I will be launching my houseboat using a goose neck trailer. The trailer is equipped with hubs filled with oil. I am concerned with water getting into the hubs & damaging the bearings. Is there a way of sealing or pressurizing the hubs in order to keep the water out? If not what maintenance should I perform if water does get into the hubs?
Welcome to the forum gunner. :usa There's not really much you can do to seal oil hubs more than they already are. But consider they are already tolerant of weather, such as rain and water, but I admit that's not quite the same as submerging. One DO NOT I can tell you, don't submerge the hubs right after you've made the haul and the hubs/oil is warm or near hot. The immediate change in temperature (cold water) will cause the warm air inside the hubs to rapidly contract creating a vacuum, and it will find a way to suck water into the hubs. It's best to submerged those hubs when they are cold, as close to the temperature of the water as possible.
Hey Gunner, Atco has good advise on letting your hubs cool , they don't have to be stone cold but not hot. Unplug your lights and dis-able your brakes. If your brakes are applied under water they will get water into everywhere you don't want water. Dielectric grease on all light connections will keep water out and help prevent future problems with corrosion.
We use to launch my 40' houseboat on by backing the trailer into the water and after a couple years of doing that and spending hours of draining hubs of oil and trying to get all the water out of it we finally gave up going that route and now take it to the marina and have it set in with the travel lift When we did it, It would suck water into the hubs but you may be able to slow it down a little if you can plug the vent hole before you dunk the trailer in the water This was also a pre-ABS trailer that we used so did not have to worry about the ABS computer valve being submerged, I know they are sealed to some point but I don't know if they are sealed well enough to handle that.
Not sure how big of axles you are running on your trailer but you might look into this product http://airtighthubs.com/index.php I just ran across it today while searching for my own possible use.
I need to get a trailer of some sort to set my pontoon boat into the water. I have a truck that can handle the steep incline, even if I am on mud. However, my truck does not have the hookup to haul a goose neck trailer. Am I able to use a flatbed trailer to set my boat into the water? Please help!
Put these on it http://www.bearingbuddy.com/