Trailer deck refinish

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you must be like REALLY good buddies. Every single time I let a friend take this trailer out (three times total) something came back messed up ......so now I don't even let my relatives use it.
1. The first time it came back with wrecked fender. the excuse "so sorry, I am not used to driving with a trailer and I forgot to turn wide" I ended up footing the bill to fix it because he wanted to have a back woods hillbilly friend of his take it (and probably use it) and weld on a new fender. HOW ABOUT NO, so I just fixed it myself.
2. The second time one of the ramps came back messed up and one of the battery cables for the winch was melted and of course no one saw anything and no one knows anything....I got the blank stare like "ramp, what's that!?!?!" "the cable was like that" (yea right)
3. The third time it came back and the spare tire was missing .......again no one saw anything, no one knows anything, "what's a tire".... I ended up having to replace it, out of my own pocket.
So now I just say NO....if they think I am an *** ...oh well, but no one takes it out of my sight. LOL

Well, RainyDayAuto, I just learned my lesson the hard way on lending out ANYTHING, especially my car hauler trailer. From now on, I'm gonna be a horse's ***...NOBODY borrows it ever again. The old trailer wasn't much to begin with but it is a solid piece. I've been upgrading it so I can use it to go to Carlisle next July. Just a few weeks ago, I put all new hubs (2 of em electric brakes/changed over to a 5 X 4.5 pattern), new bearings, seals, brand new white spoke wheels & tires on it and have used it 2-3 times without any issues at all...maybe 500 miles max on the tires, if that. All I had left to do was a repaint, which I planned to do this winter.
Well, a couple of my "friends" begged me to let them borrow it and my winch as they had a Jeep that was broke down and needed to get it home. I had other commitments and couldn't do it myself. I was reluctant to lend it, but I did....baaaadddd mistake. Got it back with the entire left side rear hub (electric brake one) completely missing!!! No tire, no wheel, no drum, no brake assembly, no bearings, no seal, no spindle....no nothing but a bare end axle tube with nothing in it!!!!! It looks like the spindle to tube weld broke completely clean off....I need to check the others before using it again. I don't blame them for a failed weld, but the pisser part of this: Nobody knows anything. No one saw anything. Nobody heard anything...nice. Nobody offered to repair. So I just got on etrailer.com web site and priced out all the parts/pieces, wheel/tire etc. to put it all back together: $265 just for the parts.
NOPE...NEVER again. Horse's *** or not, life or death or not....it ain't leaving my shop unless I'm pulling it with MY truck. I'm done!!

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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.
 
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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.
 
Bigger truck NO trailer brakes!! ha

You are right. Me I hardly hardly ever ask to borrow anything. I much rather let someone use my stuff. Well, I rather not!!!

Good they realized what happened and paid the damage. I bet the brakes popped of the spindle and all.
 
Last time I loaned my trailer out, I had to buy a new axle to replace the one that looked like a horse shoe when they brought it back. My answer when asked now is that I'll be glad to help when I have time, but the trailer only hooks to my truck now.
 
Well it's too late for me this year!!! Winter......or at least cold and rain and we've already had one snow shower..........so the wood deck will have to wait till spring !!!
 
I got my trailer new in 2002.
Around 2005 I coated it with linseed oil for the first and only time .
Here's a pic of it in 2009 and it looks about the same now .
Did I mention it lives indoors.
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Two guys get to use my trailer. Nobody else. Not even to rent it
My deck is rough sawn poplar,only treatment is what spills on it. Next summer it will get used oil and diesel fuel treatment. Or maybe a new floor and a scissor lift dump conversion. Stake pockets for sides so it will do all i want.
 
While getting ready to take a trip to Arizona neighbor guy tells me I can use his trailer that he just bought. It's got like new tires on it lubed up, ready to go, just needs the light wiring checked out cuz one tail light is not working. I get it it's dark out I load the Jeep on it and pull it to my house and park in the driveway. Next day I go out I see it it has a stud broken on each side of the rear axle so it's only has four of the five lug bolts and one cap is missing from the Hub. Clean up the bearing and the end of the axle nut and pump grease into it. It has grease zerts. I decide to replace the broken stud. It's supposed to have new brakes I noticed that two-thirds of the shoe is gone but it still has meat left. I notice the "new tires" have weather cracks. So I decide to put on the spares only to find they don't fit. The spares are 5 on 4 1/2 but the hubs are 5 on 5. So no spares an cracked tires on the ground. I go ahead and grease the bearing an find the front axle has a bad bearing. Trip now cancelled. But now the neighbor knows his fresh ready to go trailer needs attention.
 
At least they offered to pay.
UPDATE: They decided NOT to pay for the damage as they feel it ”wasn’t their fault” because the trailer was “faulty”. Also, I think I forgot to mention that the spare tire/wheel ended up “missing” on this trip, but they didn’t know anything about that either.
FABO folks, I’m sorry, but I completely “lost it” after that. I told em to stay to F off my property and don’t ever come back here or ask me for ANYTHING, including the time of day, EVER again.
I don’t care who, or what, it is, this trailer will NEVER be lent out again...no matter what the situation. Friggin’ idiots.
 
Some guy wanted to rent mine awhile back. I don't really know him. I asked him "You have about 2500 bucks for a cash deposit?"

THAT ended THAT!!
 
NOPE...NEVER again. Horse's *** or not, life or death or not....it ain't leaving my shop unless I'm pulling it with MY truck. I'm done!!

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Even that gets old. After running around with your truck moving everybody else most won't even offer up some gas money.


I won't loan mine out because of trailer theft. No recourse when you allow someone to borrow and it gets stolen from them.
I tell most "sorry, the tag's out" With the cost of tags here, missing tags is a problem so I pull mine when it's parked.
 
Some guy wanted to rent mine awhile back. I don't really know him. I asked him "You have about 2500 bucks for a cash deposit?"

THAT ended THAT!!
Have told my son in law that when he told me that he didn't care if it had a current tag or not.
 
UPDATE: They decided NOT to pay for the damage as they feel it ”wasn’t their fault” because the trailer was “faulty”. Also, I think I forgot to mention that the spare tire/wheel ended up “missing” on this trip, but they didn’t know anything about that either.
FABO folks, I’m sorry, but I completely “lost it” after that. I told em to stay to F off my property and don’t ever come back here or ask me for ANYTHING, including the time of day, EVER again.
I don’t care who, or what, it is, this trailer will NEVER be lent out again...no matter what the situation. Friggin’ idiots.
You made the right choice, regardless of quality, it got damaged when it was in their care and control.
Perhaps it would have never failed when you had it,they could have hit a curb or something hard.

If Dave borrows my trailer and he destroys it i know he would replace it.
Ron wouldnt wreck it, for one hes careful and a long time experienced truck driver.
 
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