Rubber Torsion Axle Failure and Replacement Question

[Idaho Mike 29]

Stored my boat with a friend, had a guy pick it up and do some work on it, then put it back in friend's garage.  I go to pull it out to put it in the water today, and discover that one of the tires is rubbing on the "tire-well" of the trailer.  We jack it up, pull tire off, and figure out that the torsion mechanism inside is "stripped" or something similar.  We changed angle and it just sort of smooshed back into resting on the bottom of the tire well.  So there' no suspension to speak of.  Clearly needs to be replaced.

My boat is a 2009 Enzo SV240, and this is the factory trailer (if you could call it that - bought with boat, I'm sure). I'm likely the second owner of the boat, and trailer.  It is a "Sport Boat Trailer" manufactured 5/2008, BVWR/PNBV: 3175KG (7,000KG)

Anyway, has anybody else had this issue?  What did you do?

My thought is I need to buy a new torsion axle.  But (1) I'm not sure which one to buy, and (2) I don't know how to yank the old one out and put in the new one.

Picture for diagnosis purposes in the link below:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0ByDdW7w_5nYYckhqNk9CR01vcjMwWWZYRzFQTWI1MXdPaGJJ/view?usp=sharing

 

 

So how do I figure out which torsion axle I need to buy?  Any other suggestions from those who have gone before?

[beau t 8]

should be a tag at about the middle of the axle with the info needed - mine has the info on the bottom side of the axle to drivers side (of truck) right of the dip in axle for fin clearance 

[stoked 1,039]

If by chance this is a boatmate trailer, they had trouble with the torsion axles in 2007 (and maybe as late as 2009). If this is the case, they'll replace it for free. I had to change both of mine. Try and give them a call, they'll pretend they don't know what you're talking about, but eventually will admit it and ship you one (if yours is a boatmate and covered by the replacement plan)

[Idaho Mike 29]

In reading up on this, apparently both Boatmate and Sport Boat trailers used the same torsion axles, and had the same types of failures.  Super annoying!  

[stoked 1,039]

Very annoying, but what does make it better is they'll ship you a free replacement. If you're handy with a wrench its very easy to change out. They'll send it to you bare metal, I just gave it a good spray over with truck bed liner. 

[Idaho Mike 29]

Mine is inside of the trailer sleeve, if that makes sense.  Shouldn't be anything for me to need to paint - at least as I understand it.

[stoked 1,039]

If it is the same as I dealt with, you get the entire axle

[DrNate 426]

Unique Functional Products is who you'll be dealing with on the axles for these trailers, they make them.  Like was mentioned above, you can find all the info you need on the axle itself.  Give this info to UFP and they can help you from there.

 

By the way, Sport Boat Trailers IS NOT THE SAME as Boatmate and they are about as helpful at tattas on a bull.

 

Contact UFP directly, ask me how I know

[Idaho Mike 29]

They are actually going to replace BOTH axles.  For ease to future boaters suffering from this same thing, the company's name is Dexter Axle, and the phone number for customer service/warranty is is 931-967-5101.  What is difficult and very, very sad, is how long this is going to take.  Sounded like it will be two weeks to get the axles, and that sounded hopeful.

Do you think there's any way I could limp my trailer and boat about 15 miles to get her in the lake, or am I stuck?  Seems like there should be some work-around to get my boat in the water! :-(  Maybe I should start a separate thread for this question?

[Idaho Mike 29]

Trailer manufacturer info is here:

http://sbtrailers.com/index.php/contactus

 

Axle manufacturer website is here:

http://www.dexteraxle.com/

 

Guy by the name of "Bill" helped me out at dexter.  add extension X-25026 to the number above and he can email you information about the axles and how to replace them.  

Edited May 9, 2017 by Idaho Mike

[jester 111]

I had the same thing happen on my Moomba with a 08 Boatmate trailer.  The replacement sucks and is a project.  I did a write up on the replacement and hope it helps.

 

https://forum.moomba.com/showthread.php?22828-Replacemnt-of-Axle-on-2008-single-axle-boatmate-trailer

    

[FargoDawg 8]

I had to replace one also, had heavy duty impact wrenches and it was pretty straight forward, good jack stands will be beneficial.

 

I would assume you could take the fender off, to avoid the rub and save the tire.    it bottoms out I believe, so nothing to hurt other than a rougher ride for the boat.......right?

[jester 111]

If you pull the fender it will just buy you a little more time but your tire will hit the frame where the fender attaches  I had to do this to get home but after 2 days the tire was dug in.  I had to let all the air out of the tire to get it off.

[DrNate 426]

So they're replacing both axles under warranty on an 8 year old trailer?  Can't complain too much about that, although it seems a huge pain to deal with

 

[Idaho Mike 29]

Long Overdue Update:  

So they delivered the axles to my front porch, took about a week.  Per many other people's suggestion, I arranged to have them powder coated.  The manufacturer said to either powder coat or spray Lin-x / Rhino Liner on them.  I was award that powder coating takes some major heating to get it to melt on, so talked to powder coating person and he said they get it up to 400 degrees.  It seemed odd to me that rubber torsion axles could sustain that kind of heat without being damaged, so I called back the axle manufacturer to get confirmation this was okay.  They basically said "Holy crap!  It gets that hot!?  No, do NOT have powder coated!"  So yea, some misinformation direct from the manufacturer!  I wonder how many other people did this?

I therefore went the LIn-x route.  Went smooth, but when I delivered to my buddy/mechanic, he said he needed to scrape off the LIn-X where the guides for the brake lines were so he could weld new ones on.  So if you're doing work on your broken axle, you should get this done before you paint/Lin-X them.

I got 4 new tires, new bearings, and the trailer is pretty awesome.