My new to me trailer

dnale

dnale

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Joined
Jun 11, 2003
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Location
South Lyon, Michigan
We have a 2 place enclosed trailer but that takes alot of gas to pull plus I would need to borrow the truck to use it. So I wanted something that I could use for double duty and still pull it with my car. I kicked around a landscape trailer for some time but I had been looking for a single place aluminum open trailer. We have one at work that we use for hauling equipment that looks pretty nice so I had my mind set on an aluminum.

The new Triton XT5 or 4.5 or whatever their designation is are pretty pricey. Nice features but I don't need a new trailer. Well I found a Triton Lite4. It's a 1995 model. The guy kept it in his garage, had brand new ski-guides and track mat. Tires were in good shape along with a spare. Had the ball and plate you lock into the coupler along with a tire boot to deter someone from taking your trailer. It wasn't perfect but for a couple hundred bucks it was a good deal to me. I put a new coupler on with new chains as they were rusted. Put a new wiring connector on it and it's good to go. I used it yesterday to pick up 50 2x4's before taking it up to my inlaw's to store it. Tows like a dream and with my little car I can't even tell it's there. It's a little tough to see when empty as it's low and narrower than a car.

I'm trying to be proactive and pick up a set of bearings/races/seals for it. I hauled it around town and no problem. Bearings are greased. I took it to my inlaw's and was about 45 miles at 70 mph and the hubs weren't even warm. It has the dexter axle under it.

Does anyone know what size of bearings I'll be needing? The books don't show any info on the hubs.
 
I forgot some of the best/worst part of the story. The guy I got it from really wanted it to go to someone who was going to put a sled on it. He had people calling about wanting it for quads or tractors and what not. I get there and he asked me what I ride. I tell him I personally have 2 Yamaha's. (Not trying to offend him I follow it up with but my inlaw's have alot of other brands too.) He pulls up the garage door and the trailer has an SRX sticker on the back of it. He also had a 2000 SRX that he sold last year for $800. It had 1600 miles on it. He couldn't get it to run so he sold it to a boyfriend of his wife's friend. He cleaned the carbs and put new plugs in it and it started up. He said he stopped riding in 2005 after losing a friend on a sled. You could see the guy almost tearing up. The aluminum skirt on the trailer had been polished at some point but now there is some cloudiness but you could tell he had taken great pride in his gear.
 
Is it a torsion axle or leaf? I went threw a tandem axle utility type trailer (leafs) and I what I found with my searches was it depended on the leaf/axle dimension and quantity of studs. I got what I needed at quality farm and fleet for half what the auto parts stores wanted.
 
Oh and with bearing buddys (sprung loaded dust cap) the bearings are in a constant re-pack mode. Just give it a pump of grease every once in a while and they last forever!
 
It's a torsion axle. It has ez-lube hubs. I'm familiar with bearing buddies as we have those on the boat trailer. The ez-lube are similar with the zerk fitting but it doesn't have the spring in it. Instead of a rubber cap that goes over the bearing buddy this has a plug that fits inside it.
 
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I should have taken some. I only took a pic of it with the first trailer duty I put it to. Hauling back 50 2x4's on Sunday. I'll load it up.
 

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Nice buy! I put a set of snow plow markers on the side of my old open trailer to help with backing it up. That helped a lot and they were fairly cheap. Another thing that I did was replaced the whole hub, not that it needed it, but that way you have brand new lug nuts and studs.
 
You'll have to take one hub apart, on the back of the bearing you'll find a part number. same with the seal. go to any parts store and they'll be able to cross refrence it with whatever brand they carry. Yo save the axle seal, pull the hub nut off and remove outer bearing, put nut back on hand tight, give whole hub a good tug, should pop off in your hand, and inner bearing and seal will still be on shaft.
 
I plan to go over it this spring, pull the hubs and repack the bearings. Then I'll have the info so I can have a spare set. One nice thing about this trailer is that I don't need a jack to get under it (unloaded, of course.) I can pick up the side of it and lean it on a tree.
 
Update on an old thread. I replaced the hubs and tires just because. This little trailer is rated for like 1000# payload but all of the axle components match up to stuff rated for 2500#. Talk about overbuilt. I used it today with a tarp to get a load of mulch. More mulch than I cared for but it worked awesome. It's been used lately to bring home my new grill, it was hugely beneficial in building my new deck this year. Tomorrow it finally goes back to "storage" for a week or two before it goes into moving duty for my brother in law.
 
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