Calling All Trailer Experts

[Lance B. Johnson]

I personally can't see the Actuator being the problem... I also think it is overkill to replace the entire thing.. I had this experience when I had to replace the safety cable on my 05 Extreme.. I got the chance to remove the actuator and take it all apart and I saw how it works.. The only real moving part that can wear out and cause a problem like this is the spring that holds the actuator back from moving too far too quickly and aside from the other causes mentioned that is all I can see that may be wrong inside of the actuator.. You can also purchase the correct spring from UFP and I am sure it is much less money than the entire actuator...

As far as the greased bearings I wouldn't change them back to oil but I would for sure add Bearing Buddies.. They are very easy to do your self ( you just basically hammer them in place) but the most common place for the Oil bath bearing to leak is the set screw where the oil goes into on the hub.. That was where mine were leaking from and a little teflon tape cured that issue... Also the rotors are quite thin and when I bought the last boat it had a rotor that was half gone... I towed it from San Francisco to Home (Alberta) like that with my 1 Ton diesel and didn't know it untill I got home... I knew something was up with that wheel though as the evidence was all over the wheel itself...

Good Luck with the fix...

Just the other day I replaced just the safety cable on a trailer for someone. The trailer shop wanted to replace the whole actuator and bleed the brakes and the quote she got was over 300 bucks. I charged her 70 bucks to build a new cable, do a little welding (the tongue had been ground down a bit from the road) and touch up the paint. The parts to replace the cable were about 5 bucks. The hardware store even loaned me the crimpers to crimp the cable stops. Looked 100 percent like a factory job. She went away very happy.

[pennery]

I thought about repairing the cable but my cable was broken inside the actuator so I had to take it apart anyways... And yes the cable was very inexpensive. Took me a little while to figure out but it was really not very difficult....

Getting it back together with all of the pieces lining up was the difficult part...

[WakeGirl]

Bet they are real expensive. I have a truck with electric over hydraulic very touchy if you are moving slow.

It's less expensive to retrofit hydraulic over electric than it is to do a full conversion, & it works better in a marine environment.

[my malibu]

My trailer will do the same thing if towing without the boat loaded on it. With boat, it works perfect. Was your boat loaded on the trailer when this happened? I have to use my lockout tabs in the actuator to prevent the lockup and axle hop if I tow the empty trailer.

[mcbean7]

Update:

Well, this past weekend's trip to the lake went very smoothly. The trailer did not have one hiccup while descending the "dreaded hill". I guess the warped rotors was the main cause of the brake lockup. The reverse lock out also worked perfectly (not sure why it didn't before).

My new actuator came in and will be putting it on this weekend just for peace of mind. I don't see any corrosion inside the master cylinder, or anywhere else, so may keep the old actuator around (as a spare?).

As for the bent axles, I'll just leave it alone for now. I may get the spindles replaced to see if this helps. If not, I'll just be replacing tires as needed.

Thanks for everyone's help on this!

As always...The Crew Rocks!

[Pistol Pete]

Make sure you use the same grade of brake fluid in the new actuator as the original one had.

[rph]

As far as the bent axles go, I had bent both axles on my 2001 trailer (forget the make on it) but it was quite visible looking from the rear of the trailer. The manufacturer replaced the axles for me at cost (~$200), and said it was likely due to trailering the boat over rough roads fully loaded for houseboat trips, which I commonly did. They replaced them with the next size up tubing and I never had any further issues. I've been happy with my newer Extreme trailer (06 Response LXi), my only complaint is that the fenders are all rusting near the edges of the diamond plate, no idea why.

[Bobby Light]

As far as the bent axles go, I had bent both axles on my 2001 trailer (forget the make on it) but it was quite visible looking from the rear of the trailer. The manufacturer replaced the axles for me at cost (~$200), and said it was likely due to trailering the boat over rough roads fully loaded for houseboat trips, which I commonly did. They replaced them with the next size up tubing and I never had any further issues. I've been happy with my newer Extreme trailer (06 Response LXi), my only complaint is that the fenders are all rusting near the edges of the diamond plate, no idea why.

It's because the whole area under the diamond plate is rusting, it's a water trap under there. Peel them off and you'll see what I mean.

[Pistol Pete]

The extreme trailer site seems to be temporarily up.

The electric over hydro. brakes are here.