Well this weekend has been fairly busy for us, but that’s pretty normal. After getting the axle out of the trailer yesterday, I’ve decided to wait until more parts show up. I may putter away at removing some parts from the axle this week but I think I may need to invest in some PB blaster or something, moovit seems to be a bit weak.
I’ve also just ordered some parts from WKS today, so hopefully once they show up I’ll get the ball rolling and finish up the brake system by November, though my planned brake completion goal is December, so that I can spend the new year creating the new roof for the trailer and be ready to camp in late spring.
I still have a few pictures to shoot and post but the camera decided to grow legs and run away, so that has to wait for now, no doubt when I find it the battery will be dead…
Well the axle came out today. After a good soak in moovit overnight, and the help of the air impact, all four bolts came out with a bit of effort and patience. This will make rebuilding the brakes and lines on the axle much, much easier. Anytime you can avoid being on your back and working upside down, that’s a big benefit in my eyes.
I haven’t taken any pictures yet but will hopefully take some and post them later tonight or tomorrow and post a bit more information.
The last couple of days have been pretty quiet around here, mostly due to illness — no, not H1N1 — moving through our household. Now that everyone, including myself, has pretty much recovered, things are getting back to the normal type of chaos our household usually resembles.
I haven’t done much to the trailer in the last couple of days other than soak a few bolts in penetrating lube in the hopes that they may come off.
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As expected, the new master cylinder arrived today and I have just finished a quick test fit to make sure everything lined up. 100% success! Sadly, when I came out this morning, the shock absorber had leaked a bunch of the fluid so it looks like that part will need to be replaced.
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The first part of my planned winter trailer maintenance was to check the status of the wheel bearings and dig in to the braking system to see what needed to be replaced/serviced.
For more information on how surge brakes work, check out this eHow article.
As I mentioned in my previous post, the brake system is 100% non-operational, there is no brake fluid in the system, all but one of the brake shoes came off when I removed the drums and the master cylinder is seized up from years of sitting and more likely, lack of maintenance.
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A few months back, we (my wife) decided that we no longer wanted to sleep in tents on the ground. I was originally against any sort of towing with our van, as it’s tow ratings aren’t super high, however after some research and a few parts purchases (trans cooler, hitch, wiring…), the van was ready to tow a smaller tent trailer.
We didn’t want to spend a ton of money and didn’t mind doing a bit of work. After seeing several trailers we decided to venture a bit further from home and ended up purchasing a 1975 Lionel LP85 tent trailer. It originally appeared to be in better shape than we have come to find out, however the basics of the trailer are fine and it fit the budget.
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