FoolsHumor Posted July 16, 2010 Share Posted July 16, 2010 Hello, Could someone please offer a suggestion? I have read the posts about drive train windup and the painted white stripes for a visual check. Is it possible to tell if an individual wheel station is damaged by jacking it up and attempting to roll the wheel? Or possibly getting all wheels on one side off the ground to see if they will roll together? What is the weak component that typically breaks? Thanks for the help. Regards, Bob Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
montie Posted July 16, 2010 Share Posted July 16, 2010 Hello, Could someone please offer a suggestion? I have read the posts about drive train windup and the painted white stripes for a visual check. Is it possible to tell if an individual wheel station is damaged by jacking it up and attempting to roll the wheel? Or possibly getting all wheels on one side off the ground to see if they will roll together? What is the weak component that typically breaks? Thanks for the help. Regards, Bob Hi Bob, The wheel circumferences on each side should be as close as possible. This would mean that you need to remove all wheels and make up two sets with the closest dimensions. Futhermore, your tyre pressures are also important. Assembly of the tracta's and especially the reduction hubs are critical, they do self destruct! It almost like driving a vehicle with 3 locked diffs! Cheers, Monty. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paulob1 Posted July 16, 2010 Share Posted July 16, 2010 Hmm this old wives tail...there are a number of issues that affect the fixed drive lines on the vehicles you mention...however of all the vehicles the stalwart was perhaps the worst affected due to a number of reasons. first if you pick up a vehicle and run it you will see one hub either not turning or not turning as it should, a manual check is difficult as they are tough to turn...but in gear you will quickly see..once one goes there is not doubting it has gone... There are two basic weak points, the tracta joint, on an unloaded stolly these are usually extended down so that the tracta unit is working on the ends of its lugs...this makes them wear quicker than usual and can with a bit of wind up lead to failure...I know this one... on the stolly I have lowered my torsion bars so that when unloaded it is basically level and the tracta units are fully engaged. as to wind up, well you have three wheels on each side locked to each other...no diffs, no slip just straight bars and gears connecting them together...experience has proven that if you keep the wheels within a certain pressure, and a certain size you can run them on the road forever without much problems. The stolly has the biggest tyres the most grip and the biggest variation in weight...it suffers because of this, poor maintenance easily shows up and can lead to a tracta or a bevel box failure.... HOWEVER..experience again says that actually this is not your biggest worry with a stolly bevel box...shock loads are your biggest issue, if you for instance decide to go off roading and bouncing the old girl up and down, this will cause shock loads on the transmission, if you haul out a tree stump, this will cause shock loads, if you tow a very very heavy vehicle, shock loads...all of these things can and have led to bevel box and tracta unit failures...wind up is usually blamed but is not always, if ever, the culprit... try graphite in your bevel boxes, thee are some really good oils for modern heavily loaded gear trains...PM me and I will give you details but they are bought through cougar oils, very good in your bevel boxes and guaranteed for the life of a stolly, well one that only does a few thousand miles a a year... so stop worrying do your normal maintenance and carry out the checks as needed, i have never measured the circumference of my tyres...but tyre pressures work...makes her nicer to drive too I have two stollys and one saracen...I say go enjoy... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FoolsHumor Posted July 17, 2010 Author Share Posted July 17, 2010 I very much appreciate your trying to put my mind at ease about drive train worries.. I do not seem to get much of that these days. The longer explanation for my question has to do with a purchase inspection. I have already bought one vehicle where I did get each individual wheel station off the ground and rocked the wheel to see if if it would rotate with the other two on the ground. In every case I did get a few degrees of free movement each direction. I was assuming if there were broken bits it would either rotate freely or at least feel differently than the others as the broken parts came tight. I may very well find myself needing to do the same on another vehicle and was hoping for some confirmation of my method being good or bad. Your explanation about the Stalwart being more susceptible makes good sense. I had never thought about the other vehicles in the family having somewhat static weight, but the Stollie varying considerably as a load carrier. Thanks again for the help. Regards, Bob Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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