While I sat idly by and watched the action, Gary has worked this entire past week on the Terry trailer. Cindy (the new owner), will be taking it over 400 miles away, and Gary wanted to make sure that it's as roadworthy as he can possibly make it. He has done far more work on it than I was expecting. It all started with a new pair of tires to replace the old ones that were 16 years old. I'm surprised he didn't paint the wheel rims too, but I guess he's leaving that up to Cindy. While the tires and wheels were off, he checked out the non-functioning brakes, and cleaned and re-packed the wheel bearings and all the related parts. He determined that one wheel bearing was bad, so he replaced it with a new one. Those bearings were NASTY!!! It took several cleanings to get them looking good and ready for the new grease. He packed them with red high-temperature grease, just like he uses on me. The wires were cut for the electric brakes, so he spliced them back together and checked for function. They work! After LOTS of cleaning, everything brake and bearing related was reassembled. Then the new tires and rusty old rims were put back on. Next, he worked on the roof. There didn't appear to be any leaks inside the trailer, but the old sealer on the roof seams was cracked and missing in places. So, he scraped off the loose stuff, cleaned the roof, and during the course of the week, he applied four coats of fresh sealer to all the roof seams. Cindy is planning to paint the entire roof with Kool Seal, but the important thing for now was to seal it up from any possible leaks. Mission accomplished. The Terry hasn't had a tag bracket or tag light since Gary has owned it, so a combo unit was installed. The light was wired in to the running lights. Next up was something that Gary doesn't do....weld. There was extensive rust around the tongue jack, and also on top of the frame rails in the area where the propane tank holding tray used to sit. Gary called on Aaron at B&B Trailers to access the damage, and give his opinion of the best way to fix it. Aaron has done several jobs for Gary in the past, and he always does great work. Four hours after Gary dropped the Terry off to Aaron, he was hauling it back home again, all fixed up. Aaron welded some angle iron to the top of the frame rails to strengthen them, replaced the rusted out coupler with a new one, re-mounted the tongue jack, and welded on a pair of safety chains. With fresh metal in place, Gary cleaned up the whole tongue area, sprayed on a couple of coats of Rustoleum primer, and then painted it with two coats of Rustoleum gloss white. Lookin' GOOD!!! In addition to all of this work, there were lots of small things done that I didn't include pictures of. For example, the broken roof vent was replaced with a new one. He also installed a lock in the electric cable hatch. Sometime during the week, he also had keys cut for the Bargman door lock. The Terry is supposed to be hitting the road in just a few days. All of the essential things that needed to be worked on are done, and Gary feels confident that the voyage to it's new home will be a trouble free one. That's the news from this past week. I'll talk with you again soon. Your Pal, Toaster.
While I sat idly by and watched the action, Gary has worked this entire past week on the Terry trailer. Cindy (the new owner), will be taking it over 400 miles away, and Gary wanted to make sure that it's as roadworthy as he can possibly make it. He has done far more work on it than I was expecting. It all started with a new pair of tires to replace the old ones that were 16 years old. I'm surprised he didn't paint the wheel rims too, but I guess he's leaving that up to Cindy. While the tires and wheels were off, he checked out the non-functioning brakes, and cleaned and re-packed the wheel bearings and all the related parts. He determined that one wheel bearing was bad, so he replaced it with a new one. Those bearings were NASTY!!! It took several cleanings to get them looking good and ready for the new grease. He packed them with red high-temperature grease, just like he uses on me. The wires were cut for the electric brakes, so he spliced them back together and checked for function. They work! After LOTS of cleaning, everything brake and bearing related was reassembled. Then the new tires and rusty old rims were put back on. Next, he worked on the roof. There didn't appear to be any leaks inside the trailer, but the old sealer on the roof seams was cracked and missing in places. So, he scraped off the loose stuff, cleaned the roof, and during the course of the week, he applied four coats of fresh sealer to all the roof seams. Cindy is planning to paint the entire roof with Kool Seal, but the important thing for now was to seal it up from any possible leaks. Mission accomplished. The Terry hasn't had a tag bracket or tag light since Gary has owned it, so a combo unit was installed. The light was wired in to the running lights. Next up was something that Gary doesn't do....weld. There was extensive rust around the tongue jack, and also on top of the frame rails in the area where the propane tank holding tray used to sit. Gary called on Aaron at B&B Trailers to access the damage, and give his opinion of the best way to fix it. Aaron has done several jobs for Gary in the past, and he always does great work. Four hours after Gary dropped the Terry off to Aaron, he was hauling it back home again, all fixed up. Aaron welded some angle iron to the top of the frame rails to strengthen them, replaced the rusted out coupler with a new one, re-mounted the tongue jack, and welded on a pair of safety chains. With fresh metal in place, Gary cleaned up the whole tongue area, sprayed on a couple of coats of Rustoleum primer, and then painted it with two coats of Rustoleum gloss white. Lookin' GOOD!!! In addition to all of this work, there were lots of small things done that I didn't include pictures of. For example, the broken roof vent was replaced with a new one. He also installed a lock in the electric cable hatch. Sometime during the week, he also had keys cut for the Bargman door lock. The Terry is supposed to be hitting the road in just a few days. All of the essential things that needed to be worked on are done, and Gary feels confident that the voyage to it's new home will be a trouble free one. That's the news from this past week. I'll talk with you again soon. Your Pal, Toaster.
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