<VV> Corvair trailering

[henry kaczmarek]

Chuck
Great Ideas for Everyone, whether it's a car or a boat trailer.
As you know, Lot's of hills coming through NC VA WVA and PA. When you get to 
Erie PA it will flatten out. Canada is fairly flat in the areas you'll be 
traveling, but it's a long trip to get there.

My house in NC to my Mom's in Buffalo is 635 miles.

Hank
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Louis C. Armer,Jr." <carmerjr at mindspring.com>
To: <virtualvairs at corvair.org>
Sent: Thursday, July 13, 2006 1:11 AM
Subject: <VV> Corvair trailering


> Hello everyone, Yesterday and today I undertook my annual inspection and 
> repair of Darth Vair's ride to Mosport and Buffalo. I first went to the 
> local coin car wash and washed the trailer down thoroughly with the engine 
> degreaser option and scrubbed from stem to stern with a red scotch brite 
> pad to remove all grease oxidized paint etc. from the fenders and bed of 
> the trailer. Then I power rinsed
> everything and let the trailer bake in our 90%+ Georgia sunshine. This was 
> followed by a trip to the local ACE hardware where their
> "Now and Later" spray paint was on sale at 2 for $3. This trailer is 
> outside at Ted Fahrenthold's shop or my driveway 365 days a year and it 
> needed a paint renewal. 12 cans of gloss black and presto we are spruced 
> up and ready for the road.
>      Today I pulled all four wheels and the spare and reinspected the 
> tires for nails screws etc., general condition of the tires, all 5 valve 
> stems were replaced last year and all checked out okay. Next the brake 
> drums were pulled and each assembly sprayed and cleaned with aerosol brake 
> cleaner, linings inspected, wheel bearings inspected and greased, drums 
> cleaned and all reassembled. I had a first for  me. On the front tandem 
> axle which is about a year old, (the previous front axle assembly was 
> stolen off the parked and secured trailer, another story) I found two 
> rather discouraging and totally unexpected safety issues. The first issue 
> was the "new" brake drums had no rim build-up at their inner lip where 
> they meet the backing plate. This allowed water to enter the inside of the 
> brake drums on both sides of the trailer while sitting in the parking lot 
> at Teds shop. Simple driving rain was the obvious culprit and the 
> condition was more serious on the side of the trailer that did not have 
> another vehicle parked close to buffer the driving rain. The end results 
> were considerably more rust on the drum lining and a frozen star adjuster 
> on one side. All these trailer axles now have many Chinese components and 
> I have little doubt that most if not all of the brake and drum assembly 
> were manufactured in China. I had to scrub both brake drums with a scotch 
> brite pad to remove the interior rust. I had to completely remove the 
> rusted star adjuster, spray it liberally with PB Blaster, and secure it in 
> my bench vice to work it loose. Now of course this was the fourth wheel 
> that caused this problem. With the bench vice and vice grips I was able to 
> finally free the adjuster threads and reassemble the brakes on that wheel. 
> The four year old rear axle which DID have the normal inner rim build-up 
> (looks just like our Corvair drums) showed little or no symptoms of the 
> problem. Now one of the points in this long post is you may want to check 
> your new(er) trailer brakes and see if you have the drums that cause this 
> type of problem. The second point is you need to adust your trailer brakes 
> once a year or at least every 3-4000 miles since they are not self 
> adjusting brakes. These Chinese star adjusters appear to have a very high 
> ferrous content and rusted very easily and quickly. They are nowhere near 
> the quality of our Corvair adjusters and I would use Corvair adjusters if 
> they would fit but they are too short in length.
> If you are towing, it's time to inspect, repair or replace as needed so 
> you have a safe trailer to haul your Corvair to the races and/or the 
> Convention. My trip to Cedar Rapids last year was over 2000 miles in tow 
> and this year I suspect it will be at least 2500 miles
> and lots of  mountains and hills where I sure want a safe trailer beneath 
> Darth Vair.
>
> Chuck Armer
>
> CORSA Member
> CORSA Tri-membership Chairman
> Corvair Atlanta Member
> Corvair Atlanta BOD
> Corvanatics Member
> SECC Member
>
> 1965 Corsa Coupe
> 1964  Greenbrier
> 1966 Monza Convertible
> 1966 WTBRT #112 xcrosser 1/2 owner
> http://carmerjr.home.mindspring.com/ 
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