I just picked up a '91 Trailet Park Avenue that has had a hard life.  But I got it cheap and it has everything I was looking for, and I've seen them selling for much more money in good condition.  Looking underneath, there are a few areas of the supports and crossmembers (and I'm not very technical so I don't know exactly what they are called) that are rusted through pretty bad although everything is still intact and not completely broken apart.  The owners were still hauling horses in it up until it was traded in to this dealer I got it from.  I personally would not want to haul my beloved equine in it yet!  The dealer said I could take it to a welder and he can cut out those areas and replace them with new steel, for not too much money.  Is this possible to do without replacing the entire length of the piece?  There's maybe 3 or 4 spots that I think he'll need to cut out and replace.  I'm taking it to a welder tomorrow for an inspection and quote, but now I'm having buyers remorse and going to lose sleep tonight thinking the welder is going to come back with a $1,000 quote for the repairs.  Other than that, it needs a new floor which we can do ourselves and I'm not concerned about that.  But the lights, brakes, and tires are all redone/new.  The body is in decent condition since it is aluminum, other than where the aluminum meets the steel there's rust/corrosion.  I just need this trailer to get me by for a few years until I can get a new one.

Can these types of repairs run that high?  Please let me know what I am in for--I realize you can't say for sure without seeing the trailer, but has anyone ended up with such a bad case that it would cost a fortune to fix?

Get your quote from the welder man, then figure how much you got in the trailer along with the new floor. (If it's not too bad, the welder should be able to cut out the bad steel and replace it with new. Get someone to prime and paint all the steel frame before you add the new wood floor).... Tear out the old wood floor before you take it to the welder, that will save a bunch of money... If there is one thing a metal fabricator hates, it's having to mess with some wood!!

 Price all of this labor and materials, then compare it to a 3,4,5 year old used trailer or compare the price to a new one. If you do most of this work yourself, you'll know what you got and you can be proud knowing you did it yourself!!

You're in a jamb. The trailer has to be fixed to make it safe again. If you try to sell it as is, you will have to disclose its deficiencies to any proposed purchaser. It has to be fixed.

Make sure the welder you chose is notable for performing quality work. This is a case where you do not want the cheapest invoice, you want and need the best repair.

You can ask him for a written estimate that describes his work and types of repairs. You may have to pay him for it, which may be refundable if you later have him complete the work. You can approach other welders with this information and get competitive bids.

A qualified welder can do a great deal of work in a surprisingly short time. A hacker can mess things up in a shorter period. Your main job should be to locate the most qualified person you can find.

This a definite "youshouldof".      This is a situation where the trailer should have been inspected and declined before you purchased it. Now that it is yours, your main objective is to make it as usable and safe as possible.

As soon as the welding is finished, brush the areas clean, and spray on "galvanized paint conditioner". This is available in spray cans, and will work well to stop any further rust. We often use it on repairs to boat trailers with good success.

BOL  Gard

Yes, on hindsight I probably should have not bought it.  I did know it had problems but got it cheap enough that I hope we can fix it and not exceed the value of the trailer.  I had already talked myself into the darn thing before we saw it and wasn't being practical.  I do plan on keeping it for several years, so I'm sure I'll get my money out of it by the time I do sell it.  I'm getting a new one next time!!

I'm pretty sure it is just a few crossmembers that are rusted out, and that's good advice to tear out the boards before taking it to the welder.  There's no need to pay him for his labor when we can do it ourselves.

The welder is an AWS certified welder that has 30 years experience.  He works on trailers, cars, trucks, makes gates & round pens and other custom jobs.  Unfortunately I don't know how else to check up on him, I don't know anyone who could recommend a good welder by word of mouth so I just got his name from the local classifieds and he's in my area.

Don't forget there are more items attached to the frame besides the crossmembers...........the axles. I found out the hard way that the frame rails that Trail-et uses rust through, they are not made of 1/4" steel. The only way you might repair it is to take the running boards and fenders off, remove the crossmembers and axles, sister a 2"x6" 1/4" angle iron to the frame, weld it on. If you don't have enough good stock to weld the new piece to, you could remove the matts, drill a hole through the support and the new piece and secure it with carriage bolts, with the nuts on the outside of the trailer.

Ugh, I am sorry to say that when you take out the floor boards you might to be in a bigger mess than you think. I do not want to make you too sick. With that much visable rust it is likely that the inside of the bottom wall will be gone along with some floor frame supports and this will mean the bottom rail is probably gone too. The ext walls can be partially removed / peeled back, put in a new bottom frame and put back together. Caution is that if the wall posts are rusted out from the bottom to any degree there will not be anything to weld to there and the trailer would not be worth fixing. I know all this because I had to have one fixed last yr, a new bottom frame from the escape doors back, you could not tell how bad it was till the floor was out. no local weld shop would attempt to fix the trailer, I sent the trailer up to Hawk, cost me $3600 to repair, my dealer cost. Pull out the floor board closest to the road side wall to look before you go further, maybe it will not be as bad as the one I had, I hope not! There was no galvanized steel at that time, anodized / raw aluminum was used and touching the steel. If it is real bad, did your bill of sale say as is? Perhaps the dealer would take it back and null the deal if the damage is very bad and the money to fix is more than "not too much money"

Good Luck, hope I have not scared you too bad

Risa

HappyTrailsTrailers

If there is anyway you can return this trailer, you should seriously consider doing so. You would be way ahead, even if you had to pay the $500 the dealer initially discounted.

There are many good brands of used trailers available for sale. They may cost a little more to purchase, but will entail far less to own and will be more reliable.

Write this off as a well learned lesson and try again.

Gard

Well I don't know if it's as bad as I'm worried about yet, I still haven't heard back from the welder.  If he comes back to me and says it's a wreck, then certainly I'll return it.  But if it's only $200-300 in repairs, then I'll have the repairs done and be good to go.

Good luck with it - please remember to take out at least a floor board so you can inspect the frame that the floor sits on - the one I had did not look too horrible UNTIL the floor was removed, then the full damage was visible

Risa