Original Garhauer Traveler Issues - Sheared Bolt and Shot Bearings

[Wurlitzer1614]

As I started prepping for launch last week, I noticed that one of the two bolts attaching the mainsheet to the traveler had sheared off. As I was profusely thanking it for waiting until winter to fail, I noticed some, what I believe to be, a serious design flaw. The way the traveler car is assembled has the shear point of those two tiny 1/4" bolts quite a long way from the load of the mainsheet. I was able to extract the bolt and could reassemble the car as originally designed, but in my opinion it would be doomed to fail again. I'm considering replacing the two 1/4" bolts with four 5/16" bolts attaching a 7 gauge bracket with a beefy shackle on top.

Also upon disassembly, I noticed many of the bearings were completely crushed. I plan to replace them with new ones from McMaster ($9 for 100).

Has anyone dug this deep into their traveler car or is standard practice just to replace the entire thing?

Thanks!

[Ron Hill]

Wurl : Hull # 1614 ???  and production year??  Need that info to better answer your concerns!!

A thought

[Wurlitzer1614]

Ron,

Ours is a 1988; #815. The info is in very fine print to the left of my post!

[Ron Hill]

Wuel : Sorry about my oversite.  A number of us have changed our travelers from the original 3:1 to a better purchase i.e. 5:1.  That caused a change of the moving car (and the BB) on the traveler, so I can't really help you with "What has happened with the BB balls" in your traveler???   

A thought

[waughoo]

Have you tried contacting Garhauer direct?  They have been a great resource for me.

[Jeff Kaplan]

I have an '86 which had the original traveler when I bought her in 2004. Next season I sent just the traveler bar to Garhauer, so certain bolt holes would be drilled correctly.  One of the best upgrades I did to the boat, now a 5:1 setup, all lines leading aft, used larger bolts to secure. I tried replacing the torlon ball bearings on the cars, ya right. My 2 cents, replace the entire system, it makes a huge difference in overall performance. Jeff

[Wurlitzer1614]

Thank you, everyone. I'll repair the original for this season and put the 5:1 upgrade high on the priorities list for next year.