Trailer oops! Never had this happen before!

[EatenByLimestone]

I was driving in front of a school bus!

 

[paulnlee]

Funny, yesterday I passed an FJ Cruiser on it's side with a small trailer with small logs in it attached and upright. I had an FJ and they were not good at trailering.

 

[bholler]

Wow the tube on that tounge looks really thin

 

[blades]

Done a lot of repairs on those (ahem ) quality trailers.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

Yeah, I was surprised how thin it was.

The trailer hasn't been abused either.

 

[HisTreeNut]

That's scary looking...

Sent from my VS835 using Tapatalk

 

[Sawset]

A trailer tongue calculator I've used over the years with spreadsheets and other information:
Fun to mess around with.
Most of the time bolted designs come up stronger than welded. It looks like the weld here was a weak area.

http://tnttt.com/Design_Library/tear84.htm

 

[blades]

yep, unless the weld area is annealed ( which never happens in that style.) best way to fix is to sleeve it with smaller outside dimension as close as possible. I have taken same size material and cut it to fit inside for about a fot in either direction, some spot welds to keep that piece in position and the weld up at the break or you can go around the outside but that is a lot more work.

 

[Sawset]

One thing I can see -
What was the tongue weight and loading. Why is it tipped back? Should be 10-15% of the trailer weight forward.

 

[CaptSpiff]

Yeah, I was surprised how thin it was. The trailer hasn't been abused either.

I see the top of the box beam has some surface rust running forward. I'm guessing the trailer box is aluminum.
Is it possible the aluminum bar, rubbing across the box beam, wore off the protective paint, allowed rust to degrade and eat the top of the beam, making the fracture line down the vertical sides?
I admit I would never have expected such a failure looking at so little surface rust. But maybe that's all the warning we get nowadays.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

No idea. I wouldnt have thought it could rust through in 2.5 years or so.

It's back up and running. A local welder rewelded the torn pieces, then added a piece of flat stock to each side. I'll be towing it for the first time tomorrow.