: R-25 Tug
Vessel Name: TWO IF BY SEA
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Charlie
 
Temps for your Lake Powell visit should be quite the opposite of Alaska -- supposed to be 105* today in Sin City - - but it is a dry heat!

I thoroughly enjoy your narratives and share them with my wife of 40 years -- someday!

Bill Uffelman
Las Vegas NV
 
Bill Uffelman":vbi3qwap said:
Temps for your Lake Powell visit should be quite the opposite of Alaska -- supposed to be 105* today in Sin City - - but it is a dry heat!
I thoroughly enjoy your narratives and share them with my wife of 40 years -- someday!

Bill Uffelman
Las Vegas NV
Click to expand...

Dry heat my A**. Any temp over about 90 in my book is HOT!! :evil:

It's about 78 here on the Bay, 77.5 with the wind chill factor!! :lol:

Charlie
 
We moved to Sin City in May 2004 when I changed jobs. We left behind the verdant foliage of Reston VA and Washington DC and the fair waters of the Chesapeake Bay (my wife hasn't forgiven me yet!) but I sure don't miss the 90*+ temps with humidity to match!

As I will be in Washington DC in two weeks traipsing around Capitol Hill with some of my members you can bet you will have a heat and humidity wave the likes of which haven't been see in years!

Stay cool

Bill Uffelman
HOT Vegas NV
 
Thanks for the great comments! We survived the Yellowhead Hwy--along with one logging truck passing us on a blind corner with his air horn blaring full force. We are just past Prince George and caught in rain.

As for the heat--that will be welcome. Over a month of "winter" in Florida temps, we are ready for summer--and the lower humidity of Powell--and then the higher humidity of Flordia--with 90 degrees, and a nice ocean breeze.
 
Maybe we'll spot you again on the way back down I-5! Those comments of Marie's about a "bigger boat" are intriguing, we will all be watching to see how that one turns out and the NEXT trip north!
 
On the Road again! We spent the time in Sequim cleaning the boat and gear--all to have it get dirty tonight in Pendleton Or, in a bit of a dust storm! You cannot win....Marie got her wish for "Warm". We should be at Powell in a few days.
 
Bring back the water! First in a Pilot RV park, next night right next to the Bosie Airport, and now downtown Salt Lake City--$40 a night for an RV space! That is more than we have ever paid for a slip for "Frequent Sea".

I violated one of my rules and am paying for it! (Both Pain and otherwise).

I recommend carrying spare parts for the trailer hub. Since the trailer was new, and I never got the parts numbers off the bearings, I didn't have bearings or seals. About 18 miles S. Of Odgen Utah, an 18 wheeler, honked his horn and pointed to the trailer. I was right by a wide shoulder and got off the freeway. I check the bearings every 2 hours with an IR therometer, but I had been driving and we were trying to "beat" the Salt Lake Rush hour traffic.

The outer cap and grease seal was gone and the outer bearing had disenterigrated. Not sure what sequence of events occured to cause the problem, since I had re-greased the bearings in Sequim. All of the bearings were running cool and no problems, until then. The spindle was smoking and some minor damage to the outer surface. Hub had slight damage. I had to drive 5 miles to the nearest exit--found an "Earl Schwabe" and asked where I could find bearings. I was told that
Henderson parts was at the next exit back. So I went back five miles. It turned out that Henderson was 15 miles back, and the local trailer dealer had never seen disc brakes! It took me 10 minutes to get back to the freeway--and time was getting close to closing! I made it to "Hendersons" and they had the bearings and seals, grease cup and cap. I got two sets! I had to have an auto parts place pull the old seal. Then I drove the 20 miles back to the boat (and Marie--UTP had been by and said we were "OK". Then I had to clean the hub, spindle, and using a file, some emery cloth and a various sandpapers up to 1200, I was able to achieve a smooth surface on the bearing faces on the hub and spindle. We drove 25 miles (at less than 50 mph) and no heat up of the bearings. I''lll pull the cap in the AM and check the surfaces and bearings.

I think it was just one of those things, that happens--not sure if rough Idaho roads jared the cup loose, or some other problem occured. The rear seal had failed, but that seemed to be secondary. Fortunately I had a jack, blocks, tools and materials to clean the grease, and bearing debris (used #1 diesel) and lots of paper towels. There is another set of bearings and seals on the boat now, and next time I come by a trailer place, I'll problably get 2 more sets.

Probably not get to Powell tomarrow--because we will be driving slowly until we are sure that this bearing is OK. But the 25 miles (actually over 30) didn't show any heating up, and if it looks OK in the AM, we will just go on at a slow speed.
 
Well, I may have missed the diagnosis yesterday! This AM I inspected the bearings and they looked great. We ran about 30 miles, and stopped at a store--and I took IR temp readings. All were normal, except the opposite front wheel of the one I repaired yesterday. 84 degrees on the repaired wheel--and 255 degrees on the un-repaired bearing! I was near a trailer supply shop, so I limped over and picked up two more sets of bearings, seals etc. I went to the local Schwabe tire company to see if they would pull the wheels and bearings for me. "We do not work on items where the customer has his own parts". I pointed out that they would buy the same parts from the same dealer about 100 yards away--no go.

