A reminder to check your trailer regularly

[endlessclimb]

I was in my small trailer to grab something yesterday, and out of the corner of my eye saw daylight shining from under the mats. Pulled the mats back, and found the front support beam had ripped out of the floor.

Note that I pulled the mats and put the trailer away last fall, and have not used it through the winter. This happened spontaneously throughout the winter, as I certainly would have noticed a gaping hole in the floor.

Getting it repaired tomorrow. Check your equipment, even if you haven’t used it since you went through it with a fine toothed comb.

[beowulf]

Omg!! So glad you caught this. This thread is why I pull mats twice a year to check. For a while I was doing it after every ride but it became excessive. Thank goodness you thought to check before hauling.

[endlessclimb]

I wasn’t even going to haul, I was just grabbing something out of it. I just pulled the mats in November, before I parked it for the winter. Really weird!

[LCDR]

By front support beam are you describing the stall divider support post? Looks like the floor and post itself are in pretty good shape. Did the weld just fail? What brand of trailer?

[endlessclimb]

Yes, the stall divider. Weld completely failed. It’s a Featherlite.

Here’s the top/ceiling weld:

[NaturallyHappy]

I got nuthin’ except WOW! Glad you saw it.

[endlessclimb]

Me too!! Just by chance, honestly!

[LCDR]

Send the pictures directly to Featherlite if you’ve not done so already. They need to know about this problem. And if they are smart, they will cover your repair, plus assess their welding quality control process, and send notices to owners of trailers manufactured in the same time frame as yours to check their own trailers. I’d expect no less from them.

[endlessclimb]

It’s not a new trailer. It’s a 2000. I bought it used.

[LCDR]

I don’t know what more to offer. Good welds should not fail like that. If welds regularly failed after 23 years the sea floor would be littered with the hulls of three decade old ships that just came apart while cruising between ports.

[endlessclimb]

I agree. I just don’t know what they will entertain as I’m not the original owner, and the trailer is23 years old.

I’ll send it to them anyways, maybe they will reimburse me the repair.

[trubandloki]

@LCDR

I’d expect no less from them.

From my experience with this company (well, the experience of a friend), I highly doubt they will care one bit.

[NaturallyHappy]

That’s a shame.

[endlessclimb]

Featherlite answer: “wow we don’t know what caused that failure. Cut the post shorter, slide a plate under it, and weld it all back. Bye!”

They don’t care.

[RAyers]

The weld didn’t fail. It looks like there was good penetration. The failure is in the heat affected zone around the welds. This is a common area for welded metals to fail, regardless of alloy. It is a corrosion fatigue issue. The failure started years ago. It was microscopic as the atoms in the metal of the heat affected zone moved due to mechanical stresses.

[endlessclimb]

Well yeah. I can MIG, TIG, and stick, but don’t have a high freq machine to do aluminum (and I suck at it), I did not want to go crazy in here talking about embrittlement and alloys and post weld heat treating.

And before you go there… Yes, you can stick weld aluminum. With how thin the floor gauge is I’m not even going to attempt it.

[RAyers]

I was only discussing the actual failure from the perspective of a materials engineer who does failure and corrosion research. No commentary about the welder or fixes. It is simply a failure that can not be predicted nor is it the fault of the company based on the age of the trailer.

[endlessclimb]

Ehhh HAZ embrittlement can be mitigated in many ways, from hardness checks, to choosing the most compatible alloy, to the thickness of the material, to PWHT. Many field welds are made where HAZ related failure is not an option - oil and gas come to mind.

I have photos of what happens when QC pencil whips HAZ hardness checks.

[clanter]

Ehhh HAZ embrittlement can be mitigated in many ways, from hardness checks, to choosing the most compatible alloy, to the thickness of the material, to PWHT. Many field welds are made where HAZ related failure is not an option - oil and gas come to mind.

suggest you visit a horse trailer plant, the average welder is just burning rods to get done…this is not a pipe line weld that is inspected

[endlessclimb]

Agreed with that for sure, no doubt.

I doubt most if any of their welders are certified, either.

That said, for an aluminum weld, it’s not bad looking.