Almost had a Bad Fishing Trip

[Sylamore]

I had planned a fishing trip to Lake Norfork planned this evening. Hooked up the boat and started giving it a pretrip check and found a wheel in real bad shape. Had a bearing burned out. I don't think I would have gone very far befor the wheel would have come completely off. Would have been bad news on these mountain roads and steep curves. Axle is OK but I will have to replace the hub. The grease seal sort of enlarged the hole in the hub where the seal is seated. I cannot figure out this one out because I check before every trip and look for grease on the tire rim, etc. The only thing I can figure is the bearing buddy was knocked out or just came out and the wheel tossed the grease enough for it to get hot.
The point is the pretrip check keep me off the road with a trailer wheel that would have failed and maybe caused a bad accident.:thumb:

[octoberbuck]

Sounds like the voice of experience. A race that is welded to an axle is no fun to chisle off beside the road. Gald you doid the check!!

[firehog]

Syl,,,,my family is going to be visited your town this weekend.....They will be clogging, like jitter bugs, while I help ADHA with foodplots....:thumb:

[Sylamore]

firehog,

Yep the cloggers are coming this weekend. My wife really enjoys the clogging.
Come on over the price of gas is dropping and you can fill up at Walmart for $2.52 a gal. or go on down the road a ways to Leslie, AR and get it for $2.30/gal. Lots of tourists in town right now. Mostly senior types. :thumb:

[Sylamore]

Sounds like the voice of experience. A race that is welded to an axle is no fun to chisle off beside the road. Gald you doid the check!!

You got that right and I have been there and done that. The last time was helping a tourist on the road at 1:30 am and he had no idea where to start.
Would you believe I had spare bearings and a seal. The ole guy tried to give me a $100 bill for fixing his trailer but I would not take it. I took the cap off of his other wheel to get enough grease to get him into town. The old guy was 85 years old and it pretty bad health. He sure had a good attitude and personality and I enjoyed helping him. :thumb:

[firehog]

My mom and daughter will be cutten a rug, Keep a eye out for the Crowley's Ridge Cloggers. Wife and MIL just watches... And I go hunting on this weekend...Or I would be up there watching. :thumb:

[Earnhardt fan #1]

I was in the area:biggrin: hunting tree rats.cleaning and all the before season opens stuff we all try and put off till the last minute:frown:

[Sylamore]

I was in the area:biggrin: hunting tree rats.cleaning and all the before season opens stuff we all try and put off till the last minute:frown:

Those little tree rats are pretty wild right now.The females are nesting and those old buck squirrels are really spooky. Did you have any luck?
:thumb:

[iliv2fish_ac]

I had driven down to fish Northfork lake from West Plains Mo for the weekend.Everything went smoothly until the ride home when after about 5 miles down the road or so on a narrow Arkansas 2 lane roller coaster road My son said to me hey dad the boat just went flying off the trailer:smack:
I said what and he repeated what he had told me.Moments later when I turned my head and looked back there was shower of sparks going down the hiway behind us.I looked for the nearest turn around place I could find and sped back to where the boat had came off at about 1/4 mile down the road.As it was the clamp on my cable wich locked the boat down to the trailer had came lose or broke.Needless to say I count my blessings on how lucky I was that nobody got hurt and the boat didnt go flying through anyones car windshield behind me.Me,a buddy and my son picked up the boat which fortunately was 15 ft aluminum with 35hp merc and loaded it back on the trailer.After a close inspection of everything be fastened down we made the trip the rest of the way home.Once returning home an inspection of the boat and lower unit of the motor revield no damage except some minor scraping on the hull bottom rib near the front.Back to the lake the next weekend.To my relief the boat motor ran better than ever.I came up with better and revamped fastening system to ensure myself that this would never happen again.I had pulled this boat all over southern Mo and NW Arkansas with out anything like this ever happening before.Lesson learned from this experience.

[Sylamore]

iliv2fish ac,

Welcome to the Forum!

I would say you were really lucky not to damage your boat/motor or see someone get hurt. I have never lost a boat from a trailer. Mine is fiberglass and that would be a total wipe out.

