Car trailer with a problem

[SirRobyn0]

Oh yeah, that was pretty much a like new trailer. I bought it brand new, had it for about 3 years and sold it for about what I paid for it since it was in such nice condition still. Only thing I did was add a couple coats of Thompson water seal on the wooden deck. It was a nice trailer.
It was an 18ft 7000lb trailer with all 4 wheel brakes, break away battery brake back up,
bull dog swing away tongue jack, slide in ramp storage, recessed lights, bull dog collar lok coupler. It was a nice one for sure. That's like my 4th trailer I've used for hauling vehicles on. Always had to sell them when I got into financial crisis but that's the one I wished I could have kept.

That is a nice trailer for sure. While (a side from the bent) my trailer is pretty nice, though not as nice as yours mine is 13 years old, as such the decking is still in good shape but weathered. I'm thinking of putting a coat of decking paint on it, the kind with the anti-slip stuff in it. I did that in my little trailer because it would get very slippery when wet.

Also, the place where that load was in relevance to the axles and hitch matter. Lets say you got 5k lb, all in front of the axle, up against the a frame. Thats a LOT of weight you are putting on an a from that goes to a ball, which mounts very well to a likely 3/4 or 1 ton truck, very planted. Say, you hit that theoretical bump or pinch it right, you got thousands of pounds trying to pivot on the a frame rather than ballasted out to the ball as hundreds of pounds


Newer trailer. You see the steel they get these days? We make high grade, fan-*******-tastic steel thats so american it casts, no matter the cast form, into a perfect triage of red, white, and blue.

some space for whats to come


[FORUM REPLY CHECKPOINT]
GUYS, get ready for a long winded rant, this hit home for me.

But we sell all that steel overseas, lots to Japan.

Our steel? Oh we get steel from CHINA. So 4 inch channel from china dont surprise me, esp if its weaked by high stress impacts in the past, or maybe it thinner despite looking decent, or maybe its got poor blasting that it has low stress tolerances(carbon amount iirc) and when worked it cant take it. Perhaps it took impurities with it and its corroding inside out. Youve seen the horror stories. When we did tarrifs on China, which to a point i dont disagree, the solution wasnt increase domestic production or sell more here, it was just raise the cost to the consumer(commerical business) while also screwing the end-line consumer, by making scrap worthless for steel. Who won there?
Steel companies and government of China. Who lost? The government, the people, and the people of the peoples republic.

PS, i am 100% pro recylcing and lets reduce how much new we make, but it is straight up hilarious to expect people to diligantly recycle if you have to make them do a bulk of the work. Recylcing? Sorted. Hundreds of aluminum cans? 3 dollars. Sorry, unless the sorting is so easily done that its minimal effort, like giving everyone a can, they fill it unsorted, and it gets sorted down the line. or putting sorted recycling EVERYWHERE. Then also giving **** for scrap. Whats the point in taking in scrap metall, steel which is of high quality, and getting pennies? Just saying, if they want people to recycle its gotta be either convenient, or its gotta be lucrative for scrap hauling. There also needs to be no putting people down or throwing shame for not doing every thing they can to recycle. Look, I collect my oil, fluids, and i will eventually dispose of the damn near 200 gallons I have, but Its honestly easily something I could say **** it and the earth and dump, because its gonna require work. I wont do that, ill work something out, but I cant blame joe shmoe for doing it, because the nearest oil collection tanker shouldnt be 40 minutes drive, while yes places will take but not that quantity. But everyone isnt me, I for example dont care about a cat. converter. I will not remove a functioning, unrestrictive one, but if its gotta go for one reason or another, im not paying arm and leg for a device nonessential to the running of my vehicle. If they want people to put more on cars, they should sell them for something most people would pay , Id pay 75 dollars before I say **** it. So I dont want to hear anyone yell at Joe for polluting because he is a human that will live, die, and rot in the ground all before he has to worry about how it will affect earth and society, and hes not obligated to give a ****. So if you want joe to recycle, you should make recycling the not-intrusive or beneficial thing to do. But, that would hurt corporate profits and employee a **** load of americans, so lets just buy slavery steel.

Rant over, I really needed to say that. Someone got righteous with me and said my car was old so it kills the planet.
Honey, my car will emit far less than the environmental, not including human, impact your hybrid passes it in efficiency. You will also likely replace said vehicle before I replace mine. The environment-destroying my car did, its damage was 90% in 1998, once it was on the road, its 1999 Emissions standards kept it very low, and it being repaired and kept driving for years and years to come has paid itself times over. Your battery construction will take years to overtake my car in this moment, let alone the car of questionable elctronics and chemicals.

What you were saying about all the weight up front, I worry about that stuff to and have been careful with my little trailer and will continue to be with the big one. I agree with most of the rant as well, you really have to sort your recycling still? About 10 years ago they stopped that here. All recyclables go in one container, no sorting, no washing, labels can be left on. Really got a lot of folks on board with recycling.

