Trailer deck refinish

Jadaharabi said
I understand the wheel completely missing. Two different occasions I've lost a complete wheel and brake assembly. 1 was on a three axle stock trailer in a blizzard in Montana. I pulled into a rest area to check the horses and discovered one wheel assembly Missing. I had a come along with me so I come alonged the axle up and drove on in to Cheyenne Wyoming. The trailer place there was a half hour from closing but they pulled truck and trailer into the building and repaired and replaced what needed to be and charge me $75. I bought them beer and pizza also. The second time was a tandem dual gooseneck I went to Carlsbad New Mexico to pick up salt 150 mile trip one way. I got there walked around the trailer and the back duels on the passenger side were gone I never felt anything. I called the police and the highway patrol to find out if they've been an accident involving the wheels and assembly. They were never found I looked in the canyons along the highway I looked everywhere for 3 days an never found them. So I can see why they didn't know it had come off.
I'm with you tho never loan your trailer.

It happens probably more than folks realize. They came back today and agreed to pay for the parts to fix it. He admitted that he had the brake controller in his truck set too tight and locked the brakes up really hard in traffic to avoid rear ending the vehicle in front of him (following too close for the load he had on and not watching what he was doing). I suspect the weight of the load, along with hard locking of the brakes, probably snapped that weld. I checked the welds on the other 3 spindles and they look like crap. I never noticed them before until I looked today. I'll be grinding/cleaning that mess up and properly re-welding them when I go to fix this.
BTW, the weld on the spindle with the brakes takes just about all of the full brunt of forward momentum of the entire load when the brakes are locked up. Those welds gotta be right. Right now, the remaining ones look like someone squeezed a pigeon and the pigeon droppings made up the weld....mostly dingleberries. Ridiculously slopping, unprofessional.....not to mention unsafe. No way would they ever pass or leave my shop like that. Whoever welded those shouldn't be allowed anywhere near a welding machine until they learn to weld because they had no idea what they were doing.
But yeah, this trailer will NEVER be lent out again once I get this fixed.