Hot and Cold trailer hubs

D

damason

New member
I have a Float-On trailer for my CD-25. My hubs are Posi Lube. This trailer has only about 300 miles on it. It has 4 wheel disk brakes. After towing about 10 miles the right two hubs are slightly warm and equal. The left forward hub is cold and the left rear hub is much warmer. I pulled the left rear hub today and checked for wear and lubrication. Everything looks good. I re-assembled and packed this hub. I inserted grease via the grease zert to fill all four hubs. After a test run of several miles the temps are about the same as before (warm, warm, cold, much warmer).

What I think is that the right hubs which are 6 sided castellated nuts are set right. I think that the left forward castellated nut needs to be tightened 1/6 turn to bring up the temperature. And I think that the left rear castellated nut needs to be loosened 1/6 turn to lower the temperature. I feel that after trailering a test distance all hubs should be about the same temperature and about 100 to 115 degrees. :lol:

Does this make sense? Any advise or observations?
 
Dave-

Your explanation sounds right to me.

Try your proposed Rx, and see what happens!

You seem to have answered your own question, thus the lack of replies (!)

Let us know what happens. Good Luck!

Joe. :teeth :thup
 
Dave,
The spindle nut sets the pre-load on your wheel bearings. With the wheel off the ground, you should tighten the nut until it comes up hard (it will stop abruptly) and then back the nut OFF until you can replace the cotter pin through the nut and spindle. You may have more detailed instructions in the trailers owner manual. It is pretty common that this adjustment needs to be made after the first couple hundred miles and annually. Wheel (rim) nuts should also be backed off and re-torqued at this time. I have never heard of adjusting spindle nut torque to change hub temperature.
 
I have a double axle trailer for my CD22, and as I travel I run around putting my hand on each hub whenever I make a stop for gas, etc. I've never found any of the hubs with more than about body temperature (98F). I'm no mechanic, but I'd be alarmed if any of the hubs were warmer than that, and would be headed for a service garage.
 
My oil bath hubs on the EZ Loader for the TC255 get warm to the touch. If they got "hot" (which I define as uncomfortable to keep my hand on), I'd get worried.

If I had that elephant riding on my back, I'd get warm too! :disgust

The oil is dark but still transparent and I can't see any foreign matter in there. A mechanic told me that was normal. Did fine on the trip recently to the outer banks and back.

Charlie
 
Dave,
Is it possible that the brake adjustment could cause a slight difference in hub temps? Maybe the left rear brake is doing all the work and getting the hub warmer.
 
We just finished towing for more than 4,000 miles. We had our heavily loaded 22 on a 2006 EZ-Loader 2 axle with oil bath hubs. I bought a remote reading thermometer to keep track of hub temperature. The norm after 150-200 miles of 60MPH speeds was about 95-105 degrees on all four hubs with the right rear hub always being at the top of the group. There was always some variation among hubs but not enough that I worried about it. I think the hottest I saw on the right rear was about 118 degrees.
 
I am still working to solve this problem. This week I am going to buy a laser thermal thermometer and check the actual temperatures. I also plan then to write to the Boat US Trailering Guys and talk to them about this problem.

One thought I have is if when I returned home and stopped the trailer and did a backup which left the trailer brakes engauged the piston would be out and corrosion set in. This would not allow the piston to fully return when the brakes are released. Since I will probably not be using the boat until after Christmas this should give me plenty of time to continue my investigation.

I will continue to post my progress and hope to find the exact cause of the different temperatures to help other C-Brats. :lol:
 
Now for the rest of the story!

After much thought and reading I thought the problem might be the brake on the hot wheel is causing the heat. My 11 year old grandson went out in the sun light to look at the trailer and he came in and said all of the 3 brake rotors are clean and shinney and the hot one has some rust and corrosion and that is why it is heating up. He is a smart boy.

I bought a laser thermometer from Harbor Freight for $39.95. I took the wheel off and hand sanded some of the rust off with sandpaper. Put the wheel on for a test run. All 4 hubs now read 95 to 105 degrees. So I am satisfied that everything is OK. :lol:
 
From a previous thread:

Posted: Thu Aug 12, 2010 8:40 pm Post subject:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I was curious, although I've never done it before.

The trailer up to Bellingham showed some interesting numbers. I travel at ~60 mph max while towing. I measured each hub, right where the rim mounted to the hub with a Harbor Freight "lazer" thermometer which appears relatively calibrated/accurate:

Taking the highest numbers shown on the readout:

Left front (new grease) ~114F
Left rear ~125F
Right front ~134F
Right rear~143F

What that means I have no idea. But the newly greased hub was the coolest.
Click to expand...

Than Matt Gurnsey followed up w/ this:

Keep in mind that disc brake trailers may run slightly hotter. In checking with our Service Manager John, he says that temps as high as 180 would be the upper limit of normal.
Click to expand...
 
damason;

Just a couple of comments.

First, those trailer brake hubs are made of carbon steel, cause they're cheap, don't warp as much as stainless and have a decent coefficient of friction. However, carbon steel rusts. Especially when one dunks the trailer into salt water. I wash them down when I get home, but they still rust.

Second, those disk brakes clean off the rust as you go down the road and apply the brakes. If three are clean and one is still rusty, that one isn't doing it's job, and it's not because the disk is rusty. It might be that the piston/puck is stuck in the caliper housing, so there's not much force on the pads.

Third, disk brakes run hotter than shoe brakes because the calipers don't have retraction springs to pull the pads away from the disk. They're sorta shoved away from the pad. So they rub slightly as the wheel churns. This residual friction heats the disk/hub up. You've proved this by sanding the rust off and decreasing the friction. But the lower temperature doesn't prove that that particular brake is working.

Just a thought.

Boris
 
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