Ep.15 - Straightening Our Bent Boat Trailer Axle

Straightening our bent boat trailer axle is something we've been putting off since we bought the boat over a year ago. We used an old railroad tie as a straightening platform. With a little help from a Porta - power and a few chains, we were able to straighten the axle with no problem.

[@johnfugate3432]

I used your video to fix my axel it saved me a lot of money thanks for posting it

[@smenh1]

Bret you are a smart man I would have never thank of that...Great Job.

[@bretbecky711]

scott parks Thank you very much! I'm just a poor man and I have to make do.

[@Tryingyourbestatwhateveryoudo]

Oh man I had a axle that was bent exactly like yours but I didn't think about doing what you did so I got rid of it but that was a great idea thanks

[@arednecksgarage]

I got couple axles that got overloaded and are bent just like yours I believe I can do this also to fix mine Thank you very much for posting this

[@AlexC80]

Good ideas Thanks

[@nelsonmachineshop2032]

It should tow much better now, good job. Amazing how strong those old railroad ties are.

[@bretbecky711]

Nelson Machine They are strong! And that one had been in our yard for about 15 years and was a little rotten :P

[@luiscollazo6511]

Very helpful

[@niterbum]

awesome work folks......i have to do the clothes line post and i think this method will do it thank you

[@bretbecky711]

Thanks!!

[@johnfugate3432]

That will help me thanks

[@ianutube22]

I have a wood splitter with a bent spindle/axle. The problem in my case is that the spindle is one complete piece which is welded onto the trailer so it can't be removed. What I did to fix it was wrap a piece of a paper towel around the spindle then some tape to hold it in place. I put a stout pipe around the spindle and stood on the end as far out as I could and used my body weight to slowly bend it. It is not very precise as I didn't measure the camber/toe but I got it close enough for my purposes.

[@bretbecky711]

Ha! Great idea! I'm sure it'll be close enough. I get irritated when people make excuses for not being able to do something. You can do whatever you set your mind to doing. It would've been great if you would have uploaded a video of you straightening yours so people could see that anything's possible. Good job!!

[@zackkasey]

Nice! I just notices our pontoon boat trailer axle is sagging a little in the middle causing the insides of the tires to wear out. I think i can use your method and straighten it out. Thanks for the great video. Keep it up!

[@bretbecky711]

Thank you! Best of luck straightening your axle. If you decide to video yours, I'd love to watch it!

[@brendaleetv]

Ill try that to streightened my truck bed cross bar that its used to mount bicycles. The bent is not that bad but its annoying.

[@dchevak]

I was wondering why you never.added any heat when letting stretch just a question 🤔 I like the way you did it just wondering if adding heat would benefit

[@captainedc]

You did an awesome job there. The only thing I would add is did u make sure the center of the axle had a preloaded BOW upwards to it ? If not that was definitely the time to add it. Over time and from overloading it that bow often disappears. Especially in your case I'm guessing. Great work though.

[@bretbecky711]

Thank you!

[@Bhangujatt3191]

Nice ji man

[@zzzz-ko9kn]

Hey how do you measure it when I do it I just eyeball it and it takes a few times

[@bretbecky711]

I probably could eyeball it too and get it close enough that it wouldn't scrub the rubber off of the tires, but I thought I'd be proper since I was making a video. All I did was measure from one hub to the other one on the front side and the rear side. It would be more accurate if I had vise gripped a straight edge to each hub and formed an "H" so that I had a longer surface to measure. Thanks for watching!

[@mikemaben7485]

Hydraulic jack wrk ?

[@trueamerican1576]

Nice now come straighten mine

[@bretbecky711]

:P

[@JustMe-mg6vw]

Love the lady’s accent. Southern Alabama?

[@OlumVaaa]

Hey! what stage you guys at with the project? Like to hear from you. :)

[@bretbecky711]

+OlumVaaa We're finishing up all of the loose ends now. We only have a few days of work left to do but we're sidetracked helping our daughter paint her school bus...ugh.

