As Navyeod said, the wheels need to have a zero offset. Also... the 205 6 plys would have been more than enough for this very light 50's dual axle trailer.
Yes. Dexstars were zero offset, I just double checked the part number and had my friend double check the wheels. They pulled the tires back off the trailer and he found one of the shock absorber mounts had been rewelded at some point too close to the wheel. It broke off by hand and appears to have been the cause of the blowout (very low speed, trailer, TV and driver were fine and just went back to the tire shop). The mount and shock on the other side were not rubbing on the tire, but he pulled them also.
After a very long day, Jeff, our friend who is towing the Overlander from San Diego to Seattle, managed to get everything operational. We now have functioning brakes, lights and a full set of new wheels and tires. It was quite a day, and I owe a ton of thanks to Jeff (as well as a fair amount of money). Because of work commitments and baby commitments here at home (we have a 5 month old and a 2 year old), I could not get down there to take part in this adventure. Jeff has been an incredible resource handling the pick up and getting our trailer road worthy.
The tires were re-installed by 2:30 this afternoon with no further problems. The removal of the offending shock absorber mount "by hand" was apparently a bit of an exaggeration. Jeff said it actually took quite a bit of effort, and apparently involved a large hammer. The tires are now performing fine and do not appear to be rubbing anywhere. Looks like we will be re-engineering the shock absorbers.
Because of the delays with the tires and a ton of trouble-shooting to discover all the shorts keeping the lights from working, Jeff didn't get out of the tire shop parking lot until nearly 6:00 tonight. On a good note, however, he drove about 30 miles on the freeway to stay at another friend's house tonight and had no problems at freeway speeds and on some fairly good hills outside of San Diego. On the downside, he is actually about 30 miles further south from us than he was this morning. But, in the overall scheme of things, that really won't matter.
He plans to try and get on the road again tomorrow morning, so hopefully things will start going in our favor.
The trip home for Capt. Wilson's Overlander is going well today. Jeff was out of San Diego County by 10:00 this morning and is now north of Woodland, California on his way to Redding for the night. The trailer and driver seem to be in a much better mood.
The trip home for Capt. Wilson's Overlander is going well today. Jeff was out of San Diego County by 10:00 this morning and is now north of Woodland, California on his way to Redding for the night. The trailer and driver seem to be in a much better mood.
It's always good when you can get all participants to cooperate.
Hopefully the remainder of the trip will continue to be uneventful.
Congratulations on getting the title details all sorted out and best of luck with the transport. '59's are the best!! Can't wait to see more photos once you get 'her' home.
Around 2:00 p.m. He made it to 90 miles south of Eugene last night and has been back on the road for over an hour already this morning. Time to clear out the parking space.
Jeff rolled in around 2:30 this afternoon with the Captain's Overlander looking even better than I expected. We spent the afternoon looking her over and giving numerous tours to curious neighbors. I feel like a kid in a candy shop. So much to explore and so much to clean and fix. The San Diego sun had taken a toll on everything plastic. Both the Astradome and the air conditioner shroud disintegrated during the trip north. Fortunately we have a new Astradome from Vintage Trailer Supply available and will install that tomorrow. The air conditioner shroud, however, presents a more difficult problem. I will have to spend some time inspecting the old 1950's/60's AC to determine whether it is at all worth saving and, if so, how we might go about replacing the shroud. If not, we will have to figure out how to remove it and patch whatever massive opening it leaves.
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