Good Evening my fellow GRM'ers I just thought I would pass along my tail of trailer woahs in hopes my misfortune will help another stay safe.
So here I was setting up to take another cross country trek to relocate back to the NE for family, friends and a killer product development job. I had made the move out to the PNW 2 years earlier and with such I had bought a 22 foot enclosed trailer off of craigslist. The trailer looked fairly solid underneath and had no major rot or much more than surface rust on anything, as far as I could tell. Apart from a few flats and the normal stuff with anything old (tight hinges, wiring etc) there wasn't much to complain about.
So the call came to head home and I didn't think twice really, I checked over the trailer, repacked the bearings, checked the brakes and tires and loaded up... rally car project and all.
Well apparently I was extremely lucky on my first trip out... here i was 10pm on my first night out and without warning on a smooth stretch a little east of Boise Idaho and BOOM it felt like I hit something... and there was a giant flash in my drivers side mirror... and something shot out across the road and took off into the underbrush on the other side of the thankfully empty highway... the sparks that followed were pretty impressive as I dragged my maimed trailer to the side of the road...
After a few choice words and a moment of reflection I hoped for some toasted bearings, maybe a major flat.... but what I found was a snapped axel... more words, more thunks and a visit from a friendly police man and some assistance was on it way. 5 Hours later, 2 trucks and a lot of side of the road engineering after the first trucks hydraulic line burst with my trailer half on... my trailer was deposited in a nice mud puddle and i was trying to sleep in a frozen motel room...
Long story short my trailer was not going to make it back on the road, seems the years of surface rust had taken their tole and eaten away a good chunk of of the underside of all the structural components, frame, axels, etc... nothing that looked bad at all from the outside. Measuring the tube wall of the snapped axel showed that nearly .100" had been lost... and it was no wonder it snapped. We debated dropping in new axels but with that much corrosion damage to the axels I drilled a hold in the bottom of the frame.. only to find a paper thin wall... RIP trailer.
I was lucky enough to find a local trailer dealer who had a good relationship with a trailer manufacturer in the area and had myself a brand new, off the assembly line that morning 24 footer ready the next day. Never did I think i would be putting a trailer like that on a credit card.. ooff.. hopefully she sells quickly once I unload everything.
Appart from finding an issue with Autozones rebuild starters for the 7.3 Superdutys which resulted in one night sleeping in my truck in 11 degree weather, and 3 times swapping it out in 2 states, and trying to avoid Nemo the rest of the trip went smoothly.
Be careful guys.. there are a lot of projects and lives to be lost over faulty equipment, check yours often and keep it safe.
