Caution VERRRY LONG!!!
Our vacation trip from hell was long ago while towing a soft top tent trailer with a 67 Buick Special from Montreal to Prince Edward Island. 2 adults, 4 kids under 12, 2 who were motion sick, and a big dog. Just outside of Fredericton NB a tire blew. Not so bad, Canadian Tire was just down the road a bit. Well, what had caused the tire to blow was a broken leaf spring causing the box to drop down and rub on the tire. After installing a new tire and wheel, I was able to block the trailer box up enough to continue.
That afternoon we stopped a little further down the road and put out the trailer. It started to rain and the wind came up. We were told that it was the tail end of a hurricane that had passed close to the area. The rain was so hard the tent started leaking so I went outside and took down the canvas awning and doubled it back over the trailer roof, tying it to a picnic table on the opposite side. GOOD!! no more leaks!!
We packed up next morning, the tent was still wet but we had little choice, and set out for the ferry to PEI.
Arrival was uneventful until.... we started to set up the trailer in the PEI campground. Unfortunately the now pretty much dry tent had shrunk and I was unable to button down the edges. After lowering the support brackets about 1.5", everything fit again.
Now to tackle the broken leaf spring!! I blocked up the trailer and went to work taking off the wheels and started on the U-Bolts holding the springs to the axle. Well, 'someone' before me had had some difficulty and ended up welding the nuts to the U-Bolt. A good hard pull with my extended socket wrench solved that but the U-bolts we now too short. The new springs were not a problem as they were sold at the local Canadian Tire but u-bolts of that size were not available. I noted that the 'someone' in the past had made up his own by welding threaded rod to the U of the original bolt, I guess because they were an oddball size. Fortunately, I found a welding shop/blacksmith and had them make up 4 new ones. I picked them up the next day, unfortunately at noon hour, where the workers had all gone to lunch but the guy on duty found them ok on the foundry floor. Naturally the grommets and bolts that came with the new springs were too big compared to the brackets welded to the trailer so I would have to re-use the old bolts and needed new rubber grommets. I had found a bunch of rubber grommets on the parking lot of a shock replacement shop to make grommets for the new springs. Ready to go!!, I put the new springs in place and found that the saddle the spring sits on had the hole for the rivet plugged. That 'someone' had welded a nut into the hole on the last job!!.
Down comes the axle and I go looking for someone to drill it out. I found an old garage where the primary work was on farm equipment. They fixed up my problem by cutting the old saddles off and put new ones on. Off I went back to the campground, installed the axle, and the new springs. I was able to cut and fix up the old shock absorber rubber to fit. Got the new u-bolts in place and started to tighten them up and the first one twisted!!!! They had not yet been hardened by the fabricator, unknown to the guy who gave them to me several days before. After straightening the twisted one I put the nuts on them and waited for the evening campfire where they were tossed into it. When red hot I took them out and dunked them in water, Hardened!!! Good thing I had screwed on the nuts because getting them off again took a lot of effort, but at least, they went back on with minimum effort later....
Tidied everything up nicely, put the wheels back on and took the trailer down from the blocks, all set to enjoy the remaining week or so of our stay. Oh yeah!!!
The day of departure, it was pouring again. We had to get going to meet the ferry and so left while it was still dark. We got about half way to the ferry and I notice my left trailer wheel was passing me by on the highway. I slowed down on the side of the road and the trailer dragged its way to a stop. I had forgotten to tighten up the wheel nuts on the back side (drivers) of the trailer after taking it off the blocks and the 4 nuts were no where to be found. After recovering the wheel down the road, I stole 2 Nuts from the right side and got it temporarily in place on and turned back, looking for somewhere to buy some new nuts. After several false alarms, including a trailer dealer, I tried a Chrysler dealer and he GAVE me 6 new wheel nuts, He must have felt sorry for me, I guess. After putting everything back in order, we set out for the ferry, finally ending up on the New Brunswick side at 9:00 pm still in the pouring rain. Well, guess where we stayed that night that night!! The first motel we came across.
From that point on everything went ok until, at one rest stop outside of Quebec City on the south shore, I noticed the new wheel had a lot of 'oil' running down. Yup!, the grease cap went missing somewhere between NB and there. Moving very slowly we found another Canadian Tire and bought a new cap and some bearing grease. The rest of the trip was uneventful but I was glad to get back to work for a rest!!!!!!
We did end up breaking springs again over the years but installing new ones was now a snap because of the previous repairs and new U bolts I had installed previously. We dragged that old trailer from Montreal to New Hampshire (another spring changed, but beefed up this time by a spring shop!), Cape May, New Jersey several times and many local camping trips. It served us well. When I sold it, I wished I had had several more, it was in high demand and was sold for a lot more than I had paid for it at the time. For you Canadians reading this, the references to good old Canadian Tire will be obvious!!! The 'someone' referred to was NOT me. I doubt it was the previous owner either as I new him well, he was a neighbour. These trailers had originally been supplied as campground villages for the Worlds Fair Expo67 visitors, held in Montreal that year, who knows who had built them !!!
