A Friend Wrecked My Trailer

[Ribbedroof]

Maybe I'm just too anal since I got old, but no way am I going to haul a car on a trailer with no trailer brakes. Actually, in a lot of states (most?) brakes are required over about 3000# GVW on trailers. And the whole car sliding off the deck part tells me he doesn't know jack sh*t about towing/securing a load.

Sorry for your damaged trailer. As others have said, it's gotten to where you hate to help people out any more..

For those who care, link to trailer brake laws http://drivinglaws.aaa.com/tag/trailer-brakes/

 

[Texas82GP]

Maybe I'm just too anal since I got old, but no way am I going to haul a car on a trailer with no trailer brakes. Actually, in a lot of states (most?) brakes are required over about 3000# GVW on trailers. And the whole car sliding off the deck part tells me he doesn't know jack sh*t about towing/securing a load.

Sorry for your damaged trailer. As others have said, it's gotten to where you hate to help people out any more..

For those who care, link to trailer brake laws http://drivinglaws.aaa.com/tag/trailer-brakes/

I'm totally with you on the trailer brakes Brian. I pulled a couple of 4 door Galaxies (one 62, one 63) on a utility trailer with no brakes before I knew better. I pulled them with my brother's 1/2 ton, 2wd extended cab 02 Sierra. Some time later I pulled my brother's 78 Z28 with the same truck, using a U-Haul car trailer with juice brakes. The kind with the master cylinder on the tongue. It was night and day. I'm not interested in pulling a trailer without brakes again, unless if it is so small and light that aren't needed.

 

[ssn696]

It's been a while. I got a lot of 'our insurance won't let me touch that' answers from trailer places and welding shops. So I had started shopping for new trailers...to replace what I had built up over the years was going for $3800 and up, so that was a non-starter too. I am sure the neighbor's insurance company would have offered me less than half that anyway.
Then one afternoon I followed a guy with a pickup that had 'welding and fabricating' in beaten letters on the side of the bed. Turns out he just moved out here from Houston where he had been an oil rig welder in the Gulf. One does not dick around at 400 feet while on heliox. He did everything about 90% the way I described with clean full-penetration welds. In addition to fixing the three bent tongue members, I had him replace the rear crossmember and ramps with a piece of 4" angle iron plus a round a bar across the back. The trailer had been hit before by an old lady who can opener'd her minivan on the tailgate. That ramp never really worked again, but I couldn't find anyone who would even give me a quote to repair that mishap either so I let it go. I found a towing and recovery guy calling it a day and got a $1000 set of 8-foot 5K-rated aluminum ramps for $300. The final touch was plasma-cutting 2" holes in all the stake pockets I added years ago so that my tie-down hooks could rotate 180 degrees as needed to tie down any load I can imagine. Plus he straightened and reattached the fender taken out by neighbor's car as it left the trailer during the wreck. He did it all in 10 nights. I put it to work the day I got it back. Still needs paint.

Now I have to see if the neighbor still has the $900 he offered me last fall plus a bit more. This welder was good but notice I didn't say cheap. But now I also have a new resource. Sometimes it's nice spending someone else's money building a positive relationship.

 

[DRIVEN]

Nice! Good luck with the neighbor.

I covet those ramps. A lot.

 

[ssn696]

I covet those ramps. A lot.

Not everyone can spring even $300 for such a thing, but damn, I wish I'd had those a decade ago...I had the welder set the bar so that I could drop a sheet of plywood on the ramps paired in the middle and roll a fridge up without so much as a bump.

 

[ssn696]

The only down side is that they are so long, I can't mount them on the trailer, so they have to be stored separately and transported in the truck bed. On the other hand, I might not 'lose' them so easily.

 

[ssn696]

Coupe also needs paint...

 

[Ribbedroof]

Coupe also needs paint...

Blasphemy!

 

[ssn696]

That, or I have to put the dented door back on...

 

[Ribbedroof]

Cool that you have gotten the trailer to where you want it, here's hoping the friend is a stand-up guy