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!
Wurl : Hull # 1614 ??? and production year?? Need that info to better answer your concerns!!
A thought
Ron,
Ours is a 1988; #815. The info is in very fine print to the left of my post!
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??? :cry4`
A thought
Have you tried contacting Garhauer direct? They have been a great resource for me.
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
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.