Trailer Servicing - To do or not to do?

I have seen some pretty serious issues while carrying out servicing for our clients. These can range from a seized hitch damper or snapped brake cable to an unsafe floor and no back lights whatsoever. 

Some of these issues can carry on without a hitch (sorry for the pun) but others can manifest themselves into something much more serious. For example - a seized drawtube prevents any braking by the trailer whatsoever which can lead to anything from a jack-knife situation (look it up!) or an overturned trailer, potentially causing serious injury to your pride and joy. We have all heard the horror stories from others - but what if the next horror story is you?

Look at it this way - a service will cost you around £100 every year. Now this is quite a substantial amount of money for anyone, but in the grand scheme of things, will actually save you much more money in the long run. When the bearing assembly isn't removed and left without maintenance for a few years it can, and quite often does, seize on the hub shaft. This is fine until you need to change just a simple 40 pence brake spring inside the drum. Quite often these seized bearings need completely replacing, sometimes even the complete hub assembly, which can cost hundreds of pounds. Multiply this by 2 or even 4 wheels and you have a substantial repair bill on your hands.

Obviously, the above example is a worse case scenario but we have found over the years that our clients who religiously get their trailers serviced every year spend far less on them in the long run than those who don't. Surely the piece of mind that your trailer is in tip top condition is almost priceless?

So next time your hitching your horse box up, ask yourself if you're 100% satisfied everything is in working order. If not, maybe its time you had it checked over - you never know, it could be your turn to be one of the statistics.......