Pontoon Boat & Deck Boat Forum

Alright, so this should be good. I called my dealership to see if the work was finished on my boat. They were supposed to put new tires (higher load rating), wheels, and seals on the trailer. They answered and said that the paperwork said the work was done a week ago and they called me about it. Ok...never got a phone call. They said that they put an all new hub assembly. Ok...we were supposed to just replace the seals to stop the grease leak. Whatever, if that is what you did to fix it, I don't really care as long as it was fixed.

Showed up this morning to pick her up. I notice that we have new tires, but they put them on the existing wheels. The manager said he thought the manufacturer was sending wheels too, so he thought that was strange. In any case, I got the new tires which is what I needed. I'm looking over the work really well, and I noticed my tires only had 40 lbs of air in them and they needed 65. I asked them to fix that and they did. Well, I noticed that the "new" hub had the same rust patterns that my old one did (I have pictures of the old one). Sure enough, it was indeed the old hub assembly. I mention to the guy that that was the case, and he said they must have just replaced seals...at that point I asked for the ticket on what was accomplished, and the ticket said a new hub was installed??? He assured me new seals must have been installed as that was what they were supposed to do anyway.

When I get home with it, I check behind the wheels and notice that it is STILL LEAKING GREASE!!!! It was nasty black stuff that was in it before. I pulled the rubber plug and noticed they only shot new grease in!! I'm irate at this point, but I calm down and give them a call. The manager was clearly irritated at the situation (probably moreso with his guys than me). My morning ends with me driving it BACK down there and leaving it for who knows how long. I'm so fed up with this situation. Did they get their wires crossed? Are they trying to pull one over on me? Did they not think I wouldn't notice that the old hub was still on? Did they not think I would noticed the damn thing was still leaking?? Obviously, those are rhetorical, but I'm really starting to question their workmanship. I can't yell at these guys and make them mad because I need to rely on them for future warranty work. However, if I pick it up and the work isn't done right, I'm taking the boat across the street and trading it in for a new one from their competitor. So over this crap...

Oh, and when I showed up the second time to drop it off with my family in tow, I asked him to come outside to look at the problem. He told me that he was in the middle of selling a boat and he would be finished with me when that was finished. Seriously??? It takes 5 minutes for me to show him what I need him to see. AHHH!!! I'm getting pissed again...

So much for that nice relaxing evening of fishing I was planning on today...

I would have been mad as hell! You should have offered to explain to his customer the service issues you were having!

Trust me, I was, but you have to be strategic with how you handle the situation since I have to rely on them for future work.

HOWEVER! I am really gauging how much I want to conduct future business with them based on how long it takes them to complete this work and how they fix it.

C_M_25 wrote:I have to rely on them for future work.

Absolutely not true, and the more you learn to do these things yourself, the more you will realize how much they're really sticking it to you on service. They will lick your boots to get a sale, thinking that once you're a customer, they own you.

Well, I did get the problem resolved. They installed the new hub. But Damn IT! When I got the trailer back home, I noticed the metal cap blew off!!

What can cause this to happen? I noticed the space inside of the metal cap was full of grease before I took it home. The other hub doesn't have grease inside it like that.

New tires. Could balancing issues shake it loose? Maybe the original cap just didn't fit in correctly? Did they screw the hub on too tight?

I think I'm ready to either do this myself or find another shop. I'm done with this shit. Tired of thinking about it...just want to sell the damn thing right now I'm so pissed.

If you lost a cap its just because it wasn't tapped in all the way. Where are you located? My parents have a '15 sweetwater on a new trailer. They left Florida for Canada a month ago with the boat in tow. When they left the trailer may have had 200 miles on it. Two hours into the trip they blew the first tire, 6 hours later they blew the other tire. At that time they put two new radials on it and made it all the way to Canada. The tires were properly inflated, looks like they just got tires from a bad batch. Luckily it did no damage to the trailer or boat.