I did have an accident one time going fishing and towing my bass boat. It was about four years ago. I was going through a small town on the way (Shirley, AR) to Greers Ferry Lake. State Hwy 9, has several real sharp curves going down a steep hill through the town. A young high school aged female driver forced me into the ditch on one of these 90 degree curves and my boat trailer wheel fell off the end of the culvert. That broke the leaf spring and caused the axle to turn 90 degrees. I was lucky the boat went into the ditch rather than cross over into on coming traffic. I was only going 10-15 MPH but that would have or could have been a really bad accident. The boat/trailer went home on a wrecker. The insurance company bought me a brand new trailer and allowed me to upgrade to a double axle trailer at no extra cost. The young female driver never looked back and just drove off.

The whole point of this is that I have another item on on my pretrip check list.
I crawl under the trailer and check those springs to be sure they are in good condition with no cracks or signs of possible failure or loose U-bolts. :thumb:

Are you doing any ice fishing?

[bps12]

my paw-in-law lives on lake norfork in Briarcliff, overlooking the lake.

[Sylamore]

my paw-in-law lives on lake norfork in Briarcliff, overlooking the lake.

Does he have one of those big new houses that over looks the lake? That would be like living in heaven I am sure. I enjoy fishing out of the Jordan Corp-of-Engineers Recreation area and go up there fairly often. Seems to me the fish populations are improving on Lake Norfork. It was sort of like the Dead Sea for a while. :thumb:

[HANDGUNNER]

OUCH !! lUCKY YA FOUND IT !! I HAVE AN OLD DRY-BOX.....JUST BIG ENOUGH TO HOLD A SET OF SPARE BEARINGS, WHEEL BEARING GREASE, AND A 1 1/2 TON BOTTLE JACK, AND A FEW EXTRA THINGS.......JUST IN CASE I NEED EM 1 ONCE, DRIVING BACK FROM MCGEHEE TO CAMDEN, I WAS JUST WEST OF WARREN...LATE ON A SUNDAY NIGHT. I HAD STAYED LATE AT MY FOLKS, TO EAT DINNER CAUSE MY SIS AND HER FAMILY WERE IN FROM THE CAROLINAS......ANYWAY, WAS PULLING MY DUCK BOAT, AND I THOUGH, THERE SURE IS A LOT OF ROAD NOISE....ANYWAY, I HIT A LITTLE SWAG IN THE ROAD, AND WHEN I LOOKED BACK, I SAW SPARKS........I HIT THE SHOULDER, AND THE RIGHT REAR 12 INCH TIRE/RIM WAS NOW ABOUT 8 INCHES TALL !!!!! HAD BLOWN A TIRE, AND RUN IT ON THE RIM FOR I DON'T KNOW HOW LONG......I STAY IN THE MIRRORS, AND I DON'T KNOW HOW I MISSED IT.ANYWAY, MY SPARE WAS CLOSE TO FLAT.....AND NO AIR COMPRESSOR............I LIMPED INTO HAMPTON, AND GOT SOME AIR..........SO NOW I ALSO CARRY ONE OF THOSE 12 VOLT COMPRESSORS TOO!!! ALSO.....IF YOU CARRY ONE.......YOU MIGHT NEED TO MAKE AN EXTENSION CORD FOR THE PLUG ON IT........CAUSE IT WON'T REACH FROM THE CAB TO THE TRAILER, UNLESS YA UN HOOK THE TRLR...........GOT A SOLUTION TO THAT....GOT THOSE SIDE BED TOOL BOXES......I WIRED AN EXTRA 12V AUXILARY PLUG, ON A SWITCH AT THE BACK OF THE TOOL BOX..INSIDE, OUT OF THE WEATHER..........THE CORD REACHES NOW, AND IT ALL FITS NICELY IN THE COMPRESSOR !!!

[bps12]

He lives on the south side of the lake by the dam. You can't get to the water from his house but he has an awesome view looking across the lake at the sand island.

[Predator]

What's a clogger? Do they wear clogs? I think those are shoes people from Holland wear.

I'll add a link.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clogging

And another.http://www.clogon.com