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A Real Hologram posted:Any tips on what to check out when buying a cargo trailer? If it's a flatbed with a wood deck you should expect to replace the wood eventually, especially if it isn't pressure-treated. The big important things in order for me: 1. Axle condition: is it/are they bent? Has it been bent and then straightened and sleeved or anything stupid like that? This is more of a problem with larger equipment trailers running 7500 lb axles, or dimensionally large utility trailers with 3500 lb axles that were overloaded to haul equipment or stupid amounts of heavy stuff. If you look underneath and see an axle bent upwards about to touch the frame or !!! the deck !!! run away. This also applies to wheels with lots of negative camber. 2. Frame condition: Rust? Holes, bent sections, is the whole trailer tweaked when you look at it from any direction? How do the axle mounts look, if it's leaf sprung (unless it's real big, it's probably leaf sprung) are the shackles in decent shape? Have someone jump up and down on the thing and see if you notice any play between the bolts and the frame mounting points. If there's play it usually means they were left loose and have worn the frame. Is there excessive wear on the overload plate on the frame if the trailer has two axles? (This could indicate the trailer was used excessively with the suspension maxed out or with an uneven load causing one axle to bottom out). 3. Bearings, wheels, tires, brakes: These get clumped together as usually-neglected and to get something to where I'm happy to use it I budget having to replace basically all of these. Check the bearings by rocking the wheel on the vertical axis in and out towards the axle, if there's any play then the bearing is probably loose and needs serviced. 4. Wiring: Utility trailer wiring is stupid easy, you can build a harness with pretty minimal effort if needed and most of the time if there's a problem it's either bad grounds or a wire has been ripped away somewhere underneath. 5. Everything else: ramps if it has them are pretty easy to fix if they're all beat up, the deck is an easy job if it's wood. If it's a steel deck flatbed and has rust holes or whatever that's a different story. So if the axle(s) are good, the frame is good, then things get more feasibly replaceable down that list. Hope that helps.
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Jul 8, 2021 16:28
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| # ¿ May 9, 2024 04:53 |
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