I left nova scotia with my trailer to go pick up my boat in portland maine. no problems there and back. brought the boat home 3 times so far this summer. when i got bad from maine they did have to put new springs in the trailer it was built wrong at the factory. i have a tandem axle trailer. and the tails of my front springs bent over at the equalizer beams. called them up.. dropped the trailer off.. they said they never seen that before.. but they had no problem with it. had to order the springs and they were replaced..



I did blow one tire on the last trip i had the trailer out. and i called them. they said bring it out. i did and they replaced the tire free of charge

I wish ya luck!

The trailer industry is in a dilemma in that no ST (special trailer) tires are made in North America any longer. They have sold their souls to the low prices of the Chinese tire industry--of which Sailun is the only decent brand. So just about every trailer delivered (both marine and RV) have very poor quality tires on them.

Those with boats commonly have 14" tires, and the only decent tires are the Maxxis M8008 and the Kumho 857's. Both are expensive to buy, but good ST tires. All the rest are Chinese "will pops". If I was towing a $40-$50-$60K tritoon boat all the time, my tires would be replaced immediately.

Another common problem is axle grease seals. Trailer manufacturers often purchase assembled axles and hubs that have had grease "injected" rather than packed by hand. Their injected wheel grease is so thin that it automatically blows out the double lip, cheap Chinese grease seals. Manufacturers could get decent grease seals for a couple of dollars more.

On boat and RV trailers with grease coming through the seals, the grease gets into the brake pads (if equipped with brakes), and the trailer's brakes no longer work. This is a serious safety issue on heavy boats and 15K lb. fifth wheel trailers.

On some RV's currently being sold, as many as 1/4 the brakes are contaminated with thin grease. The fix is to remove the hubs, remove the thin grease (while cleaning up the brakes), hand pack the bearings with thick axle grease and replace those cheap grease seals. Then the brakes mush be adjusted manually since self adjusting brakes are rare. At $100 an hour, this is an expensive job--and one that owners shouldn't have to go through.

There are clearly issues with cheap poor quality materials out there. However, if dealers would match the correct trailer with the boat, some of this issues would not be as pronounced. Granted , there isn't much they can do about the issues you mentioned.

I got the cap back on and it is nice and snug. I did notice the suspension is compressed pretty good. More so on the port side with about an inch of space between the tire and fender. I noticed rub Mark's on the tire on that side. This boat should be well within the axle weight ratings and the tire ratings. I'm suspecting the leaf springs need to be changed now. The other possibility is that I have water in my left toon causeing it to weigh heavy. I'm taking it to a scale this evening to see if it is heavier than it should be. I have a feeling that I'm not done with this yet. I'll be lucky if I get to use this thing the rest of the year at this rate...

Hey guys. Had my boat weighed today. Only the boat trailer was on the scale. The guy looked at the ticket and said the total is 6000 lbs. Is that right? Or should the total weight of boat and trailer be 3000 lbs?

Picture

One of the problems with cheap chinese axles is that they are frequently totally out of alignment.

That could easily account for the rub marks your talking about.

If springs are rubbing on a tire, the tire won't last long.

C_M_25 wrote:Hey guys. Had my boat weighed today. Only the boat trailer was on the scale. The guy looked at the ticket and said the total is 6000 lbs. Is that right? Or should the total weight of boat and trailer be 3000 lbs?

My guess would be 3000, my boat is a 20 footer ( don't have the specs in front of me for the following figures, but these should be pretty close from memory ),, pretty sure the boat weighs around 1711 lbs.... trailer is around 900 lbs and I think the yamaha 75 four stroke is 389 lbs..... that comes out to 3000 lbs... add fuel and some gear for a few hundred more.... hope this helps...

Towed the boat down to the dealer to take a look. Brand new hub assembly is already bubbling grease out of the inside. Less than 40 miles towed. You can see how bad the suspension is squished and rub marks on the tires from the fenders. We took a look at a 16 ft fully equipped boat and it had the same trailer is my 20ft. I think we are starting to see this story come together a little bit...

The good news is that they are still working with me. I have been very patient and chordal with them which helps I think. I might get to use this thing before winter...