RETRIEVING THE HOBIE
 

My lovely girlfriend and I drove over her college Spring Break to Wisconsin from Mississippi to retrieve my boat from disuse. Going into this I knew there would be some issues. Mainly I knew the tires were flat on the trailer from sitting for seven years. I also suspected that the bearings would have to be checked and probably re-packed. The trip was about 1500 miles up, mostly on freeway. We spent one night in St. Louis, MO. Not a bad drive, but pretty far in a light pickup.



My lovely girlfriend pointing at county road M, near our cabin


Soon we were at my cabin, and after borrowing some shovels from the neighbor, we got started clearing the snow from the front of the garage.


My lovely girlfriend starting to shovel out a path from the front of the cabin garage

During the daytime it was usually in the high 30s(°F) so it was pretty nice, but everything would ice over at night. This made me work rather fast, as the garage had no heater. First thing I did after arrival while Ming was shoveling was remove the wheels from the trailer.

Here you can see the basic steps in removing the wheel from the trailer... on the left is a picture of the wheel, all dirty with a ridiculously flattened tire on it. The trailer has just been jacked up and the wheel is now a few inches off the floor. On the right you can see the dust cover has been removed, exposing the castle nut and the old, icky wheel bearing grease. Astute readers will also note this is the other wheel.



The castle nut has a cotter pin going through it, which must be removed before you can unscrew the nut. Once the castle nut has been removed, a bit of wiggling will get the wheel off. Note: this only applies to old-school trailers without lug nuts. It was a trip for me to deal with this after only having experience with cars & trucks that have lug nuts. Aaaaaanyway....


 Now the wheel has been completely removed. On the left is the wheel with some old grease inside, as well as the (since I don't know their technical name) angled metal that fits in the hub on which the wheel bearings roll. I did not, at the time of taking this picture, realize that these come out of the hub. On the right you can see the spindle, sans wheel or bearings. This was the left (facing forward) spindle. The one on the right gave me more trouble. I wiped both spindles off very thoroughly to remove all traces of the old grease, since it was likely contaminated with all kinds of icky stuff.



The inner wheel bearing on the right spindle (when facing forwards) gave me a ridiculous amount of trouble. I couldn't get it off there no matter how hard I tried. The other bearings came right off, but this one was stuck. Tapping it with a hammer didn't work. Gently heating one side with a torch didn't work. Ultimately I put the female side of a six-inch ˝"-drive ratchet extension on it and hit it hard with a hammer. After several such hits, the bearing moved a bit. Then I moved the ratchet extension about 120° around the bearing and struck it again. By going around and around the bearing with the extension, I was able to work it off, with the bearing going maybe one-half millimeter for every time I hit it. As I suppose you can imagine, it took me some time to work it about 6" off the spindle. In fact, I was late going into the supper my lovely girlfriend was preparing due to my determination to complete this task.


I hate this bearing, which came apart during its removal.

In the morning we drove into town to have new tires put on the wheels. The old 8" rims were too small for the shop to use the normal tire-mounting machine, so the fella had to use a big screwdriver to put them on. Then he wound up having to take the tires (Carlisle USA Trail 4.80 - 8s) off again to put tubes inside since he couldn't get them to "pop" out against the rim and form a seal to hold the air in. Anyway, cost to me - $20. While he was doing that, we went to the nearby (10 miles distant) NAPA to get a new wheel bearing kit, and over to the famous Poplar Hardware to get salt for in front of the garage, among other things. (Okay, well it's famous in my family.)


Ming in front of Poplar Hardware

When we got back to my cabin, I packed Amsoil™ synthetic Water-Resistant Grease into the bearings. I've had excellent results with Amsoil™ synthetic lubricant products in the past and this grease was no exception, as you'll discover if you keep reading. It's cold work, packing bearings in March in northern Wisconsin. Finally I got them all taken care of, the wheel bearing kits installed, and the wheels back on the trailer.


Everyone I spoke with said to pack wheel bearings, you have to put grease in your hand and then
"scoop" the bearing towards you, which forces grease up into the bearing. You have to repeat this process
until you can see the grease goosh up through the top of the bearing, then you turn and repeat
until it's packed all the way around. This bearing is almost done.

 Having a wheel bearing seize on the road was one of my biggest fears. Fortunately I guess I over-compensated, since everyone also told me not to touch my wheel hubs because they might be hot and burn my fingers, but with the Amsoil™ grease in the hubs they weren't warm, even after two hours at 75MPH! I'd like to get Bearing Buddies soon though, as I've heard they make things even better.

Anyway, the time came to get the boat out of the garage, and I succeeded in getting my truck stuck in the ice out front of the garage. I was about to go borrow the neighbors' 4x4 when my girlfriend asked if we couldn't just push the boat out. I told her I didn't think so, but we could try. Once again my girlfriend made me look silly, as seemingly without any effort whatsoever we pushed the boat easily out of the garage, up the small hill of ice, and behind Mr. Truck where I subsequently hitched the trailer. Then I spent much time with two packs of Zip-ties attaching everything very firmly to the trailer for the upcoming 1500-mile trek back to Mississippi.


Mr. Boat attached to Mr. Truck out in front of the cabin garage prior to departure


Sadly, not 100 miles down the road to Minneapolis, the ratcheting tie-downs holding Mr. Boat to the trailer failed me, and the Hobie bounced slightly off the trailer, gouging the inside of the left hull about 30% of the way back on the inside. Frustrated, I called my father who recommended the big black rubber bungee cords. I stopped at the next hardware store and purchased four, for a total of $10. The boat was rock solid on the trailer thereafter.

When I arrived at my grandmother's house in Minneapolis, I determined that my truck alternator had gone bad, so the next morning I located and installed a new one.


Mr. Boat attached to Mr. Truck out in front of my grandmother's house in Minneapolis


Unfortunately for me, another 150 miles down the road towards MS, alternator problems began to manifest themselves again and therefore we only made it to Wisconsin Dells before the battery got too low to continue. Therefore we got a room at the Best Western and decided to wait until morning before continuing on. When the AM rolled around, we got breakfast, charged the battery, and drove to Madison, WI in search of another new alternator.


Mr. Boat attached to Mr. Truck in the Best Western parking lot in Wisconsin Dells


After several frustrating hours in Madison, a helpful mechanic at an Isuzu dealer suggested that the problem might not be in the new alternator, but rather a faulty wire. I tested his theory by splicing in a new wire and my truck has been purring ever since. If you're in need of Isuzu advice in Madison, stop by the dealer and ask for Eric! We made it to just south of St. Louis that afternoon, driving through winds of 30 gusting to 45MPH. I observed small ponds with one-foot waves. I also observed the trailer one-wheeling it a few times. This was a very disturbing sight, which caused me to drive about 55mph for much of the afternoon until the winds died down shortly after sunset. In the morning we continued on, stopping for breakfast at the Cracker Barrel just north of the MO / AR border. Delicious!


Mr. Boat attached to Mr. Truck in the Cracker Barrel parking lot in southern Missouri
Note the lack of snow.


Finally we arrived back in Mississippi about 7:30PM on the third day of driving. The boat sat in my dormitory parking lot overnight, then the next day we took it to my friend's house, where he already has four boats in his yard. We will be fixing it up and cleaning it up over the next couple weeks and then taking it out sailing very soon thereafter!

     
                Mr. Boat in my dorm parking lot.                                      My lovely girlfriend displaying Mr. Boat at my friend's house.


Go on to Part Two

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