[@OlumVaaa]

Good luck!

[@daleolson3506]

There is a crack in the weld where the water is coming out

[@bretbecky711]

It's not a crack, it's a stitch weld. The factory stitch welded it in case a crack did develop so the crack wouldn't continue. Thanks for pointing it out though. A lot of people either didn't notice it or didn't say anything about it.

[@mingohernandez6475]

How did the bearings and races look?

[@bretbecky711]

I haven't taken it apart to look at the bearings and races yet, but when I spin it I can feel flat spots in one of the bearings. I bought a used axle yesterday that I will be adding to the trailer so that it will be a tandem trailer and one of those bearings also feels a little rough :( So....now I have to try to find bearings and races for two axles that are unidentifiable. I think that all I can do is get out the micrometer and try to find bearings and races that will fit. I'll probably look on Ebay first. Thanks for watching and taking time to comment.....Bret.

[@mingohernandez6475]

+Bret Becky yea the bearings themselves should have a part number on them . if not just take the old ones with ya to the parts store and match . good luck

[@johnh6791]

I wish I lived nearby so you can help me straighten mine out. :/

[@bretbecky711]

Now that ours is straight, we have to add a second axle to the trailer and make it a tandem to support the extra weight we added to the boat :(

[@johnh6791]

Welp, better safe than sorry! Nice boat BTW. I love the water too. I take my boat out almost every day of the year. I was traveling down a 45 MPH road and a damn dog ran out from a bush and the trailer wheel hit him and he bounced off and ran away but it bent the stub shaft of the axle up and toed out. The actual axle tube is fine.

[@bretbecky711]

That sucks. The alternative to straightening it is spending between $150.00 - $300.00 US dollars for a new axle and some unpleasant work. I don't know where you live, but I'm envious of you because you're able to take your boat out so often. We recently acquired a Jon boat and trailer (without a motor) but I found cheap Chinese made 9 hp motors for $200 bucks. I'm going to order one even if it's not the greatest motor, because I could at least get out on the water more often with it. I didn't see any boat videos on your KZbin. If you ever decide to video your boat adventures, we would love to watch them (as would a lot of other people on KZbin) Just a thought.

[@timberslasher4899]

These axles are supposed to be bent on the middle a little but not out on the end...

[@mickstermouseter7059]

Isn't that really hard on the bearings to put so much pressure on them?? Maybe removing the hub and lifting under the spindle would be a good idea. Otherwise great video. Thanks

[@bretbecky711]

+Mickster Mouseter You're absolutely right, but the bearings already had a few flat spots on them and needed to be replaced anyway. Thanks for watching and commenting!

[@mickstermouseter7059]

I used your info to straighten the axle on my utility trailer today. It looks much better. Thanks for the great video.

[@bretbecky711]

Mickster Mouseter I'm glad you got it straightened out. I hope you made a video of it, I'd love to see it :)

[@mickstermouseter7059]

Sorry no video, but it sure looks and pulls better. :-)

[@tomjeffersonwasright2288]

Any fool can straighten an axle with a 5 million dollar shop. I have to admire a man who can do the same job with a railroad tie, chains, and a jack. And If you have any idea how to extract a driveshaft frozen into the splines of the crankshaft on a 15 HP Evinrude, I am all ears.

[@bretbecky711]

Thanks and no I don't :(

[@yerwrng]

Who cares if the bearings or both bearing and race get fubar they are pennies and pulling the hub takes minutes and minutes to pack a new bearing and put it in...if the race is messed up just knock it out with punch and shave it so it fits in the bore but can slip out and use it to drive in the new race ...lol...folks griping about bearing/race must pay a shop $$$ to do a $5 dollar job .

[@SailingCorina]

That axle is so small and in such bad condition it would make SO much more sense to order a new one online. SMH