Ice castle axles stuck

[fins_n'_feathers]

Not sure if this has been on here before but when I went to get my house ready for deer season the passenger side will only crank about 2/3 of the way down and stops, went to the drivers side and that one only goes down about half way. Tried to grease the pivot points but they won't take any grease. If I go inside and jump it will slowly go down but I'm sure that's not good for it. Anyone ever have this happen to them? I think sitting in the slush every time last year really took its toll on everything. Any advice is greatly appreciated!

It's a 2011 trophy hunter if that helps.

[Lip_Ripper Guy]

Fairly common. A couple searches should help you out.

If it were me, as long as it's moving, I'd jump inside until it goes down. Once it gets moving, you should be able to get some grease in there. If not, some new grease zerks may be in order. I know some guys have also taken the pivots apart, cleaned them up with wire brushes, ground a groove in the shaft for grease, and re-installed. You definitely want to grease it every few trips.

[harvey lee]

If you can get it down, then I would take the zerk out if it will not take any grease and then use a small pick and scratch around a bit to get things loose in there. Then put the zerk back on and grease it for all your worth and see if it will take any.

Then try to raise it a bit and see if you can get more grease in the zerk and do that all the way to the up or down position.

I would also put new grease zerks in as there are times when the ball gets stuck and that won't let any grease into the shaft.

No grease means a mess but it can be resolved.

if all fails, do as suggested above.

I grease mine at a minimum every other trip down the road. Last spring, I took both sides all the way apart and cleaned it all up and greased it up good. Some say it does not help but I also added some anti seize to the shaft or pivot point before I greased it when I had the wheels off.

Then grease them both at a minimum every other trip.

Good to hear they are not froze up solid.

[wyonative]

I bought a house that was 2 years old and had same trouble I couldn't pull them off with a 15 ton hydraulic puller and ended up having to take to a weld shop and had to split the tubes clean them cut grooves and regrease. My advice is get ahead of this problem and stay ahead of it what a pain in the butt PS it cost 150.00 to have it fixed and a lot of asprin

[bopper4]

My personal opinion is to take them off and clean them up. Last year we had the same problem just worked grease into them and lo and behold the axles bent costing us $2500 to have it fixed on the ice when we run it through insurance they said it was a flaw in the design and insurance would not cover it. As mentioned above get ahead of the problem because once they're stuck and your axles bend you're screwed

[1lessdog]

This is what I did.

I pick up a 6.5x14 fish house frame 2 summers ago. Last winter getting on to the end of the yr. Just seems like the house did not want to go down and was real hard to crank up. Yesterday I took it apart as the grease zerks didn't want to take grease. I had to use my 4 wheels winch from the side and I pushed up and down on the spring to get them off.

I am real glad I did. cleaned the stub shaft with a wire brush and the tube good. Applied a anti seize grease on and put them back together.

Just giving everyone a heads up. On a problem that can present its self out on the ice. I replaced the cables on the winches and I'm ready for the ice

Good luck

Relive your memories take a Kid Hunting and Fishing

at I did.

[Iceman77]

I am paranoid so I take my axles off each year and grease them good. I also added 2 more zerks per hub along the shaft 120 degrees in relation to each other. That one zerk does not grease much of the shaft at all. Mine would only get 15-20% of the shaft. Now with 3 zerks per hub 120 degrees apart I get very good coverage. I've had buddies who didn't grease theirs and that is a big PITA.

[fins_n'_feathers]

As I suspected i have lots of work to do! I just hope the original greas fittings will comme loose

[coffee]

I had the problem years ago, we refer to them as axles when actually the only time they turn is when we raise and lower the house. They serve as a pivot point, hence there isn't much movement. Mine were seized up solid, took some heat at a welding shop to break them loose. What we did was grind the "axle" portion down to be a bit undersized and reassemble using 'Anti-seize' rather than grease. Did this about 6 years ago - I check every year and haven't even had to add more anti-seize. Problem solved!

[RiverChuckNorris]

I had the problem years ago, we refer to them as axles when actually the only time they turn is when we raise and lower the house. They serve as a pivot point, hence there isn't much movement. Mine were seized up solid, took some heat at a welding shop to break them loose. What we did was grind the "axle" portion down to be a bit undersized and reassemble using 'Anti-seize' rather than grease. Did this about 6 years ago - I check every year and haven't even had to add more anti-seize. Problem solved!

Any chance you could provide a few pics/more detail? If this really permanently solves things, I'd like to take mine to the shop this spring and have them duplicate your fix.

[walleye34]

dont force it down, you will never get it back up if you need to tow it somewhere to get work done. if they are really frozen on they will need to heated to get off. Crystal Welding in Osseo does good work on them. I think it is about $200/side and they add a extra grease zert in.

[1lessdog]

If you can get them to go up and down thats half the battle. Then its just plan work getting them off the stub shaft. I ground groves in my stub shaft after getting the tubes off. And like Coffee said use anti seize on them. I used a anti sieze grease and it worked real good. I sometimes wonder if a person would be better off having no grease on them if you are just using grease and something that is not anti seize.

[Don Julio]

I use never seize on my axles. MT'd out a small grease tube and re-filled with never seize. Works great.

[Pete W]

After reading this thread I had to take a look at my shack and for the life of me I cannot find any grease zerks on the pivot points. It is a 2014 Lake of the Woods. Are you guys adding these zerks yourselves or did they change the design ?

[larryz]

If it has a Berkon hydraulic frame it doesnt have zerks.

[Plainsman]

Good advice here. I just bought a 2013 mille Lacs. Just like new. The only thing is I couldn't find a zirk on the drivers side. It fell out. The house still dropped and raised but was stiff. I started investigating and with a chain+hylift jack I have the arm about 50% off the spindle.

I wrapped the chain around the arm by the spindle and put the jack foot facing down braced off the spindle. Like a big gear puller. I didn't have a pound in zirk but I put a zirk tip in the gun and could force in grease.

I'll never let this happen on my watch. Thanks again for the thread with ideas and comments.

[Boar]

Id like to see a video of such things mentioned abouve, specially adding grease zerks. I crank my down a fe , give a couple squirts, crank it down a few, couple more squirts, and so on. havent had a problem yet but would like to take it apart and and apply anitisieze and a goo liberal coating of grease all around the shaft,