- This topic has 10 replies, 5 voices, and was last updated 7 years, 8 months ago by
.
-
Posts
-
I am thinking about buying some hockey pucks off ebay to space my teardrop from my trailer frame. Any downside to this?
I looked under CLC’s demo camper the other day and they seemed to use roughly 3″ diameter pieces of plywood for spacers off the Trailex trailer. Seems hockey pucks would be a perfect solution! Amazon here we come. You’ll need 10 for the cabin and 4 for the younger box, 14 total.
I bought a dozen for $20 from Amazon. Used the drill press to drill 1/2″ holes in each one, eyeballed near the center. They are 1″ thick and look to be ideal as Trailex spacers / mounts. I will be mounting onto the trailer very soon and I will report.
Don
I’ll take pictures and post. They really are ideal, they left a 1/4″ gap between the butt block and the Trailex trailer.
I’d note that CLC did not supply the carriage bolts for the Trailex trailer, they supplied the long bolts needed for the Harbor Freight trailer. I got 5/6 x 3″ bolts (they specified 2 1/2″ bolts) to allow for the 1″ thickness of the pucks. Worked fine.
An important note: Get BOTH 5/16 plain nuts AND 5/16 nylock nuts (stainless). I only used the nylock nuts and stainless washers, and it was a pain in the butt. The carriage bolts don’t “seat” until there is some tension on them and I fought them taking up the “slack”. In hindsight, I would put the plain nuts on first, tighten them up, then follow with the nylocks. Would be MUCH easier.
I have one nylock nut that is stuck, and cannot get it to either tighten up nor will it come off, I think I buggered the thread with the needle nose vice grips I was using to hold the bolt still while taking up the slack. I’ll cut it off with an abrasive disk and do it over, but it’s a pain and doesn’t need to be.
The stuck nylon is because you galled the threads (stainless is prone to that. CCuttingthe nut off is the solution. I had the same problem with the 5/16″ carriage bolts spinning in the 3/4″ hoholesThe solution for me was to lock visegrips onto the head of the bolt inside the trailer and then screw the nylon on until it drew the bolt down against the floor. The visegrips is put on the bolt head just at its lip and spins until it runs into the trailer wall. Why did you have to resort to hockey pucks? CLC sent me 1″thick Starboard discs, cnc cut and predrilled.
Use a little anti-seize on the threads to prevent galling. I learned about this phenomena the hard way when bolting an ISO flange together. The nut/bolt was still loose on the flange but the nut kept getting tighter even though there was still a lot of travel left. I then tried to back it off and it got even tighter! Had to use a grinder to get the bolt off and started over using a little anti-seize (aka, personnel seeking compound because it gets everywhere).
I think the stainless hardware supplied with the Trailex trailer is aluminum or tin plated to do exactly this without the mess.
-Bob
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.