I agree that it sounds like the place doesn’t need your job. That being said, I know welding jobs are fairly regional in pay, but for a good job, $105 an hour isn’t out of line if, as it sounds like, you went to a big shop. And based on that picture, it may need quite a bit more work and steel (not cheap!) than it looks like now. Rust that bad in one place is usually not isolated, the other side may not have gone…yet. 4K, maybe not, but around here I’d expect over 2K. Be interested to see what the small guy’s quote is!
appears to be Magnesium chloride (Mag chloride) damage
Wow, sorry this happened to you. Your friend did not do you any favors.
I believe the cost of repair will far exceed the value of this trailer. I do not believe $4-5 K in repairs is in anyway out of line. Once you start fixing, you can truly identify the extent of the damage. My recommendation is to sell it as scrap, or look for one of the welders who does full repairs and resells trailers. (check out facebook, Horse Trailers for Sale Ontario. There are often posts there looking for rusted out trailers) In this state the trailer is of very little value, and is a danger on the road. Please do not attempt to use it.
In Ontario, you are required to do a full safety on both your truck and trailer yearly, with safety sticker posted on each. This damage is not new. How did you get a safety sticker to haul the trailer home?
I am so far north that it is more economical for me to fix it than try to get it to someone wanting to rebuild it themselves. The shop that looked it over stated the heavier damage was in the rear, he did not seem too concerned about the front half of the frame. Of course I would not attempt to use it in this condition.
The guy is coming to look at it tonight. I trust him to do whatever he needs to fix it, including removing the shell and building a new frame, as he’s currently doing that for someone else.
The trailer was bought in Minnesota in January. My SUV and trailer total gross weight falls just under the required 9,920lbs that the yellow sticker requires.
Me, too. From someone who is currently using him, he’s quite reasonable. The rest of the frame looks solid, would benefit from having the rust grinded down and it reinforced likely. I’m not sure why that side of the trailer is so severely affected. I can only think that urine was allowed to drain between the wall and floor and corroded the frame there.
I picked the trailer up from the shop that did the estimate and they never moved it from the place that I parked it. It was off to the side by their chain link fence and had not moved. So the estimate was done by a guy crawling underneath.
I will update the thread as it gets fixed. This is a nightmare!
Caution: Two horses = more than 2200 lb.(mine are in the 1300-1400 range) Add tack, hay, etc. you are easily at 2500 -3000 lb range. This is in addition to the trailer and tow vehicle weight.
His estimate from tonight - $1500 if all he has to do is replace those sections and reinforce the rest. He will ensure it’s solid and safe. $3000 if he builds a whole new frame. He’s not anticipating a new frame though. He saw no sense in scrapping it as it’s fixable.
Good news story…yay!
Definitely made me feel a lot better!
That seems more reasonable. But I’d probably let him know that if it needs to go up because he finds something weird, it needs to go up. One always seems to find something odd when one starts poking at an older piece of equipment! And half the cost is in taking it apart to get at the thing!
Glad you found a good small shop.
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You are about to put a LOT of money into a 32 year old piece of equipment where, at present, you don’t seem to really KNOW what will be required as the job has not yet begun. I don’t know how it is in Canada, but here an estimate is just that and discovery of “unexpected damage” is very common when working with older equipment. Sometimes this is shop “setting the hook” after you commit to something but very often with older equipment is just The Way Things Are.
You’d be better off, in all likelyhood, to sell the trailer for it’s scrap value and buy something newer. I know this is not what you want to hear. Sometimes calling something a “spade” instead of a “garden implement” is just good advice.
Good luck in you decision.
G.
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Yes we talked about precisely that! He mentioned how on the other trailer he fixed he would find more and more wrong with it as he poked and prodded and pulled it apart. He knows to do whatever he needs to make it completely safe again.
He outlined in pretty good detail exactly what he’s going to do. He only warned me about the new frame just in case he decides it’s actually cheaper to go that route. But on his inspection the frame was not in that bad of condition except for the back end. He’s going to do additional work to the rest to ensure this doesn’t happen again.
Maybe if you were here when he was, you’d better understand that this isn’t a junk trailer. I mentioned scrapping it to him and he did not see why as 80% of the trailer is in good to excellent condition. He has no problem fixing the frame.
He isn’t screwing me over. This is a small community and he comes highly regarded from close friends. To replace the trailer I have would cost me 6000-10000 which I don’t have. I would get next to nothing for scrap. I don’t see a problem investing $1500-3000.
I can understand being cautious in a larger area where people can hide from their actions.
you might want to get him or some one else to run a fiber camera inside the frame to make sure it is not rusting from the inside out… plumbers often have these camera to inspect sewer/drain lines
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Thanks for the suggestion! I’ll ask him if he can. Never would have thought of that.
Someone mentioned it looks like Mag chloride damage, do they use that on the roads in Minnesota? I want to say it originally came from Oklahoma but can’t remember (it was a colourful licence plate).
As a suggestion from someone who knows from experience
Please ask that the outer floor board be removed on each side, the rubber on the sides pulled off and the lower wall liner at the rear at least 4" high on the sides be cut out so you can see inside the wall… before you commit to a rebuild or spend much. If the wall tubes are also rusted out on the inside of the wall at the floor at least you and he would know ahead of time…….
He and you may or may not be surprised what you find when you start taking the trailer apart, and the aluminum sheet will be damaged in order to make a good repair. Post how it goes later…
I have had the exact model come thru, almost totally rotten, you could not see all the rot until the floor and rubber came out… Had it shipped on a flat bed to Hawk trailers and a new chassis built, new skin and all… The wall tubes were OK BUT we have also seen some old Trail ets from the 80’s that were not OK … 10 yrs ago it cost me about $4000 to repair ( and I am a dealer ) new chassis all the way as the rust was so bad there was nothing to weld to in the back 1/3rd, once sand blasted the gauge of clean metal was too thin…
Just saying
Risa
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Thank you for all the suggestions, some were already discussed with him (cutting away the lower wall, removing the floor boards, etc). He will be stripping the trailer as much as he needs to “follow the trail” and repair. I would say the only thing I’m worried about is the condition of the vertical bars in the sections that are rusted out (rear tire area both sides). He said the rest of the frame was “in pretty good shape”. I’m praying he’s right lol.
I will definitely update with pictures if I can as this goes along. At the very least, it’ll be a good read for someone else in the future.
I too have a Trail Et but mine is a lot younger than yours. I had the frame on mine replaced after an axle fell off. I believe mine was in the neighborhood of $1500 as well. I have put way too much money into repairing this trailer but it always seemed like it was going to be just this one more thing but now I have one more thinged myself into pretty much fixing everything there is to fix at least once. Hopefully I am done.
Mag chloride could have been from two different uses one as dust control on dirt/gravel roads or as pre-treatment of the road for pending winter weather events … both uses could have been common in Oklahoma
