Pivot Points on Ice Castle

[Jmnhunter]

took out our ice castle to the state park this past weekend, but after trying to crank down drivers side, it would only go down 1/2 way tops, i did grease the zerks, previous owner must not have, otherside went down. I've been researching alittle and guys were saying you need to pull out the pivot assembly and clean it out. I tried calling IC this morning and the guy was telling me to try to keep forcing grease in the zerks and working the winch up and down or to clean the assembly, I need to take the tire and hub off to pull it out?! What i thought I read is you jack up the side, take a bolt off and pull out the assembly-watching for your electric brake cable-- my question is which bolt? I looked underneath and I saw one nut--exposed to the elements, looked pretty rusty--close to the tire, is that the one? or is there another one on the inside of the frame where the pivot assembly is welded to the frame? thanks for the tips!

[avidleech]

There should be a bolt running through the pivot point. It is on the outside of the pivot not under the frame. Just take out this bolt and slide the whole assembly off and clean it up then grease it. I would take the tire off to make it lighter then just put a floor jack under the hub to hold the weight and slide it off. You will have to put a lot of slack in the cables or just remove the pulley that attaches to the arm just above the leaf spring. The trailer brake wire has extra wire looped inside a tube on the arm. You can just cut the zip tie off and pull the excess wire out.

Edited April 16, 2018 by avidleech

[Jmnhunter]

thanks leech!!

[leech~~]

55 minutes ago, Jmnhunter said:

thanks leech!!

 

Your welcome! 

[avidleech]

I thought I would add some pictures. This is a 2013 frame from CW welding I believe. Yours might be a little different if it is from a different frame company. I started by blocking the house up and I removed the tire. The first time I ever did this their was almost no grease on the pivot at all. I bought this frame from a salvage auction after the house burned down. I am not sure if they did not grease it enough the first time or the grease got hot and ran out when the house burned down. This time when I took it off plenty of grease was still on the pivot and I could have got by another year without greasing it.

 

You can see the bolt you need to remove on the outside of the pivot. 

Then cut the zip tie off to pull out the extra wire. 

The whole arm will then slide off if you leave slack in the cables. I put a floor jack under the hub to make it easier.

Then clean everything up and grease it.

[Jmnhunter]

very good, thanks again!! i'm going to tackle this on saturday or tomorrow night! thanks again

[Jmnhunter]

Not sure how the hell you guys “just slide it off!” It took me a good hour just to take off the metal retaining ring, this darn house is only 3 years old!! But after taking the ring off the axle doesn’t budge at all, tried jacking it up with a floor jack and it just flexes the stub it rests on. Pulling feels like trying to pull a 75 year old oak tree out of its roots; I soaked it with penetrating oil before calling it quits tonight; my last resort now is itll break and I’ll get some sort of wiggle room with the axle otherwise I put everything back together, pump it with grease and jack it up and down until it gets free?

 

Otherwise I’m going to have to bring it in and there’s another $200

 

i told the wife I’m ready to sell this PITA after only having 3 weeks with it; the axle design is the worst, why would they expose everything to the salt? Frustrated as you can tell...

[Walleyehooker]

I don't know anything about these but if you can put some heat to it , it might help

[avidleech]

I just had to wiggle mine back and forth. The tolerances are pretty tight so it is not hard to bind it up. You should not have to use much force at all. I agree the design is so stupid and high maintenance. My next one will probably be with a torsion axle. Did you buy this from a dealer? 

[Jmnhunter]

Bought from private seller; my mistake should have been one thing to check; there is no wiggling it at all, it’s frozen in there tried torching it to no avail; put everything back together hoping I could grease and crank up and down but the zerk keeps coming off, and now it doesn’t lower at all; will have to bite the bar and bring it in

[Jmnhunter]

picking up the house tonight from a welding shop in town, guy said they get new houses that axles seize up on, sounded like they heated it up, broke it free, sand it down, grease it, add groves and it should be set. kind of scared to see how much they're going to charge me...

 

 

[Wanderer]

It would be interesting to know what that bill will be if you don’t mind sharing.

 

I bought a used Ice Cabin several years ago and had the same issue.  The previous owner didn’t do the grease maintenance according to specs.  Once those things get behind it’s tough to correct.

 

I went through the whole heat it up/wiggle/pound/swear the things off both sides then did what your welding shop did.  Worked real nice after that.  Took a couple half days to complete though and thankfully I have the tools to do it.  I can’t tell you how long it will last though since I sold it not long after fixing it.  

 

I did stress the importance of keeping up that grease to the new owner!

 

Glad you got yours taken care of.

[Jmnhunter]

came to $200, which if I would have known prior to digging in, I would have dropped the trailer off that night to save myself the time with a big smile; he said their shop puts a spiral groove into the pivot assembly so the grease is evenly distributed; just said to keep greasing it. they did check the other side and it was taking on grease and to just stay on top of it. Just mentioned its a poor design on those axles, not just a IC problem but the other brands have the same issues; just need to stay on top of the maintenance!!

[Hawg]

Do it Every two years and change the cables at the same time.