No Pat, there is a proven way to stop them dead in there tracks, and fix them.

 

No, there is NOT! That's a myth. They CAN be ground out, some even say to drill where the crack ends, then fill the crack in with weld ending in a 'curl' of sorts that hopefully ends in a 45* angle to the load bearing direction. Then grind it all down being careful to make sure the grinding marks are running in the horizontal plane, or again, with the load, not across it. THEN after all that nonsense, fashion a patch plate that looks like a horizontal diamond kinda like this, <=>, if the 'equals' sign was even with the tops of the two '<>' signs, running the weld down, (and up), each leg of the 45* angle of the patch and ending in that stoopid curl again. Repeat all this crap if the back-side is accessible.

But with all that said, it never works long term. The welds will eventually crack along their edges. So essentially, yeah, I guess the crack got fixed, but what REALLY happened is you just moved the crack over the width of the repair. Which is now under the patch and SOOOOO easy to re-repair again. If it's tubing, an inner patch like a smaller piece of tubing could be used to double the effective thickness of the material, but again, you're just moving where the next crack will appear. With any frame section in a trailer, it's going to move and flex with road conditions, and aluminum just doesn't like to flex much.

And just for the record, Featherlite, who I was a dealer for, were the absolute WORST for frames and goosenecks cracking on their horse trailers. They didn't want anything fixed either. Their philosophy was replace or destroy.

So go ahead stick boy, pick it apart!

 

Then can you explain why most coil haulers and super load trailers are aluminum? Not being a smarty just asking

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Because they're probably all of 500 pounds lighter than an all steel trailer. And if you notice the next time you see one up close, the suspension is probably sub-framed with steel. I've only seen one or two trailers that went with aluminum suspension hangers and they were about 3" thick.

 

I knew they were much lighter but I was referring to the structural integrity. Ive loaded many of 60,000 lbs coils on aluminium trailers and watched them flex 12+" every time. What keeps them from cracking after so many loads?

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Probably luck. I really don't know but more than likely the alloy is designed with the most amount of flex they can get. And after awhile, they DO crack.

I really don't know how much lighter they get using aluminum over steel, but in the grand scheme of things, it ain't that much. Maybe 1500 pounds? Yeah, it gives them more payload, but the trade off is the repairs. And if you're talking a gross weight of 80,000 pounds, 1500 is next to nothing.

 

I am, they just haven't figured it out yet.

Try a zipper and ah nevermind.

Seems to me that back braider is getting worked up...AGAIN!...

Well, this thread has been successfully derailed.

 

It has? I forget what it was about!

I also notice that Blake hasn't been back with any words of wisdom yet... NOW who's Googling?

 

Shrewly he's got an answer..


There nows its been completely derailed

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My horse trailer is aluminum. Never will own a steel rust bucket again.

 

All the horse trailers around this part of the country are aluminum. Lots of miles and no problems. The steel ones are rusty junk after two winters in the salt....

 

Or near the salt water, too.

 

Do you guys remove the mats and clean out all the wetness after each use? If you don't, lift the mat and have a look. I think you'll be surprised at all the deep pitting, if not outright holes. My shop back in Massachusetts used to replace about one floor a month. Probably still do. Horse urine and aluminum make a very corrosive mix that doesn't take long to destroy a floor.

 

Blake was sleeping after pulling a 15 hour night shift, then staying up all day to cross back over to days and finally crashing and burning at 1830hrs.


Now Mr Smarty pants. You want the truth?


You cant handle the truth.

 

A little cheese with that whine sir?

We're all waiting with bated breath! The future of DTR, no wait, the whole INTERNET, hinges on what you're gonna say! But you better hurry up... I gotta GO!