Touring - BOB trailer question

I couldn't think of where to post this, but who knows more about a BOB than a cycle-tourist, right? Anyways... The fork on my BOB has a small amount of play. I tightened it to the point of no play once, but the turning of the fork was rather resistant, sort of indexed. And the play came back after a short ride anyways. Is this normal? Should I allow this small amount of play and have the fork turn smoothly or crank it down real good? Or is my bike trailer just jacked? I guess I'm not really familiar with the proper turning of a fork with bushings instead of bearings.

For the record, the manual that came with it just says "apply 6lbs torque to the locknut". I've never even seen a torque wrench, much less know someone who has one.

Also for the record, I don't have an LBS.

Any input would be verrrrry appreciated!

Any good bike shop will have a torque wrench that will do the job. But as a rule you need some resistance in your fork's travel. Make it so that it moves with a small amount of force and doesn't flop over when you hold the Bob upright. Putting in some resistance will keep down a lot of the oscillation problems you can get with a Bob trailer.

I would say I know how to answer this but I don't. I bought mine from my boss for $150 slightly used and the fork has stayed nicely tuned so far. I am going to follow the thread for the tips I will need in the future. These trailers are a gift from jesus btw, I don't know how I lived without mine before.

This bolt was one of my main concerns when I first saw the BOB trailer. It looks like it could come loose or break rather easily. And just imagine if you were on a long, rough and tumble tour and that bolt were to break! What would you do? I'm not sure how you would fix a problem like that.

At the moment, the bolt on my trailer is holding up just fine, but I do fear that extreme force could cause the bolt to break loose at some point in time.

Any good bike shop will have a torque wrench that will do the job. But as a rule you need some resistance in your fork's travel. Make it so that it moves with a small amount of force and doesn't flop over when you hold the Bob upright. Putting in some resistance will keep down a lot of the oscillation problems you can get with a Bob trailer.

Hmmm. I didn`t know that, but it makes sense. Mine is floppy too- ought to try it out after a tightening and see if I like it better (I already like it a lot though).

Whoosh, maybe a little wax between the bushings and the frame would help with the indexed feel? I haven`t done it, but that would be my next step.

Thanks alot all, I'll tighten it up and use a lil wax for now, untill I can get ahold of a torque wrench. The wax sounds like a good idea. I used grease initially and it was a bad idea, I think thats why the fork came loose even after I tightened it. I think the grease worked its way down and took the "lock" out of the lock nut. I would not recommend grease, haha.

i toured 4200 miles without incident this summer with my bob. i assembled it at the airport, checked it once about 1000 miles in but never with a torque wrench and never tight enough for it to feel restricted. i also never had oscillation problems, even at 44 mph. so, my suggestion is if you can't access a torque wrench then tighten it to a point just before it feels restrictive then check it after the first few rides to be sure it hasn't backed off any.

I don't own a BOB or a torque wrench. A while back I thought is might be the pro thing to do to get one, and asked about it here, or some board, and got a whole load of reasons why it was a bad idea for bicycles... One problem being that good ones are really expensive.

Anyway:

A lot of things on bikes use stuff like quick release skewers, hand tightened butterfly axle bolts, hand tightenable threaded headsets, or dinky allen wrenches. Not much that gets really cranked down. The exception is pedal wrenches and cranks. I think your part sounds on the light end also

3/8" drive torque wrenches run 5-120 pounds, so this 6 pound setting is a very light loading.

It's normally bad to compress free moving parts. And this one doesn't even rate a set of bearings.

If it was up to me I would probably go very easy on it.