So I pulled into an empty lot and spent the next 5 hours going over all of the bearings. The hot one, was really OK (slight etching on some roller surfaces, on the outside bearings, but very usable--I changed out all of those bearings and seals anyway). When I was putting the spindle nut back on and adjusting it, the wheel turned freely, then I put on the disc break calipers, and spun it--the brakes were dragging--in fact the caliper was frozen. The other side, seemed a bit tight, but not really dragging. Then I tore down the other side again--and found that in fact the caliper was not moving properly. So...I think that most likely that over heat problem was due to a draging disc break, and that heated up the entire wheel--finally causing the grease/seal/bearing failure. I disabled these brakes, and the rear brakes seemed to still be working OK, with no drag.

In retrospect, I rarely use the brakes, but with surge brakes, there is always some pressure on the accentuator when you are going down hill with engine compression breaking. This never showed up on the IR temp guage, but I didn't stop usually at the bottom of a hill. So now we are going to get a new brake job before the new owner takes over the boat.
I had ordered Kodiak brakes, and got "Tie Down" (not as good). I'll have to see what is avaialbe locally, or along the way. Part of the problem is that there was a peroid when we had no brakes (I was not using the boat myself)--because a tire dealer had jacked the axel under the brake line and pinched it. That was repaired, and the system bled, but there may have been some moisture in the system from launches with the break in the line....

So we made a grand total of 60 miles today! Provo Utah, Lakeside campground is home for these tired bodies tonight....
 
Bob, thanks for the detailed description, maybe it'll help others. Why do you say the Tie-Down Engrg calipers aren't as good? I just finished replacing all my Kodiak calipers and steel rotors with all SS rotors and Tie-Down calipers. The Tie-Downs have dual pistons vs Kodiak's singles. But the greatest thing I like about the Tie-Downs are the method that allows them to float flawlessly on large SS pins versus Kodiak's pins that have a lot of friction that doesn't allow the calipers to recenter so well.

So far, up and down hills and about 500 miles on my new brake system, I can say I like them better than my Kodiaks. But the main reason is the SS rotors, they run consistent and cool, however, they're still quite new, I'd like to report how they're doing in a couple of years.
 
Steve, Good point. I have Kodiak SS on the Tom Cat trailer.They have served me well, but I havn't put a lot of miles on them. Generally the folks on "The Hull Truth" prefer the Kodiak. I had looked at them side by side, and the Kodiak appeared better built to me.

However your point about the total free floating is well taken, and is certainly a real positive. I'll probably have to go back with the Tie Downs, just because of availability--and what is involved in the conversion (I will have to have someone do the work for me--the back just does not allow another day of that type of activity--there was some question if I could get out of bed this AM. But that is a long story). As we progressed, I ended up with better tools--a long breaker bar for the lug nuts, a larger jack, found my ratcheting box wrenches etc--all of this made it easier (even in 100 degree sun).

What I don't have, is electric over hyraulic--and that is devinately perferiable. It would decrease any problems with over heating down grade (which I previously didn't think I had. I had done IR readings after several long down grades when I first got the trailer. But recently we had longer and steeper grades.)
 
Thanks for the info Dr. Bob. My new trailer has the Tie-Downs. I wonder about some type of lube on the pins ? I wondered about going down hill with these surge type brakes - no experience with them on this heavy of a trailer.

I had a similar failure on a motorhome going down into Ouray, Co a number of years ago. The caliper wasn't fully releasing, the brakes overheated and went away. I ended up in deep gravel on the side of the "road" to get stopped.
 
Bob

Thanks for sharing all the information on your brake repairs. A big :thup on your determination in working through a tough situation with bad back, extreme heat and a heart that about had you in a even tougher place not all that long ago. As usual a great example to the rest of us old and young alike.

In our three trips north to Alaska waters trailering the 22 C-Dory never had a problem with the surge brakes, but think it was due to heavy diesel tow rig enabling us to back off a few clicks on the trailer brakes. When I would adjust the brakes before a trip would tighten per instructions then drive a short distance check for heat and keep repeating this process, backing off a click at a time until there was no noticeable increase of heat. Every 2000 miles would repeat this process. Also carried a complete bearing and hub assembly to make it easier if bearing problems did occur. On our Alaska trips before that with a small RIB trailer and lots of gravel back road travel carried two complete hub sets. Never had to use the spare hub sets, but did have 9 trailer tire flats on one trip.

We are now considering replacing our present single axle trailer with a two axle one. The single being to rough on the boat on those long trips especially up and down the Cazziar Highway. Electric brakes will be a must for us now due to heavy camper on truck. Also want carrying capacity of at least 1000 pounds more then the 3700 at present so can carry that extra stuff and not worry about putting stress on trailer.

Much to enjoy and learn from your sharing of this Adventure. Its much appreciated so thanks again.

Jay
 
We were pleasantly surprised by on overnight visit from the Frequent Sea crew. We moved them in to Wild Blue's parking spot. It gave us a day off from our house job and let Dr. Bob rest from all the mechanic work he had been tackeling. We toured Wayne County including Capital Reef National Park and had dinner at Fish Lake. It was so good to see them and catch up on old times and hearing about the summer trip to Alaska.

Thanks for stopping in Bob and Marie--we really enjoyed it.
IMG_1110.jpg
Visiting Capital Reef National Park

IMG_1115.jpg
Dr. Bob and Marie in Richfield
 
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