 

[AuroraGirl]

Where i live, there isnt recycling pickup available from house. country address. We dont use it anyway, I use a waste-to-energy facility and we bring all our waste. My trailer project, I pump that thing plump full for 3-4 months or so, less when throwing out stuff. Daily household garbage would take way longer, but i have enough trash from all our junk laying about and stuff we just dont need that it will be filled often for a while. Anywho, I take it in, scale in, back it up to a unloading area, throw all my crap our on the ground, out of courtesy put metal majority items in a special pile, put electronics in a special spot, and they scoop and burn it. non burnable byproducts, metal, get scrapped. i just provided a chunk of wisconsin some energy, and i scale out, go pay. 8/10 its 20 bucks, because I dont go over the minimum weight where it goes up whatever 72 dollars a ton makes in $/pound. 20 bucks being the minimum for a load like a pickup bed. mine having a tall roof and a tail window so i can literally jam it full, not going to different weight categories by doing that

For reference, a heavy load, and I mean heavy load that squatted my f150 pretty well, and it tarped out to be about a perfect cube up to the height of the cab in trash, all the way back flush the tailgate full of garbage and heavy furniture and a tv, my cost was 36 dollars and some change.

Ill be utilizing this for old tires, 200 dollars a ton for rubber tires(A couple tires, tractor/a semi tire, get charged at 250 dollars a ton) Ill probably have Damn near 800 or so pounds in junk tires, but thats way less than $5 a tire a local place takes em at, up to like 8 tires, if 4 of them are on your vehicle getting tires. they dont want to do the work as much as i dont, hehe.

That place also bought me a brand new 130 dollar 16 inch car tire when i had tires replaced and i told them put the best one in the truck. I went to get it, and it was gone. They said the recycle truck came and it was gone, and I said well IM expecting a tire, and they said theyd give me the same that came off, assuming its produced. they asked what it was, I got a full size spare tire to match my goodyear weatherready set i had gotten for half off and a rebate
Jokes on them, it was a uniroyal tigerpaw with at least 1 patch in each tire, 1 had 2. Id say I did ok

 

[Grit dog]

Not sure how a bent trailer tongue turned into this^^, but....
FWIW, PJ trailers are generally some of the best built trailers, so that was some real overloading to bend the tongue like that.
If there's no other apparent damage (crack(s), or enough stress to break the paint even, I'd rock it like it is. Worst case, weld a piece of flat strap along the bottom of the channels or maybe another light channel piece "bent" to match. Weld it up under the trailer back a couple feet from the front and run it a couple feet out onto the tongue. Beam clamp it tight and welderup. I certainly wouldn't try to straighten it and cutting the whole tongue framing off seems unnecessary.

 

[HotRodPC]

I don't know if his is PJ's, but mine was PJ's. I also had them build a Back Hoe trailer for my dad. Triple 6200lb axles and made out of 8in channel and 6 channel for the under tongue. It help up great.

 

[Bextreme04]

I would bet something crazy was done, like putting two pallets of cement or stone right up front(where it is easy to get a forklift in from the side) and then drove it down a bumpy road.

Like others have said, if the frame isn't actually kinked, and is evenly bent so that it pulls nice and straight... i wouldn't worry about it. I would absolutely not load it up to max and make sure you keep the tongue load down like it is supposed to be.

 

[SirRobyn0]

I appreciate all the advise. We did the 200 mile trip today, the truck and the trailer did great, all though I am worn out now, most likely because I was under the gun to get home. After I type this I need to get unload, and do the bird farm chores, I probably won't get to come back in until pretty close to dark. Anyhow, the truck and trailer did great. I did get a little pinging out of the truck under heavy throttle, probably not enough to really be concerned about, but I don't like ping so I'll have to get that handled or run premium over the pass this weekend, since that load home will be heavier. Once the trailer is up to par I do intend to use it to haul my caddy on occasionally, and now I'm a little concerned if the old square will have enough power for the task. I guess this weekend over the pass and hauling 2K back will be a good test, since that's still less than half what the caddy weighs. If I don't like that haul I won't like the caddy for sure. Guess we'll see. Maybe I'll make another thread tonight about towing with the square, but right now I need to get outside.

 

[AuroraGirl]

just my tongues for example. safety chains on silver one(paint is not permanent lol) need to be reworked, they are temp.

