Of trailers, ball joints and wiring...

On Saturday I dragged the race trailer out from where it's been stood for the last four years to have a look at what state it was in. The van dragged it out no problem despite it having one flat tyre and two other wheels with the brakes seized on!

I changed the wheel with the flat tyre for the spare which has a tyre that is unused but of unknown age. The flat one had obviously been like that for ages as the rubber has some serious cracks in it. All the other tyres were still holding air which seemed like a good sign. I was surprised when the wheel nuts came off easily too although it looks like they weren't properly tightened in the first place!

I freed off the seized brakes with the aid of a large hammer and it actually seems to be in remarkably good shape overall. Even the lights worked when I tried them although I found a wiring fault that must have been there since before I bought the thing.

So it just needs new tyres, new brakes and a new load bed fitting! I've decided to sell it as-is and buy a new one though so it's now listed on eBay. There seems to be some interest so hopefully it will sell and I can work out what I want to replace it with.

I took the van over to Barry's house yesterday and we spent some time checking the wear in the front suspension and steering. It turns out that pretty much every component is well worn so I've just spent another load of money on parts. At this rate there won't be many original mechanical parts left before long!

The steering box also needs a rebuild however I know there is a spare one buried in the long grass and junk in my back garden. It's not in any better condition but at least it should mean I can get the spare rebuilt and swap them rather than having the van in pieces for ages again. I've arranged to go see a local engineer next week and work out what's needed to get the box in a useful state again. I'm just hoping it doesn't end up as another expensive job again.

Beyond that, I've started the long job of wiring the interior of the van. It's something of a daunting task as there's so much to do but hopefully if I do one circuit at a time and label everything as I go along it will all come together in the end.