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Author Topic: Almost Disastrous  (Read 23746 times)

Offline Curt

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Almost Disastrous
« on: July 06, 2016, 08:13:03 PM »
I hooked up the boat this afternoon to go fish a small local tourney. I've only been to this body of water a few times, so I wasn't sure exactly how to get back there.

In light of that, I decided to use my GPS to get me there on time. Unfortunately, the way I would usually go was clogged with beach traffic, so I had to use an alternate route. The GPS ended up routing me on a bunch of small back roads, one of which was pretty rough.

At one point, there was a huge bump in the road that was impossible to see until I was right on top of it. I hit it at about 30 MPH and knew right away it wasn't good.

I looked in the rearview several times to make sure the trailer looked OK as we finished driving to the launch.

We arrived and got ready to launch, and as I was backing down the ramp, the guy running the tourney pointed to my trailer like there was something wrong.

I stopped and got out to see what was up and he showed me that my boat's hull was resting directly against the fender wells of the trailer.

Then he pointed under the trailer, so I looked and saw that one of the crossmembers on my trailer had snapped  (fp)

I also saw that another one had cracked and wasn't in very good shape.

So we took a few minutes to stuff a lifejacket between each fender well and the hull of the boat, strapped the boat back down and headed home, being careful not to take any of those twisty, bumpy roads.

I stopped by a friend's house who does work on boats, outboards and trailers, so he could take a look at it. He's pretty sure it can be welded and reinforced to at least get me through for a few months so I can save up for a replacement trailer.

So he's coming to pick it up tomorrow morning to do the work for me.

I'm not really happy with Bear Trailers right now. This is a 2007 model boat/trailer that I didn't start using until the Spring of 2008, when I bought it. It's never seen saltwater or salty roads, yet it rusted badly enough from the inside out to snap like this.

I will definitely be calling them tomorrow to see what they will do, if anything. My gut feeling is that they will tell me there's nothing they can do, but I will at least try.

This is not the first problem I've heard about with Bear trailers.

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Offline frugalangler

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Re: Almost Disastrous
« Reply #1 on: July 07, 2016, 01:36:44 AM »
If you replace look into MagicTilt excellent aluminum trailer
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Offline bullet20dc

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Re: Almost Disastrous
« Reply #2 on: July 07, 2016, 06:39:45 AM »
one of the reasons I dont like aluminum trailers  they dont like to flex like steel ,    they are light but do break not very forgiving.    Good luck, 
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Offline Curt

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Re: Almost Disastrous
« Reply #3 on: July 07, 2016, 06:47:53 AM »
My current trailer is steel. Seemed to have rusted from the inside out. This is the reason I don't like box frame trailers.

I think all boat trailers should be built using channel steel or some other type of open beam style.

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Offline Curt

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Re: Almost Disastrous
« Reply #4 on: July 07, 2016, 08:19:59 AM »
Trailer is gone now. A friend of mine came and took it this morning to repair it for me.





Not a pretty sight!

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Offline transamz9

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Re: Almost Disastrous
« Reply #5 on: July 07, 2016, 09:40:56 AM »
Wow, that's not good for sure. My trailer is boxed and is a 2008, still looks brand new. Was there no drains in the bottom of the cross members?

Offline frugalangler

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Re: Almost Disastrous
« Reply #6 on: July 07, 2016, 09:52:21 AM »
wow, saved by the axle, bunks sitting right on the axles - that was one mean azz'd bump you hit
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Offline Curt

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Re: Almost Disastrous
« Reply #7 on: July 07, 2016, 10:49:59 AM »
It appears that those two crossmembers had no drain holes. Poor, poor manufacturing.
« Last Edit: July 07, 2016, 01:05:49 PM by Curt »

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Offline Curt

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Re: Almost Disastrous
« Reply #8 on: July 07, 2016, 01:07:51 PM »
I put in a call to Bear a few minutes ago. I told the lady that two crossmembers had broken and she sent me over to parts??  :o  (fp)

No mention of any kind of customer service, etc.

I left a voicemail for the parts guy and will try to hit this from a customer service angle when he calls me back.  More to come... (pcd)
« Last Edit: July 07, 2016, 07:25:12 PM by Curt »

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Offline Curt

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Re: Almost Disastrous
« Reply #9 on: July 07, 2016, 01:13:45 PM »
wow, saved by the axle, bunks sitting right on the axles - that was one mean azz'd bump you hit

Yes.. the axle saved my butt. I was thankful that it didn't snap one of the spindles and leave me stranded on a back road with my boat on the ground.

The bump wasn't your ordinary bump. It was like a short rise and then an immediate dip that I hit doing about 35 MPH. It was completely invisible until I was right on top of it. As soon as I saw it I hit the brakes hard, but it felt like the truck tires literally almost left the ground for a split second (even though they probably didn't), but the trailer doesn't have the suspension that the truck has, so when it slammed back down it did the damage right there.  :crying:

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Offline bullet20dc

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Re: Almost Disastrous
« Reply #10 on: July 07, 2016, 03:03:35 PM »
after seeing those pics no way if it were mine would i put a boat on that again and tow it  dont care how good a welder he is  there is more rot then u see now somewhere.   

not so much for losing the boat but the guy behind you when it lets go.
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Offline Nightmare

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Re: Almost Disastrous
« Reply #11 on: July 07, 2016, 04:56:00 PM »
There's more going on with that broken member than rust. The break is way to clean and vertical - like it was jointed.

Offline Curt

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Re: Almost Disastrous
« Reply #12 on: July 07, 2016, 07:23:15 PM »
There's more going on with that broken member than rust. The break is way to clean and vertical - like it was jointed.

Someone on Facebook mentioned the very same thing.

I called Bear Trailers today but got routed to someone's voicemail. I left a message that didn't get returned.

I will be calling them again tomorrow.  :nod:

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Offline Curt

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Re: Almost Disastrous
« Reply #13 on: July 07, 2016, 07:28:55 PM »
after seeing those pics no way if it were mine would i put a boat on that again and tow it  dont care how good a welder he is  there is more rot then u see now somewhere.   

not so much for losing the boat but the guy behind you when it lets go.

@bullet20dc I hear ya with that. But I can't afford a new trailer at the moment, so I will have to make do with this one for the remainder of the season, while keeping a close eye on it.

The more I think about this, the more I think Bear Trailers should step up to the plate and do something about this, since it's clearly either defects in materials or poor workmanship. Either way, this trailer should have lasted for 15 years, bare minimum.

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Re: Almost Disastrous
« Reply #14 on: July 07, 2016, 08:00:18 PM »
i bet they blame it on us living in the salt belt in the winter  even tho we dont use it in the winter.   dont wanna pizz in your cheerios but i dont think u got chance in heck of gettin any satisfaction.  customline (rustomline) ( the one I have) had issues like this and they are gone and should I mention Gamblers stellar customer service   
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