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[jetmech]

I would suggest applying heat with an oxy-acetylene torch to the stretched area of the angle iron tongue letting it cool naturally. The steel, when it cools, will shrink more than it expands. I did this on a 3X5 angle trailer frame that I bent loading a skid steer on it without supporting the trailer frame at the rear. A lot of weight on the back half of the trailer due to the short, heavy loader. Always put a jack stand under the back after that. Used the trailer several more years until I could upgrade to an 8 inch channel trailer

 

[SirRobyn0]

I would suggest applying heat with an oxy-acetylene torch to the stretched area of the angle iron tongue letting it cool naturally. The steel, when it cools, will shrink more than it expands. I did this on a 3X5 angle trailer frame that I bent loading a skid steer on it without supporting the trailer frame at the rear. A lot of weight on the back half of the trailer due to the short, heavy loader. Always put a jack stand under the back after that. Used the trailer several more years until I could upgrade to an 8 inch channel trailer

Right I have read about doing that, it's my understanding that heating the stretched area in a triangle shape with one flat of the triangle along the stretched area and one of the points pointing at the non stretched area, so in the case of a bent tongue like mine the point of the triangle of heat would go up. In my initial post this is what I was thinking when I said repairing it at home, but to be honest I'm more than a little leary of using this method. My concern with using heat is the possibility of weakening the metal and causing a catastrophic failure. Which is exactly what I don't want.

 

[bucket]

Right I have read about doing that, it's my understanding that heating the stretched area in a triangle shape with one flat of the triangle along the stretched area and one of the points pointing at the non stretched area, so in the case of a bent tongue like mine the point of the triangle of heat would go up. In my initial post this is what I was thinking when I said repairing it at home, but to be honest I'm more than a little leary of using this method. My concern with using heat is the possibility of weakening the metal and causing a catastrophic failure. Which is exactly what I don't want.

I agree with this. More often than not, the metal does not return to it's previous state with just heat alone. Adding those areas of high heat can cause stress risers.

It's a fine method when it comes time to get everything straightened back out, but imho, additional support will be needed at that point too. Like welding 1/4" wall box tubing along the bottom of the tongue.

 

[SirRobyn0]

Where i live, there isnt recycling pickup available from house. country address. We dont use it anyway, I use a waste-to-energy facility and we bring all our waste. My trailer project, I pump that thing plump full for 3-4 months or so, less when throwing out stuff. Daily household garbage would take way longer, but i have enough trash from all our junk laying about and stuff we just dont need that it will be filled often for a while. Anywho, I take it in, scale in, back it up to a unloading area, throw all my crap our on the ground, out of courtesy put metal majority items in a special pile, put electronics in a special spot, and they scoop and burn it. non burnable byproducts, metal, get scrapped. i just provided a chunk of wisconsin some energy, and i scale out, go pay. 8/10 its 20 bucks, because I dont go over the minimum weight where it goes up whatever 72 dollars a ton makes in $/pound. 20 bucks being the minimum for a load like a pickup bed. mine having a tall roof and a tail window so i can literally jam it full, not going to different weight categories by doing that

For reference, a heavy load, and I mean heavy load that squatted my f150 pretty well, and it tarped out to be about a perfect cube up to the height of the cab in trash, all the way back flush the tailgate full of garbage and heavy furniture and a tv, my cost was 36 dollars and some change.

Ill be utilizing this for old tires, 200 dollars a ton for rubber tires(A couple tires, tractor/a semi tire, get charged at 250 dollars a ton) Ill probably have Damn near 800 or so pounds in junk tires, but thats way less than $5 a tire a local place takes em at, up to like 8 tires, if 4 of them are on your vehicle getting tires. they dont want to do the work as much as i dont, hehe.

That place also bought me a brand new 130 dollar 16 inch car tire when i had tires replaced and i told them put the best one in the truck. I went to get it, and it was gone. They said the recycle truck came and it was gone, and I said well IM expecting a tire, and they said theyd give me the same that came off, assuming its produced. they asked what it was, I got a full size spare tire to match my goodyear weatherready set i had gotten for half off and a rebate
Jokes on them, it was a uniroyal tigerpaw with at least 1 patch in each tire, 1 had 2. Id say I did ok

I know this is sort of off topic but I meant to write this earlier. Where we live has seem a huge population explosion in the last 20 years. Back in the 80's there was a land fill 15 miles from me. Closed in 87 or 88 I think. That put the next nearest one 30 miles from me. For a long time that was just fine. But then the population explosion and that 30 miles became a hour plus drive at the wrong times. And often times on the weekend the dump would have an hour long wait to dump! About that time garbage service came to our area. I resisted for the longest time but eventually got on it.

I've lived in the same place all this time. It use to be that there was no one around me and it was always quiet. Now in the fall I can see to other homes, through the trees and one of those houses is pretty noisy which really, really sucks to me. One day I will move.

I agree with this. More often than not, the metal does not return to it's previous state with just heat alone. Adding those areas of high heat can cause stress risers.

It's a fine method when it comes time to get everything straightened back out, but imho, additional support will be needed at that point too. Like welding 1/4" wall box tubing along the bottom of the tongue.

I'm an decent welder, and I have torch, but here is the thing for me. If this was my little 4X8 kit trailer, I'd straighten the tongue out and weld some angle iron on it and be done. But this is a trailer that weighs 1,700lb empty and up to 7k when loaded. I don't want to take chances. With everyone's reassurance I plan to use it for light to medium duty for the next several weeks then I'll start talking to trailer shops about what it'll take to fix it and whether it should be straightened or replaced cost maybe a factor as well. I think for me at least this is best going to a professional for repair.